WHO warns of escalating famine risk in Gaza amid blockade

Kathmandu:  The World Health Organization (WHO) has warned the risk of famine in the Gaza Strip is increasing with the deliberate withholding of humanitarian aid, including food, in the ongoing blockade.

The entire 2.1 million population of Gaza is facing prolonged food shortages, with nearly half a million people in a catastrophic situation of hunger, acute malnutrition, starvation, illness and death. WHO, in a press release, said this is one of the world’s worst hunger crises, unfolding in real time.

The Integrated Food Security Phase Classification (IPC) partnership released the latest food security analysis on Tuesday. WHO Director-General Dr. Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said, ‘We do not need to wait for a declaration of famine in Gaza to know that people are already starving, sick and dying, while food and medicines are minutes away across the border.’

Likewise, the report shows that without immediate access to food and essential supplies, the situation will continue to deteriorate, causing more deaths and descent into famine Tedros added.

According to the IPC report. (QNA), famine has not yet been declared, but people are starving now. Three quarters of Gazas population are at emergency or Catastrophic food deprivation, the worst two levels of IPC’sآ five-level scale of food insecurity and nutritional deprivation. If the situation persists, nearly 71 000 children under the age of five are expected to be acutely malnourished over the next eleven months.

RSS