Gaza residents are threatened with hunger: ‘We eat canned, flour lots of insects and unhealthy water’
Half a million people in Gaza’s belt is facing a critical risk of hunger that could prevail by the end of September, a global hunger monitor warned on Monday.
In the new report of the integrated classification of food safety level (IPC), it is warned of a significant exacerbation of the situation from their latest report in October, reflecting the warnings of international agencies that a disaster is happening in Gaza’s belt. The report provides that 2.1 million people in Gaza’s belt, almost the entire population, are likely to experience high levels of acute insecurity in food supply by the end of September, and 469,500 probably a « catastrophic » level.
Israel blocked Gaza’s belt in early March when he continued his military campaign against Hamas, interrupting the interruption of fire. IPC « is constantly talking about hunger; hunger never happened because of the efforts of Israel to bring more help, » the spokesman for Israeli Government David Mencer said on Monday.
Mencer repeated the accusation that Hamas had caused hunger stealing help intended for civilians and « created a humanitarian crisis. » Hamas denies these accusations and accuses Israel of using hunger as a weapon.
IPC believes that there is a « high risk » of hunger in the Gaza belt in the period from May 11 to September 30, because Israel plans for a wide -scale military operation, and humanitarian agencies are not able to provide essential goods and services. Israeli President Isaac Herzog invited an international community on Monday to help with a new plan to distribute help directly to the people of Gaza, without Hamas. IPC believes that the Israeli plan for helping Gaza’s belt is not enough to meet the needs of people for food, water, shelter and medication.
– The distribution mechanisms could be more important to create significant barriers to the approach for large population segments. The key is urgent action to prevent further deaths, acute malnutrition and hunger – they state.
In order to declare hunger, at least 20 percent of the population must suffer an extreme food shortage, each third child must be acutely malnourished, and two people to 10,000 die every day from starvation or malnutrition and illness.
According to the report, from April 2025 to March 2026. Nearly 71,000 cases of acute malnutrition, including 14,100 severe cases, are expected, among children between the ages of 6 and 59. IPC reports are the result of the cooperation of UN agencies, non-governmental organizations and other organizations. The report « really shows that the situation in Gaza has worsened dramatically in recent months, » said Beth Bechdol, Deputy Director of the UN Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO).
« From March 2, a general blockade …. she really prevented the delivery of essential humanitarian aid and even other goods, » she said.
Acknowledging that a two -month end of fire has enabled the temporary alleviation of acute food shortages and malnutrition, IPC warns that the current blockage has revealed the situation.
According to the report, 1,95 million people or 93 percent of the Gaza Gaza population live in high levels of acute food supply, including 244,000 in the most severe or « catastrophic » conditions. In October, the IPC warned that 133,000 people belong to the category of « catastrophic » conditions.
Ghada Muhammad, the mother of five children in the city of Gazi, said she had to pay about 1000 Šekel (281 US dollar) for a bag of two kilograms of flour, which would cost 25 Šekela before the war in January and February.
She said they were dependent on canned food, unhealthy water and bread of flour infected with insects.
– Do you know how it is when you can’t have one meal with some chicken or vegetables for a few weeks? she said.
