In a grim assessment released Friday, the Integrated Food Security Phase Classification (IPC) said famine has taken hold in and around Gaza City, the enclave’s largest urban center, Press TV reported.
The area is home to between 500,000 and 800,000 people, most of them displaced and living without proper shelter under the weight of Israel’s months-long blockade and bombardment.
IPC also declared that famine is underway in the Gaza Governorate, home to hundreds of thousands of Palestinians in the north.
The report warned that the famine is likely to spread to Deir el-Balah in central Gaza and Khan Yunis in the south by the end of next month.
The UN-backed experts cautioned that the crisis is “entirely man-made” and could lead to exponentially rising deaths without immediate intervention.
“This famine is entirely man-made; it can be halted and reversed. The time for debate and hesitation has passed, starvation is present and is rapidly spreading,” the IPC report said.
It stressed that any delay could result in sharp rise of famine-related deaths in the besieged strip.
“There should be no doubt in anyone’s mind that an immediate, at-scale response is needed. Any further delay – even by days – will result in a totally unacceptable escalation of famine-related mortality.”
After 22 months of Israel's genocidal war, over half a million people in Gaza are now in famine conditions (IPC Phase 5), marked by "starvation, destitution and death," the IPC reported.
MNA
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