According to the latest UN-collaborated IPC report on hunger levels, 96 percent of the population – some 2.15 million people – face acute food insecurity at “crisis” levels or above. That is level three of the Integrated Food Security Phase Classification (IPC) index (View our explanation of the IPC system here).
This number includes nearly half a million people facing “catastrophic” conditions (IPC 5), the IPC update said – underscoring the “high risk” of famine across the Gaza Strip “as long as the conflict continues and the humanitarian access is limited” .
Access critical
At the same time, the update indicated “a slight improvement” in the food security situation in Gaza’s northern governorates, where a possible famine was feared at the end of May.
“The improvement shows the difference that greater access can make,” the UN World Food Program said.WFP) in response to the IPC’s findings. “Increased food deliveries to the North and nutrition services have helped reduce the worst levels of hunger still desperate situation.”
Not an inch is safe
There are “no safe inches left” in Gaza, where the laws of war continue to be ignored at the expense of the shattered enclave’s people and humanitarian organizations, a UN aid worker said on Tuesday.
Speaking to journalists in Geneva after her second deployment to Gaza, Yasmina Guerda of the UN Aid Coordination Office (OCHA) said providing aid there has become an irritating “daily puzzle,” leaving malnourished children without the life-saving help they need.
“Every day there is direct observation on the ground that there are no more safe centimeters in Gaza.You can’t be anywhere and be sure there won’t be an attack on you that night,” she said.
After nearly nine months of intense Israeli bombing and ground operations, fueled by Hamas-led terror attacks and hostage takings on October 7, basic needs are greater than ever for Gazans forced to flee their homes at a moment’s notice, in line with repeated evacuation orders issued by the Israeli army.
“You have 10 to 15 minutes to leave your building because it’s going to be bombed. Your children sleep in the next room,’ Mrs. Guerda said.
“You have to make split-second decisions to decide what to take with you, what is essential and how do you define what is essential? Birth certificates, IDs, baby food… It’s a story I heard again and again from people fleeing Gaza City, Jabalia, Khan Younis, Deir Al-Balah and now of course Rafah.”
© UNRWA
More than 35 displaced people were killed when an Israeli airstrike hit a UNRWA-run school in Nuseirat, central Gaza.
Nuseirat nightmare
Recalling the Israeli military operation two weeks ago to release four Israeli hostages held in Nuseirat in central Gaza, which local health authorities said left hundreds dead and injured, the UN humanitarian official stressed that the area’s residents had not received such a warning.
“They were just trying to have a meal with what they had secured that day the bombardment started and lasted two full hours and tank shells and gunfire. We were working a few miles away and the walls, doors and windows of our building were shaking. We didn’t know what was going on, we found out later.”
After the attack, Ms. Guerda described going to the field hospital and finding children who had lost limbs “staring into the void, too shocked to produce a sound or a tear. For those who survived the bombing of their neighborhood by escaping in time, this is just the beginning of the nightmare.”
Delivering humanitarian assistance to these survivors and the more than one million people uprooted from Rafah in southern Gaza within ten to fourteen days remains extremely difficult, especially since the Israeli military operation closed the main border crossing there in early May, said the OCHA. officer continued.
“Providing aid in Gaza is a daily puzzle across the board, you know, the daily fighting, the inadequacy of absolutely everything you need, the regular attacks on our storage facilities, the pile of administrative barriers, bad internet, weak telephone networks. , destroyed roads, you name it.
“We spend hours waiting at checkpoints, coordinating and compromising on passage.”
10 amputated children per day
Meanwhile, the head of UNRWAthe UN agency for Palestinian refugees said on Tuesday that 10 children lose one or both legs every day in Gaza amid ongoing Israeli bombardments.
UNRWA Commissioner General Philippe Lazzarini also condemned an overnight attack on one of the organization’s schools in Gaza City, which reportedly killed around 12 people and injured another 22.
The strike brings the total number of UN buildings “affected, damaged or targeted since the start of the war” to 190, which is more than half of UNRWA buildings in the Gaza Strip, he said.
Concerns about the crackdown on anti-war protesters
In a related development, a leading independent rights expert expressed concern over the recent “violent crackdown” on protesters on anti-war campuses in the United States, where demonstrators called for a ceasefire and a review of their institutions’ ties with Israel.
“What is alarming is the unequal treatment of those who speak out,” he says Farida Shaheed, Special Rapporteur on the right to education.
“Pro-Palestinian protesters, including Jewish students, face disproportionately harsh responses, reportedly due to anti-Semitic views where criticism of the state of Israel is combined with anti-Semitismshe told the UN Council for Human Rights Monday in Geneva.
The independent expert, who does not work for the UN, noted that all governments should “prohibit incitement to violence, hostility or discrimination,” while emphasizing that expressing critical political opinions was not a reason for restricting freedom of expression .