An aid worker, after her return from Gaza: “The Palestinians are on the verge of famine” | International

Palestinians face famine “in the coming months.” That is the disturbing projection of the aid worker and nutrition specialist Cristina Izquierdo, member of the NGO Acción contra el Hambre. Izquierdo has just returned to Spain after a month of humanitarian work in Gaza and has exposed the bleak panorama that she has seen in recent weeks. “The level of destruction of vital infrastructure, such as hospitals, schools or sanitation facilities, has left Palestinians without access to any basic services. If help does not arrive, Gaza is going to collapse,” she said this Tuesday at the NGO’s headquarters in Madrid.

The serious food situation is seen in the faces of the Palestinians, according to this volunteer from Barcelona. “Palestinians are hungry and their bodies do not receive the necessary energy; The tissues break down and the skin is affected. That is why we see images of people with an emaciated appearance,” she noted. Conditions for children are even worse: “Lack of food slows growth and development. In many situations it is irreversible and the immune system fails, which is why many die from an infection.” The population, she stressed, “is on the verge of famine”, the most serious situation of food insecurity, with risk of death from starvation, according to the global reference classification.

The United Nations already warned in mid-March that famine in northern Gaza was “imminent” due to the blockade by Israeli troops on humanitarian aid reaching that area of ​​the Palestinian enclave. For famine to be declared in a certain population, three criteria must be met: that 20% of the inhabitants are hungry, that child malnutrition is greater than 30% and that two out of every 10,000 deaths a day occur due to lack of food. . But Izquierdo has recalled that “there must be an international consensus” to verify that these circumstances occur.

Although the aid worker has stated that the process to determine this situation is “complex”, the organization is already aware that 30% of children under two years of age suffer from acute malnutrition. At the end of May, another 50 humanitarian organizations demanded that the UN and “international institutions” declare famine in the Strip. “With border crossings closed and humanitarian aid blocked by Israel, acute malnutrition has re-emerged and spread rapidly,” they warned in a statement.

“There are no roads to carry aid”

Fenia Diamanti, head of the NGO’s field team base, has also just returned from the Strip. According to her, the situation in Rafah, a city in the south of Gaza and where the Israeli army now concentrates its ground operation, is critical. “In recent weeks, and after several evacuations, we can only distribute drinking water, shelter kits and the little fresh food that remains,” she said. For Diamanti, the problem of the population’s access to food is not only due to the blockade of land crossings, but also due to the difficulties with unloading and transportation within the Strip. “There are no storage sites and no roads to carry aid; It is almost impossible to get to the north [de Gaza]”.

Humanitarian work, like any other activity in Rafah, has been affected by the siege by Israeli troops. “We had to leave our office again and many left their homes. We also had warehouses with food or hygiene materials and we no longer know what state they are in,” he explained.

Airdrops of food, as well as the arrival of aid through a seaport built by the United States—which is no longer in operation—are insufficient measures, according to Diamanti. “A single entry is not enough. We need the border ports and land routes to be opened,” she requested. According to the UN, only 216 humanitarian aid trucks entered the Strip through the Kerem Shalom crossing last month. That is, an average of eight per day. The Rafah crossing has been closed since Israel took control of the border corridor between the Strip and Egypt last week.

Action Against Hunger has insisted that, even though a famine has not been declared in Gaza, the population is already dying from hunger-related diseases or infections. According to the Hamas-controlled Strip Ministry of Health, at least 30 people, most of them children, have died from acute malnutrition.

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