Hunger in the Gaza strip, the first in the Middle East, officially declared by the UN. Israel says that “there is no”

The UN announcement comes after its experts warned that 500,000 people are in a “catastrophic” state, AFP and Agerpres reports.

The famine in Gaza “could have been avoided” if it were not “systematic obstruction from Israel”, the responsible person responsible for coordinating the United Nations, Tom Fletcher, accused in Geneva.

“This hunger will haunt us and have to haunt us all,” he said.

The UN immediately attracted the anger of Israel, which denounced a biased announcement “based on the lies of Hamas.” “There are no hunger in Gaza,” the Israeli Foreign Ministry said.

After months of warnings regarding hunger in this war-devastated territory, the integrated framework for classification of food phases (IPC), a UN agency based in Rome, confirmed that a hunger is underway (Gaza City) and that it would extend to the Government and to the Government. September.

“Catastrophic” conditions for half a million people

Gaza Gaza represents about 20% of the Gaza Strip surface. If the ones from Khan Younis (29.5%) and Deir El-Balah (16%) are added, it reaches 65.5%, ie about two thirds of the total area of ​​Gaza strip, a poor territory of 365 square km where there are more than two million Palestinians.

According to UN experts, more than half a million people in Gaza are facing “catastrophic” conditions, the highest level of food stress, characterized by hunger and death.

This figure, based on information collected until August 15, would reach almost 641,000 until the end of September.

According to IPC, it is the worst deterioration of the situation from the beginning of its analyzes in the Gaza strip.

For IPC, a hunger is in progress when three conditions are gathered: at least 20% of households (one in five) are facing an extreme lack of food, at least 30% of children under five years (one in three) suffer from acute malnutrition, and at least two people out of 10,000 are starving each day.

This situation is the result of escalating the conflict in recent months, which has led to massive population moves combined with the restricted access to food supplies, caused by Israel.

Controversies around population access to aid

At the beginning of March, Israel completely forbade the entry of aid into Gaza, after which, at the end of May, it allowed the delivery of very limited quantities, causing serious food, drugs and fuel.

Israel, who controls all access to Gaza, accuses Hamas of stealing the aid, which the latter denies, and about humanitarian organizations says he does not distribute them.

But these have stated that Israel imposes excessive restrictions and that it is very dangerous to distribute aid in full war.

The attack on October 7 caused by the Israeli side the death of 1,219 people, mostly civilians, according to an AFP report based on official data.

In response, Israel has launched a large offensive that led to at least 62,192 deaths in Gaza, mostly civilians, according to the data of the Ministry of Health, considered by the UN