From the Liveblog of
Tuesday, January 23, 2024
Risk of famine rising in Gaza, UN’s World Food Programme warns
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The food situation in the Gaza Strip is slipping deeper into catastrophe, with the risk of famine rising by the day, the UN’s World Food Programme warns.
A study conducted between November 24 and December 7 found that 2.2 million people living in Gaza were in a crisis level of acute food insecurity, or worse.
The situation has only deteriorated since then, says Abeer Etefa, the WFP’s senior Middle East spokeswoman.
“The situation in Gaza is of course slipping every day into a much more catastrophic situation,” with “a looming threat of famine,” she tells a press briefing in Geneva, via video-link from Cairo.
“The risks of having pockets of famine in Gaza is very much still there. More than half a million people in Gaza are facing catastrophic food insecurity levels and the risk of famine increases each day, as the conflict is limiting delivery of life-saving food assistance to people in need.”
Western and Arab officials have backed Israel’s assertion that Hamas is stockpiling food and fuel in the Gaza Strip, keeping it from residents who are in desperate need.
Israel additionally blames international organizations for delay in transfer of aid to the Strip.
Some 1,200 people were killed and over 250 hostages were abducted by Hamas on October 7, when 3,000 terrorists invaded Israel from the Gaza Strip, committing numerous atrocities, including weaponizing sexual violence on a mass scale.
The Times of Israel Community.