Famine in Gaza is almost here. The world needs to act now
Palestinians gather to receive aid outside a UNRWA warehouse. To avert catastrophic hunger, urgent measures need to be taken to facilitate large-scale aid delivery of food and other aid. Photo: REUTERS/Mahmoud Issa
A major report published on Monday has confirmed our worst fears. 70% of people in northern Gaza are on the brink of famine.
Following almost six never-ending months of constant bombardments, restrictions of aid and mass forced displacement, an official declaration of famine is only a matter of time. To avert catastrophic hunger, urgent measures need to be taken to facilitate large-scale aid delivery of food and other aid.
Monday's anticipated report from the IPC (the Integrated Food Security Phase Classification) is confirmation of what the world already knew. Starvation in Gaza is now at crisis levels. Famine is imminent, particularly in the north.
All of Gaza is at risk of acute food shortages — and the report confirms that unless there is urgent intervention, the south of Gaza will be suffering famine by July.
For months aid agencies working on the ground in both north and south Gaza have been shouting loud about the deteriorating and catastrophic hunger crisis, desperately warning that traumatised people in the enclave were starting to die from starvation, especially children. To date, official figures tell us that 27 children have died of acute malnutrition. And thousands more will follow.
It is completely shocking that one in three children in northern Gaza under the age of two now experience acute chronic malnutrition. That is a dramatic increase in the space of a month, where one in six were affected. That number of children suffering is one of the hallmarks of determining famine.
The facts are indisputable. The world can see through pictures posted on social media and recent news footage skeletal-like children with hollowed out eyes on the brink of death. Never has a civilian population gone hungry so completely, and in such a short space of time.
It is an indictment of world leaders that this level of catastrophe is occurring, entirely manmade and avoidable. By restricting food aid, water, and medical supplies, Israel has manufactured starvation as a key tool of this horrific war.
The UN Rapporteur on the right to food, Michael Fakhri, said the hunger crisis was unfolding at a speed never seen before:
In this, it is facilitated by the United States. While the rhetoric from the Biden administration increasingly focuses on humanitarian aid and behind-the-scenes pressure, it continues to arm Israel and give it political cover through the use of its veto at the UN Security Council.
Famine is something that is embedded in the Irish psyche due to the great hunger of the 1840s. It caused about one million deaths and the forced migration of another million people. It will never be forgotten, and is enshrined in stories, song and dance.
During his Irish visit, President Biden spoke to crowds in Dundalk and Ballina about the tragedy of the Famine and its impact on his own family. And it is shocking that Biden, of Irish descent, is arming a country that has created the conditions for famine.
For the hundreds of thousands of people who are starving and malnourished in Gaza today, anything other than full and unimpeded land access of humanitarian aid at scale will mean death and acute malnutrition.
One of those suffering is Shirhan, a mother of six who has been displaced four times since the start of the war. Shirhan told ActionAid how life for her family has been a nightmare over the last five months. Her focus has been on getting through each day, against all the odds, doing all she can to ensure her children don’t die.
Shirhan’s family are starving — and she is listening to her children’s anguished cries of hunger. In the earlier months of the war — when humanitarian aid corridors were still open, and before food systems were destroyed — she was able to access food. But she is now finding it impossible to find any scraps at all to feed and sustain her children.
Her biggest worry is for her 13-month-old son. Because she is not getting enough food herself, she is unable to produce milk to breastfeed her baby. “I try to breastfeed my baby, but I don’t have milk which causes him to cry out in hunger."
Will world leaders respond to women like Shirhan? Will they move beyond rhetoric to real action? Distractions like temporary ports and air drops can never meet the scale of need.
The question is will the very likely declaration of famine in the next few months change things for the already starving population on the ground in Gaza? Will it change the US’s military support for Israel? Military and political support which has contributed to the horrific destruction of Gaza's population.
Declarations of famine are rare. The last two were South Sudan in 2017 and Somalia in 2011. Famine is declared when at least 20% of households face an extreme lack of food, when at least 30% of children suffer from acute malnutrition, and when two people in every 10,000 die each day due to outright starvation or a combination of malnutrition and disease.
Starvation used as a weapon against civilian populations in conflict is a reprehensible tactic — and deliberately depriving civilians of food and essential resources constitutes a grave violation of human rights and international law.
We cannot wait for a formal declaration of famine. Action to prevent the starving to death of potentially thousands of civilians, especially children, is needed now. The best start is a permanent ceasefire, which will facilitate the safe delivery of food and other aid to a population which has been suffering beyond belief.
- Karol Balfe is CEO ActionAid Ireland which is part of a global federation with a presence in 71 countries working for a world free from poverty and injustice.
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