UN agencies say Gaza’s entire population of 2.3 million is at “imminent risk of famine” as fighting rages between Israeli forces and Palestinian fighters in major part of the enclave.
Relentless attacks from both sides have left more than half a million people – or about one in four people in Gaza – hungry because enough food has not entered the besieged territory.
The proportion of households in Gaza affected by high levels of acute food insecurity is the highest ever recorded in the world, according to the Integrated Food Security Classification (IPC) report released on Thursday.
The scale of hunger in Gaza has eclipsed even near-famines in recent years in Afghanistan and Yemen, according to the report, which included data from the World Food Program (WFP), other United Nations agencies and ‘non-governmental organizations.
Its report said that 26 percent of Gaza’s residents, or about 576,600 people, have “exhausted their food reserves and coping capacities and are facing catastrophic hunger… and starvation.”
Gaza’s health ministry said Friday that 20,057 Palestinians have been killed and 53,320 injured in Israeli attacks since October 7, when the current conflict began. The death toll from the Hamas attack on Israel stands at approximately 1,140 people.
The Gaza ministry said 390 Palestinians were killed and 734 people injured in the last 48 hours alone.