The starvation crisis has become seriously worsened in Gaza StripAnd deaths have increased due to malnutrition, and hundreds of thousands are hungry by death in light of the Israeli blockade, which almost completely prevents the entry of aid to the besieged.
Despite the frequent warnings of the outbreak of famine in Gaza, and the increasing indicators of this, the United Nations has not officially announced, taking into account that Israel practically banned the activity of the UN organization and its agencies in the sector.
Here are 7 points, showing why the United Nations was late in declaring famine in Gaza:
1- What are the current humanitarian conditions in the Gaza Strip, and how exacerbated by the hunger crisis between the population?
The Palestinian Refugee Works Agency.UNRWAOn Sunday – Israel deliberately starving civilians in Gaza, including one million children, many of whom suffer from malnutrition and face the risk of death.
According to the government media center in the sector, 650,000 children (from 2.4 million live in the sector) face the risk of death due to malnutrition and starvation, while about 60,000 holders face a real threat due to lack of food and the necessary health care.
As announced United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) that 112 children in Gaza are entering hospitals daily to treat malnutrition and severe wasting, as well as the death of 620 people due to starvation, 70 of them have died since last June.
In addition to the foregoing, the authorities in Gaza confirmed that people were getting fainted in the streets due to starvation.
In the context, the media advisor told the Relief and Works Agency for the Palestinian Refugees (UNRWA) Adnan Abu Hasna – Al -Jazeera Net – that Gaza is living in real starvation hunted hundreds of thousands of Palestinians in various regions, amid the collapse of the health system and the scarcity of drinking water, which increases the humanitarian conditions of complexity and danger.
2- What are the reasons for the exacerbation of the food crisis in Gaza, and how did the Israeli aggression and the continuous Israeli blockade of that contributed to that?
Israel imposed a ban on the entry of aid after its coup against the ceasefire agreement last March.
And last May, what began to touch.Gaza Humanitarian Corporation“The American is the task of controlling aid, and since that time, the shooting operations have been frequent at the aid centers, which resulted in the death of about a thousand Palestinians and the injury of thousands of others.
3- What is the role of international organizations, including the United Nations, in providing humanitarian aid to the Gaza Strip, and why was the declaration of the region afflicted with famine?
Late last May, the United Nations Office for Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) announced that all Gaza population is on the brink of starvation, and that the Strip is the area most hunger on the face of the earth.
Despite its many warnings of the possibility of famine in Gaza, the United Nations and its bodies have so far avoid declaring the situation, and this may be the result of its deportation by the Israeli occupation, or because it considers that the conditions for this are not fulfilled.
In the context, the head of the International Authority for the Support of Palestinian People’s Rights, Salah Abdel -Ati, criticized the United Nations delay in declaring the Gaza Strip area.
Abdel -Ati considered – in statements to Al -Jazeera Net – that this is an unjustified delay, and stressed that the criteria adopted by the international organization were achieved in Gaza, where the residents live in the last stage of famine known as “catastrophic hunger”, which is the fifth stage according to the international classification, and preceded by the fourth stage “sharp hunger”.
4- What are the criteria adopted by the United Nations to declare a region that is disappointed with famine, and does these standards apply to the Gaza Strip?
According to a information report prepared by Nusseibeh Moussa for Al -Jazeera channel, the criteria set for the official declaration of famine in any region in the world have been available in Gaza for a while.
Among these criteria is to confront 20% of the population severe hunger levels, documenting the suffering of 30% of children from wasting and severe thinness.
For its part, the Associated Press stated in a recent report that what is known as the “integrated phased food security classification” – a major mechanism that the International Group uses to analyze data related to food crises and report whether there is a famine that has already occurred or can occur – puts 3 determinants to declare starvation, including in addition to the previous two elements, the death of two adults or 4 children per day out of every 10 thousand people due to starvation.
The agency said that there is no rule that defines the party that can declare starvation in an area, but it made it clear that this is often done by international officials or governments.
