IPC Says Half A Million Gazans Face Critical Hunger Risk

Children queue for food in Gaza. (Twitter/@UNRWA)

JAKARTA - Half a million people in the Gaza Strip face starvation, a global hunger monitor said on Monday, saying the Israeli blockaded Palestinian enclave was still facing the risk of critical hunger at risk at the end of September.

The latest Integrated Food Safety Phase Classification report (IPC) cites a significant setback in the situation since its latest report in October, reflecting warnings from international agencies about the ongoing disaster in the small and densely populated Palestinian territories.

The report estimates that 2.1 million people across Gaza - roughly the entire population - will likely experience a high level of acute food insecurity by the end of September, with 469,500 of them projected to reach a "disaster" level.

The IPC report said Israel's plans to deploy large-scale military operations in Gaza, along with the "continuous inability" of aid agencies to deliver essential goods and services, meant there was a "high risk" of hunger in the projected period from May 11 to September 30.

Israeli President Isaac Herzog on Monday called on the international community to help new plans to distribute aid directly to the Gazan people and get Hamas out of the process.

The IPC report said the Israeli government's plan to distribute aid was "expectedly insufficient to meet the basic needs of residents for food, water, shelter, and medicine".

"In addition, the proposed distribution mechanism is likely to create significant access barriers for most of the population," he said.

"Ammediate action is very important to prevent further deaths, hunger and acute malnutrition, as well as the fall of a hunger disaster," he said.

Israel closed the Gaza Strip since early March, while continuing its devastating military campaign against the Hamas militant group after a ceasefire agreement failed, in which thousands of aid trucks entered the enclave.

Israeli Government spokesman David Mencer said on Monday the IPC had "continued to talk about hunger; hunger never happened as Israel's efforts to get more help."

The Minister of Commerce repeated Israel's accusations that Hamas had caused starvation by stealing aid that should have been given to civilians, and had "redesigned the humanitarian crisis".

Hamas denies these allegations, instead accusing Israel of using hunger as a weapons of war.

It is known, so that a hunger disaster can be declared, at least 20 percent of the population must experience extreme food shortages, with one in three children experiencing acute malnutrition and two out of every 10,000 people dying daily from hunger or malnutrition and disease.

The report projects that nearly 71,000 cases of acute malnutrition, including 14,100 severe cases, among children aged 6 to 59 months are expected to occur between April 2025 and March 2026.

The IPC report was made with contributions from UN agencies, NGOs, and other organizations.

The report " REALLY shows the situation in Gaza has worsened dramatically in recent months," said Beth Bechdol, deputy director of the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO).

"Since March 2, a thorough blockade has completely prevented humanitarian and even commercial supply shipments from being important," he told Reuters.

"We can certainly assume that the type of number we see in this report will only continue to increase," he said.

The report shows "there are a large number of people who are now facing starvation", he added.

While noting a two-month ceasefire has allowed temporary reduction of acute food shortages and malnutrition, the IPC report said the ongoing blockade had reversed the situation.

The main findings show that 1.95 million people, or 93% of the population in these coastal enclave areas, live in a high level of acute food insecurity, including 244,000 people who experience the worst level of food vulnerability, or "disaster".

The IPC analysis in October put 133,000 people in the "disaster" category.