How Israel's war is creating a man-made famine in Gaza
In-depth: Gaza’s entire population is at risk of famine as rights groups say Israel is using starvation as a weapon of war.
8 January 2024
Almost three months into Israel’s brutal onslaught in Gaza, millions are on the brink of famine.
The entire population of the Gaza Strip is now facing acute food insecurity – meaning the livelihoods of 2.2 million people are in immediate danger due to their inability to consume adequate foods, according to IPC ratings, a food security analysis initiative.
Worse, one in four people in Gaza are experiencing what the IPC says are “catastrophic conditions” related to food insecurity: the first of the three indicators of famine.
Given the current, unprecedented levels of acute food insecurity, Gaza will experience famine by early February if the current hostilities and limited aid continue, the initiative predicted.
“The situation, without doubt, is exponentially worse than anything Gaza has previously experienced given the level of destruction, the lack of basic services (including food, water, medicine, shelter and sanitation) and the extreme insecurity people are now experiencing,” Larry Garber, a former senior official for the US Agency for International Development (USAID) for the West Bank-Gaza, told The New Arab.