In this regard, the media advisor to UNRWA, Adnan Abu Hasna, explained that the declaration of famine requires 3 conditions in a specific geographical area: that at least 20% of the population face severe levels of hunger, and that 30% of children suffer from wasting or severe thinness, and the death rate doubles compared to the average, including one death per day per 10 thousand adults, and two deaths per 10 thousand children per day.
In the same context, the academic and humanitarian activist Othman Al -Smadi explained that the criteria that govern the status of famine and their bad degree not only dependent on the lack of food, but also on other important criteria, including the presence of an agricultural area and access to it, the health system and the availability of medicines, medical consumptions, medical devices and infrastructure in general, and the availability of drinking water, unemployment rate, individual income, prices of basic materials Food, general hygiene materials, weather and temperature, availability of housing and transportation and the ability to move to reach food, medicine or water.
For his part, the head of the International Authority for the Support of Palestinian People’s Rights, Salah Abdel -Ati, said that more than half a million Palestinians are now at risk of death, most of them children, calling on the United Nations to accelerate the declaration of the Gaza Strip, a famine area, and take measures to ensure the introduction of food aid urgently to prevent thousands of victims.
As for the lawyer and international expert Anis Fawzi Qasim, he said that these criteria depend on the size, degree and cruelty of the famine, and the evaluation of the required needs, and this includes food security and access to clean drinking water, health services and shelters.
5- How does the delay in the Gaza Declaration affect a disturbed area of starvation on the arrival of international aid and urgent relief to the population?
International organizations are late in declaring famine in Gaza that would encourage the occupation to continue to deny the existence of a humanitarian crisis, and then expose it to less pressure, which results in additional delay in introducing urgent relief aid.
6- What is the social and health repercussions of the hunger crisis in Gaza, especially for children, women and the elderly?
In the past few days, deaths have increased among children due to malnutrition, and more than 650,000 children are facing the risk of death, according to the authorities in the Gaza Strip.
The starvation crisis has also been reflected in the elderly, patients with chronic diseases, and those in need of continuous medical treatment such as dialysis.
On the social and health repercussions of the starvation crisis, the academic and human activist Othman Al -Smadi said that children are the most sensitive and affected group of malnutrition, lack of treatment and vocalist, so children under the age of five are the most vulnerable to death as a result of famine.
He pointed to the death of more than 70 children – most of them under the age of five – and pointed out that the elderly suffer from dangerous suffering as a result of their chronic diseases, their weak immunity and their inability to reach medicines, while women, especially pregnant women, need a suitable food for them and the fetus, which led to a high rate of abortion, early births and congenital deformities.
Al -Smadi explained that repeated displacement and the destruction of more than 75% of the houses and 90% of the roads led to the dispersion of families and the livelihood in an inappropriate environment that lacks the minimum dignity, adding that the weakness of social interconnection, the difficult psychological state, and the spread of anxiety and depression, all increase the isolation of society, warning that severe food shortages may push people to fight and scramble to obtain a few available, It deepens the emotional and social gap between them.
7- What steps can be taken internationally and regionally to pressure the United Nations and the international community to provide an urgent response to the starvation crisis in Gaza?
Lawyer and international expert Anis Fawzi Qassem said that the United Nations “does not have tools and devices to carry Israel to respond to the hunger crisis, as it does not have executive tools. Even if we assume that it possesses, Israel prevents any aid and does not abide by international decisions.”
For his part, Al -Smadi considered that the international community – especially the Arab and Islamic countries – contributed to the exacerbation of the crisis by accepting the inclusion of humanitarian aid in the ongoing negotiations with the occupation, which violates international humanitarian law and is a humanitarian crime.
He also pointed to the inability of the Arab countries and the Organization of Islamic Cooperation to exercise sufficient pressure that compels the occupation to open the crossings, especially the Rafah crossing, which was closed and destroyed from the Palestinian side in May 2024.
In turn, Abu Hasna said that the introduction of aid is linked only to an Israeli decision, and added that it is Israel that has the decision now and acts as a power force that does not care about the United Nations resolutions or international calls.
He explained that UNRWA will continue the political and media pressures and communications, and expressed his hope for a practical response on the ground, noting that there is a European move that he described as important, but he stressed the need to translate these moves into actions.