“Total famine” is present in the northern part of Gaza and is spreading south, he said Cindy McCainthe executive director of the World Food Programme.
“What I can explain is that there is famine – total famine – in the north, and it is moving south,” McCain said. said Kristen Welker of NBC in an interview that will air on Sunday.
McCain’s comments are not an official declaration of famine, which must meet certain criteria, but she said it is based on what WFP officials have seen and experienced in Gaza.
“It’s horror,” she added.
While this is the first time the WFP chief has classified the situation in Gaza as a famine, international organizations have danced around the label for months as the famine in Gaza becomes more acute. But how historian Yan Slobodkin wrote For Slate, whether or not the severe famine happening in Gaza is officially declared a famine is, from a humanitarian point of view, irrelevant:
Israel inflicted staggering levels of destruction and suffering on Gaza in its retaliatory strike following the Hamas attack on October 7, which killed 1,200 people. The IDF’s tireless bombing campaign destroyed the Gaza zone agricultural lands, critical infrastructure It is large housing areas. More than 34,000 people in Gaza were killed, most of them women and childrenand it’s over 10,000 more they are believed to be buried under the rubble.
The United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs he said in a statement this week that it could take up to three years to recover the bodies with the tools available.
While people in Gaza go hungry, Israeli authorities continue to restrict humanitarian aid shipments and subjecting deliveries to excessive waiting at checkpoints. Omar Shakir, Israel and Palestine director at Human Rights Watch, accused Israel of using the famine as a “war weapon”.
The humanitarian crisis is especially serious in northern Gaza, where people have resorted to consuming grass and animal feed, NPR reported. At least 32 people died from malnutrition and dehydration in the north, 28 of whom were children, the Gaza Ministry of Health said.
This article was originally published in MSNBC.com
