WFP Country Director for Palestine Antoine Renard in Khan Younis, south Gaza. Photo: © WFP/Ali Jadallah
The risk of famine in Gaza is expected to worsen this winter unless the fighting stops and aid can reach families, according to a recent food security assessment by experts from 16 UN agencies and NGOs.
The report says that residents in northern and central Gaza, and of Rafah in the south, will be at risk of famine from now until April 2025 if the fighting continues and supply lines remain cut.
Ongoing fighting in northern Gaza and Deir al-Balah suggests that the worst-case scenario is plausible, it warns.
Twelve months of fighting has destroyed livelihoods and homes, drastically reduced food production and nearly wiped out commercial and humanitarian supply lines, the UN report says.
It predicts that 1.95 million people in Gaza (91 percent of the population) will face acute food insecurity with 345,000 people facing catastrophic levels of hunger.
No food supplies entered northern Gaza in the first two weeks of October with only a few trucks reaching the south and central areas, says Arif Husain, the World Food Program’s chief economist.
“Commercial supplies are down, there is large-scale displacement, infrastructure is decimated, agriculture collapsed and people have no money.”
He says their projections indicate that life will get worse from this month on.
The report found a small increase in food supplies due to greater humanitarian assistance for families in North Gaza, Gaza City, Deir al-Balah and Khan Younis governorates from May to August.
“The small progress we have seen is a signal that the flow of humanitarian and commercial cargo into Gaza was working, but we are now in a very difficult situation,” Husain says.
“Without safe and sustained access, WFP cannot deliver lifesaving humanitarian assistance at the required scale.”
This slight improvement will be short-lived, the report warned, due to ongoing fighting and the sharp reduction of humanitarian and commercial flows since September.
This is expected to push most of the population back into severe food insecurity and worsening levels of acute malnutrition during the coming winter.
AID CROSSING OPENS
The Israeli military announced the opening of another aid crossing into Gaza, on the eve of a US-imposed deadline.
The Israelis said it opened the Kissufim crossing “as part of the effort and commitment to increase the volume and routes of aid to the Gaza Strip”.
“Food, water, medical supplies, and shelter equipment” were delivered to central and southern Gaza, the army said in a joint statement with COGAT, the Israeli defence ministry agency responsible for civilian affairs in the Palestinian territories.
Last month, US Secretary of State Antony Blinken and Defence Secretary Lloyd Austin warned Israel in a letter that it had 30 days to improve aid delivery to Gaza or risk losing some military assistance from their biggest supporter.
The letter was sent before Donald Trump’s election win, who has promised to give Israel freer rein.
