United Nations officials and assistance agencies have warned that famine in Gaza is now a reality, with children who die more and more hunger while the siege and bombing of Israel continue to block the essential and vital aid.
On Wednesday, in an austere address to the United Nations Security Council, officials said that generalized famine and hunger in the besieged enclave were “designed” and “artificial” disasters.
Joyce Msuya, UN deputy humanitarian leader, told the council that famine had been confirmed in the Gaza North Center governor, where the city of Gaza is located, and should spread to Deir El-Balah and Khan Younis in the south at the end of September.
“More than half a million people are currently faced with famine, destitution and death,” said Msuya. “At the end of September, this number could exceed 640,000. In virtually no one in Gaza is intact by hunger.”
She added that at least 132,000 children under the age of five are at risk of acute malnutrition, more than 43,000 of which are expected to deal with potentially fatal conditions in the coming months.
“This famine is not a product of drought or a form of natural disaster,” said Msuya. “This is a disaster created – the result of a conflict that caused massive civil death, injuries, destruction and forced trips.”
Earlier Wednesday, the Gaza Ministry of Health announced 10 additional dead “due to famine and malnutrition” in the past 24 hours, including two children.
The toll carries the total number of deaths linked to hunger in Gaza throughout the war at 313, including 119 children.
‘An engineering famine’
For its part, Israel called on Wednesday the integrated classification system of the food security phase (IPC), an monitoring mechanism for famine supported by non -profit organizations and United Nations agencies, to withdraw its results from Gaza.
The director general of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Israel, Eden Bar Tal, called last week’s report, which detailed famine to Gaza City and the surrounding area, “deeply imperfect, non -professional and seriously missing the expected standards of an international body entrusted to such serious responsibility”.
However, in a joint declaration on Wednesday, all CSNU members – with the exception of the United States – held near the IPC and its work.
“Famine in Gaza must be stopped immediately,” the 14 members said in a statement, which called for an “immediate, unconditional and permanent ceasefire”.
Meanwhile, in his own burning speech to the Council, except the children, the chef Inger ASHING, accused the global powers of complicity by the inaction.
“Gaza’s famine is there. An engineering famine. An artificial famine,” she said. “Children in Gaza are systematically hungry to death. It is famine as a method of war in the most striking terms. ”
ASHING has described clinics “filled with children of malnutrition” which have now become silent. “Children do not have the strength to speak or even shout in agony. They are emaciated, literally wasting. ”
She said how children’s drawings in Save The Children Support Centers in Gaza went from the representation of the hopes of peace and education to simple wishes for food, and more and more for death.
“Once the total siege in March, children would tell us more and more that they want food, bread. In recent weeks, more and more children have shared that they wanted to be dead, “she said.
A child wrote: “I would like to be in paradise where my mother is. In paradise, there is love, there is food and water.”
The attacks continue
While the warnings of the famine went up to the UN, the Gaza hospitals reported more victims of Israeli strikes.
The Kuwait specialized hospital said that a night drone attack against tents housing displaced people in southern Khan Younis of Gaza killed three people, including a child and a woman, and injured 21 others. Nasser hospital said that at least six others had been killed in separate strikes in the city.
Israel strikes distribution sites near the aid led by the Israeli GHF and supported by the United States, killed at least 12 people on Wednesday, according to medical staff. Four of the victims died in northern Gaza pending meager plots of food.
Tareq Abu Azzoum of Tel Aviv Tribune, reporting from Deir El-Balah, said that the families of Gaza “lacked survival strategies”.
“Parents are counting on sporadic help deliveries and skips meals to make sure their children eat first,” said Abu Azzoum, adding that help deliveries remain “insufficient, disorganized and frequently looted by hungry crowds and armed gangs”.
“This is why we continue to see thousands of people making difficult trips to controversial GHF aid centers in the center and southern Gaza. This is why we continue to see daily deaths by severe malnutrition. ”
All in all, Israeli forces killed 51 Palestinians on Wednesday, according to health sources.
To date, Israel has killed at least 62,895 Palestinians in his war against Gaza. In total, 1,139 people were killed in Israel during the attacks led by Hamas on October 7, 2023 and more than 200 were taken in captivity.
The attacks are involved while the Israeli forces continue to close in the city of Gaza, using overwhelming force in its effort to occupy the urban center, tanks and war aircraft leveling whole residential blocks.
On Tuesday, Israel dropped leaflets on the Asfraged region and Jalaa Street containing forced evacuation orders for residents to move to the south of the enclave.
In an article on X on Wednesday, Israeli military spokesman Avichay Adraee has again published a broad order of forced displacement, telling residents that “the evacuation of the city of Gaza is inevitable”.
White House meeting
Meanwhile, in Washington, DC, DC, US President Donald Trump welcomed senior officials, including former British Prime Minister Tony Blair and the former Middle East Middle East Jared Kushner at a meeting to plan Gaza after the war.
The rally, describes to journalists as a “simple political meeting”, occurred two days after Trump said that he expected a “conclusive end” in the war in Gaza in the following two to three weeks, despite the ceasefire negotiations remaining to an apparent dead end.
More details on Wednesday’s meeting were not immediately available.
Experts have long warned that post-war recovery will be almost impossible without a clear day plan. Israel has long declared that he planned to maintain a military presence indefinitely in the Palestinian enclave.
