US-backed monitor removes report alleging north Gaza famine after objections

The Famine Early Warning System Network has taken down a report it published yesterday alleging that famine continues to persist in northern Gaza, after US Ambassador to Israel Jack Lew raised objections over the US-funded agency’s methodology.

“The FEWS NET alert, unfortunately, issued an analysis without the benefit of further examination by the Famine Review Committee, relies on outdated population estimates, and has methodological limitations based on the availability of data,” a spokesperson for the US Agency for International Development tells The Times of Israel.

The spokesperson clarifies that USAID remains deeply concerned about the scale of food insecurity throughout Gaza. It says more than two million people are at risk of famine, particularly in northern Gaza where limited aid has been allowed in amid ongoing Israeli military operations targeting Hamas.

However, the USAID spokesperson notes that a recent US assessment mission has provided updated population estimates. The US also hopes recent aid deliveries bringing food to Beit Hanoun will soon be replicated throughout northern Gaza.

Those developments should lead to a more accurate FEWS NET assessment, the spokesperson indicates.

FEWS NET is an independent food insecurity monitor, but is financially backed by USAID, which reviewed the report before it went out yesterday and urged that corrections be made to account for the outdated figures, the spokesperson explains.

FEWS NET decided to go ahead and publish as is, leading USAID to again reach out and request that corrections be made. Following that intervention, the agency agreed to take down the report until further notice, the spokesperson says.

The main issue highlighted by Lew in his Tuesday criticism of the FEWS NET report was that it relied on allegedly outdated figures from the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs regarding the number of civilians still located in northern Gaza.