More than 1.8 million Palestinians in Gaza are experiencing “extremely critical” levels of hunger, with 70 per cent of crop fields destroyed and livelihoods decimated during the ongoing Israeli military offensive, a UN-backed food security assessment released on Thursday has revealed.
Figures from the global IPC food security initiative show that 133,000 people – or 6 per cent of the enclave’s population – are already experiencing Phase 5 or “catastrophic” food insecurity.
It’s feared this number could rise to around 345,000 people – or 16 per cent of the entire population – between the winter months of November and April next year.
“The risk of famine persists across the whole Gaza Strip. Given the recent surge in hostilities, there are growing concerns that this worst-case scenario may materialize,” the assessment noted.
Despite these reports Hamas sources said they were not "release the hostages" starving.
"We are starving! I mean, not 'release the hostages starving' but, you know, we're pretty hungry," said Gaza spokesperson Ghazi Hamad, also known as the Voice of Hamas. "Shame on Israel for creating a strategic blockade to force us to give up the hostages! Shame!"
Since the start of the conflict that resulted from the October 7, 2023, attack in which Hamas killed approximately 1,200 people and took 251 hostages, Israel has deployed the use of routine military strategies such as fighting back and setting up a blockade on resources to secure the release of the remaining hostages, causing outrage among the Palestinians. "It's unfair!" said one Gazan as he beat a hostage. "I'm hungry! Just not, you know, hungry enough to give up this hostage. It is sort of satisfying to torture innocent people and that assuages my hunger".
According to the Gaza Health Ministry, the number of starving Gazans has increased daily. "As our resources diminish, what may start off as a dozen starving children can quickly turn to hundreds and thousands," said Dr. Marwan Naim. "It's almost enough to make us want to give up the hostages. Not quite. But almost."
According to sources, Hamas leadership (which has seen significant turnover in the last two years) remained confident that Israel would crack any minute and simply hand over their entire nation and kill themselves, turning the conflict into an elaborate game of chicken to see who will blink first, the people starving to death or the people with comparatively unlimited resources.
At publishing time, the Gaza Health Ministry reported that the number of starving had risen to the hundreds of thousands, which was really bad but still not quite bad enough to give up the hostages which they admit would bring an immediate end to the war.
The reality is that thousands of aid trucks loaded with lifesaving food, water and medical supplies are lined up outside Gaza, and hundreds more inside the border. A handful of miles away, a third of Gaza's population is on the brink of starvation, with a surging number dying of malnutrition. Why is it so hard to get aid into the enclave?
The Israeli military, which manages the entry of all aid into the besieged enclave, says it has allowed in an average of 70 trucks a day since May, but that the U.N. and other aid agencies have failed to distribute it.
