US envoy pans new report asserting famine in north Gaza as ‘outdated and inaccurate’

Ambassador to Israel Jack Lew calls assessment by USAID-backed agency ‘irresponsible’ for relying on ‘inaccurate data’ to inflate affected population; IDF kills gunmen in Gaza hospital

Humanitarian aid waiting to be picked up on the Palestinian side of the Kerem Shalom aid crossing in the Gaza Strip, December 19, 2024. (Ohad Zwigenberg/AP)
Humanitarian aid waiting to be picked up on the Palestinian side of the Kerem Shalom aid crossing in the Gaza Strip, December 19, 2024. (Ohad Zwigenberg/AP)

In a rare critique, US Ambassador to Israel Jack Lew issued a statement Tuesday rejecting a US government agency’s food security report asserting that a famine continues to unfold in the Gaza Strip.

It came as the IDF said it killed five gunmen in a Gaza hospital and destroyed a rocket launcher positioned next to a UN building.

“The report issued today on Gaza by FEWS NET relies on data that is outdated and inaccurate,” Lew said of the US-created Famine Early Warning System Network publication.

Lew took particular issue with the report’s apparent reliance on mid-November figures from the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs to inflate the number of civilians still in north Gaza.

“We have worked closely with the government of Israel and the UN to provide greater access to the North Governorate, and it is now apparent that the civilian population in that part of Gaza is in the range of 7,000-15,000, not 65,000-75,000 which is the basis of this report,” the US envoy stated.

“[Israel’s] COGAT estimates the population in this area is between 5,000 and 9,000. UNRWA estimates the population is between 10,000 and 15,000,” he continued referring to the IDF body responsible for humanitarian coordination in Gaza and the UN Palestinian refugee agency, respectively.

“At a time when inaccurate information is causing confusion and accusations, it is irresponsible to issue a report like this. We work day and night with the UN and our Israeli partners to meet humanitarian needs — which are great — and relying on inaccurate data is irresponsible,” Lew added.

US Ambassador Jack Lew speaks in an interview with Kan news on December 5, 2024. (Kan screenshot; used in accordance with Clause 27a of the Copyright Law)

FEWS NET, which is an independent organization that receives some funding from the US Agency for International Development, also mentioned in its report that more recent estimates from UNRWA on December 22 put the population in the affected area at 10,000-15,000.

Nonetheless, it wrote that “it is highly likely that the food consumption and acute malnutrition thresholds for Famine (IPC Phase 5) have now been surpassed in North Gaza Governorate.”

Throughout the war, the US has rejected conclusions from aid agencies and rights groups that Israel is perpetrating a genocide in Gaza but critiques of specific figures used by these organizations have been more rare.

According to its website, FEWS NET has analysts in field offices who work with “US government science agencies, national government ministries, international agencies and NGOs to produce forward-looking reports” on the world’s most food-insecure countries.

The war began with the Hamas-led onslaught of October 7, 2023, that killed 1,200 people in Israel, mostly civilians. Terrorists also abducted 251 people who were taken as hostages to Gaza.

Experts, aid groups and UN agencies have for months sounded warnings of imminent famine in northern Gaza, which Israel has almost completely sealed off since launching a major military operation there in early October against Hamas operatives attempting to regroup.

The US, which has provided crucial military aid to Israel and shielded it from international criticism, has repeatedly appealed to Israel to facilitate more aid, with limited results.

Palestinians, displaced from Beit Lahiya, arrive in Jabalia in the northern Gaza Strip on December 4, 2024. (Omar AL-QATTAA / AFP)

On Monday, the United Nations aid chief, Tom Fletcher, said Israeli forces had hampered efforts to deliver much-needed aid in northern Gaza.

“North Gaza has been under a near-total siege for more than two months, raising the specter of famine,” he said. “South Gaza is extremely overcrowded, creating horrific living conditions and even greater humanitarian needs as winter sets in.”

Israel blames the lack of humanitarian aid on United Nations agencies, accusing them of not delivering hundreds of truckloads of aid that have been allowed in. The UN says it is often too dangerous to retrieve and deliver the aid. It blames Israel as the occupying power for a breakdown of law and order — which has enabled armed groups to steal aid convoys — while also accusing it of heavily restricting movement within the territory.

Israel says members of Hamas, the Palestinian terror group that rules the Strip, have stolen much of the aid sent in for civilians.

Gunmen killed in hospital

Also Tuesday, the IDF said it wrapped up a “limited operation” against Hamas at the Indonesian Hospital in the northern Gaza Strip, during which at least five gunmen were killed and several operatives were detained.

According to the military, in the past month, several attacks against troops, including anti-tank fire, were launched from the hospital. In the area surrounding the hospital, the military said Hamas operatives also planted numerous explosive devices.

IDF troops operate near the Indonesian Hospital in the northern Gaza Strip, in a handout photo issued on December 24, 2024. (Israel Defense Forces)

Overnight, the Givati Brigade launched a raid against the hospital area, following intelligence provided by the Military Intelligence Directorate and Shin Bet security agency, which indicated “the presence of terrorists and terror infrastructures in the area of ​​the hospital,” the IDF said.

The IDF said five gunmen were killed and several were detained, including a terrorist who participated in the October 7 onslaught.

To mitigate civilian harm, the IDF said it “enabled and facilitated the secure evacuation of civilians, medical personnel, and patients from the area both before and during the operation.”

“We emphasize that the operation was conducted after multiple warnings were issued to the Gazan health ministry regarding terrorist activity being conducted inside the hospital,” the military said.

“The troops operated while mitigating harm to uninvolved civilians and enabling the activities of the hospital to continue as much as possible,” the IDF added.

Gaza’s Hamas-run health ministry said Israeli troops forced the evacuation of the Indonesian Hospital, sending many patients, some of them on foot, to another hospital miles away in Gaza City.

Munir Al-Bursh, director of the Hamas-run health ministry in the Gaza Strip, said the Israeli army had ordered hospital officials to evacuate it on Monday, before storming it in the early hours of Tuesday and forcing those inside to leave.

Israel says it has been facilitating the delivery of medical supplies, fuel and the transfer of patients from medical centers in the area to other hospitals in Gaza during the military offensive in collaboration with international agencies such as the World Health Organization.

Later Tuesday, the IDF said fighter jets struck a Hamas rocket launcher positioned next to a United Nations building in Gaza City’s Shati.

The military said the strike was carried out after calling on civilians in the area to evacuate.

Footage released by the IDF showed a rocket flying out of the site following the strike.

According to Gaza medics, 15 people were killed during the day by Israeli strikes. The figures could not be verified and do not distinguish between gunmen and non-combatants.

A new bid by mediators Egypt, Qatar and the United States to end the fighting and release Israeli and foreign hostages held in Gaza has gained momentum this month, though no breakthrough has been reported.

The Prime Minister’s Office reported that an Israeli negotiating team will return from Qatar after a “significant” week of talks there.

The Hamas-run Gaza health ministry says more than 45,000 people in the Strip have been killed or are presumed dead in the fighting so far, though the toll cannot be verified and does not differentiate between civilians and fighters.

Israel says it has killed some 18,000 combatants in battle as of November and another 1,000 terrorists inside Israel on October 7. Israel has said it seeks to minimize civilian fatalities and stresses that Hamas uses Gaza’s civilians as human shields, fighting from civilian areas including homes, hospitals, schools and mosques.

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