CAIRO (AP) — United Nations agencies warned Wednesday that more than 1 million Palestinians in Gaza could experience the highest level of famine by the middle of next month if hostilities continue.
The World Food Program and the Food and Agriculture Organization said in a joint report that hunger is worsening due to tight restrictions on humanitarian access and the collapse of the local food system in the nearly eight-month war between Israel and Hamas.
The report indicates that the situation remains critical in northern Gaza, which has been surrounded and largely isolated by Israeli troops for months. Israel recently opened land crossings in the north, but they can only facilitate dozens of truck loads each day for hundreds of thousands of people.
Israel’s incursion into Rafah has severely disrupted aid operations in the south. Egypt has refused to open its Rafah crossing with Gaza since Israeli forces seized the Gaza side almost a month ago, instead diverting aid to the nearby Kerem Shalom crossing.
The Israeli military says it has allowed hundreds of trucks through Kerem Shalom in recent weeks, but the UN says it is often unable to retrieve aid because of the security situation. It says distribution within Gaza is also severely hampered by ongoing fighting, the disintegration of law and order and other Israeli restrictions.
The Integrated Food Security Phase Classification, the global authority on determining the extent of hunger crises, said in March that around 677,000 people in Gaza were experiencing Phase 5 hunger, the highest level and equivalent to famine.
The two U.N. agencies said in their report Wednesday that that figure could rise to more than 1 million — or nearly half of Gaza’s total population of 2.3 million — by the middle of next month.
“In the absence of a cessation of hostilities and increased access, the impact on the mortality and lives of Palestinians now, and in future generations, will increase markedly with each day, even if famine is avoided in the short term,” he said. .
On Tuesday, a separate group of experts said famine may already be underway in northern Gaza, but that the war and restrictions on humanitarian access have prevented data collection to prove it.
“It is possible, if not probable” that there will be famine in Gaza, said the group known as the Famine Early Warning Systems Network, or FEWS NET, which is funded by the U.S. Agency for International Development.
Last month, World Food Program head Cindy McCain said northern Gaza had already entered “total famine,” but UN agency experts later said she was expressing a personal opinion.
An area is considered to be in famine when three things happen: 20% of households are extremely short of food, or are essentially starving; at least 30% of children suffer from acute malnutrition or wasting, meaning they are too thin for their height; and two adults or four children per 10,000 people are dying daily from hunger and its complications.
The war began when Hamas and other militants crossed the border into Israel on October 7, killing about 1,200 people, mostly civilians, and taking about 250 hostages. Israel’s retaliatory offensive has killed more than 36,000 Palestinians, according to local health officials. The majority of Gaza’s population has fled their homes, often multiple times, and the offensive has caused widespread destruction.
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This story was translated from English by an AP editor with the help of a generative artificial intelligence tool.
