5/6/2024–|Last updated: 6/5/202407:36 PM (Mecca time)
Although famine is widespread and children are dying from malnutrition, the continuation of the Israeli war impedes the collection of evidence necessary to officially declare famine in the Gaza Strip, which could later be used before international courts.
A report by the internationally accredited “Famine Early Warning Systems Network” says: “It is possible that famine is a reality in northern Gaza, and that people, including children, are dying of hunger throughout the Strip, and that this may continue until next July at least.”
However, the report confirms that the Israeli war and the restrictions imposed on the access of organizations concerned with humanitarian affairs hindered the collection of data to prove the existence of famine, according to a report presented by Tel Aviv Tribune.
The Famine Early Warning Systems Network, which is funded by the US Agency for International Development, adds that the official declaration of famine requires data that would hinder the collection of war, and this data is procedurally based on 3 internationally approved indicators to prove famine, which are:
That 20% of families suffer from severe food shortages, secondly, that at least 30% of children suffer from severe malnutrition or wasting, and finally that 2 adults or 4 children out of every 10,000 people die every day due to hunger and its complications. .
The official declaration of famine in the Gaza Strip is of great importance, as it can be used as evidence in the International Criminal Court as well as in the International Court of Justice, where Israel faces charges of genocide.
It is noteworthy that the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) expected – in its report on the places experiencing the hunger crisis – that more than one million people in the Gaza Strip would face famine and death by mid-July.
An examination conducted by the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) of more than 93,400 children under the age of five in Gaza to confirm malnutrition, the results of which concluded that 7,280 of them suffer from acute malnutrition, as the northern Gaza Strip suffers from malnutrition, as it did not receive The remaining residents there received little assistance in the first months of the war.