By Euronews with AP
As bombardment pounds around them, some say they risk their lives by venturing out in search of cans of food in the rubble of destroyed homes.
Thousands have staggered out of the area, hungry and thin, into Gaza City, where they find the situation little better. One hospital reports seeing thousands of children suffering from malnutrition. A nutritionist said she treated a pregnant woman wasting away at just 40 kilogrammes.
“We are being starved to force us to leave our homes,” said Mohammed Arqouq, whose family of eight is determined to stay in the north, weathering Israel’s siege. “We will die here in our homes.”
International hunger experts have said there is “a strong likelihood” that famine is imminent in parts of northern Gaza where Israeli forces are conducting a major military offensive.
The Famine Review Committee called the situation in the north of the Strip “extremely grave and rapidly deteriorating” and said all actors in the war must take immediate action “within days not weeks” to avert a humanitarian disaster.
The statement stressed that this includes not only combatants but also those who have influence on them.
“The alert further underscores that the humanitarian situation in the Gaza Strip, as we have just detailed, is extremely grave and rapidly deteriorating. They’re calling for immediate action…and this action is required from all who are directly taking part in the conflict or who have influence on its conduct, to avert and to alleviate this catastrophic situation,” said Stephanie Tremblay, an Associate Spokesperson for the UN Secretary General.
The Famine Review Committee is part of the Integrated Food Security Phase Classification, which comprises 15 UN and other organisations that monitor global hunger and food security.
Friday’s alert follows a report publish in October from the committee that said Palestinians in the entire territory face acute food insecurity.
The alert blamed recent significant developments, including the impact of Israel’s designation of northern Gaza as a combat zone and orders for the entire population to evacuate.
The IDF launched a renewed offensive in northern Gaza, it says to prevent Hamas units from regrouping there. It issued evacuation orders for people living in the north, advising them to move south to the already overcrowded ‘humanitarian zone’ in al-Mawasi.
At the beginning of the month, the Biden administration ramped up criticism of Israel for not doing enough to improve humanitarian conditions in Gaza as a 13 November deadline loomed for Israeli officials to meet certain requirements or risk potential restrictions on military assistance.
