More than half a million people in Gaza—a quarter of the population—are starving, according to a report Thursday by the United Nations and other agencies, highlighting the humanitarian crisis caused by Israel's bombardment and siege on the territory in response to Hamas' Oct. 7 attack. The extent of the population's hunger eclipsed even the near-famines in Afghanistan and Yemen of recent years, according to figures in the report. The report warned that the risk of famine is "increasing each day," blaming the hunger on insufficient aid entering Gaza.
The extent of the population's hunger eclipsed even the near-famines in Afghanistan and Yemen of recent years, according to figures in the report. The report warned that the risk of famine is "increasing each day," blaming the hunger on insufficient aid entering Gaza. "It doesn't get any worse,'' said Arif Husain, chief economist for the UN's World Food Program. "I have never seen something at the scale that is happening in Gaza. And at this speed." Israel says it is in the final stages of clearing out Hamas militants from northern Gaza, but that months of fighting lie ahead in the south, the AP reports.
The report released Thursday by 23 UN and nongovernmental agencies found that the entire population in Gaza is in food crisis, with 576,600 at catastrophic or starvation levels. "It is a situation where pretty much everybody in Gaza is hungry," Husain, the World Food Program economist, said. "People are very, very close to large outbreaks of disease because their immune systems have become so weak because they don't have enough nourishment," he said. This week, Israel began allowing aid to enter Gaza through its Kerem Shalom crossing, which boosted the number of trucks entering from around 100 a day to around 190 on Wednesday, according to the UN.
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But an Israeli strike Thursday morning hit the Palestinian side of the crossing, forcing the UN to stop its pickups of aid there, according to Juliette Touma, spokesperson of UNRWA, the UN agency for Palestinian refugees. At least four staff members at the crossing were killed, a nearby hospital reported. The Israeli military said it struck militants in the area. Israeli President Isaac Herzog said Israel has been working to increase its inspection of aid trucks to 300 or 400 a day, and blamed the UN for failures in delivery. The amount of aid could triple "if the UN, instead of complaining all day, would do its job," he said, without elaborating on what more the UN should be doing. (More Israel-Hamas war stories.)
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