Samantha Powers, the director of the US Agency for International Development (USAID), officially declared yesterday that the famine in northern Gaza has already commenced. UNICEF estimates that 7,000-8,000 children in Gaza are severely malnourished, putting them at risk of death without immediate intervention. However, the difficult conditions in Gaza make it challenging to gauge the full extent of the situation accurately.
In addition to food shortages, people in Gaza face limited access to clean water, essential medicines, medical care, and other necessities, mainly due to damage inflicted by Israeli airstrikes and the comprehensive blockade imposed by Israel.
A famine is officially declared when a significant portion of a population experiences malnutrition, and individuals start succumbing to death as a result of insufficient access to food.
Even before the outbreak of conflict, 70% of Gaza Strip residents relied on humanitarian aid for food security, yet cases of malnutrition were sporadic. Despite being under an Israeli and Egyptian blockade since 2007, humanitarian aid has frequently flowed into the Gaza Strip.
This marks the first instance of a US official declaring that people in Gaza are confronting starvation six months into the Israeli raids that have resulted in the deaths of over 33,500 Palestinians, predominantly women, and children.
In March, the International Court of Justice issued an order directing Israel to permit unhindered humanitarian aid access to the Gaza Strip to avert the risk of starvation.
