The WFP estimates that simply addressing the basic food needs will require at least 300 trucks to enter Gaza every day and distribute food, particularly in the north, where the WFP has only managed to take nine convoys since the start of the year.
Over the weekend, Unicef said that 1 in 3 children under two years of age were acutely malnourished in the north. Prior to Israel’s invasion, this figure stood at 0.8 per cent for all children under five.
Dalmar Ainashe, a senior technical advisor at CARE International UK, a charity that delivers humanitarian aid to fight poverty, called the unfolding food crisis in Gaza “unparalleled in speed, scale, and severity.”
She added: “The swift plunge into famine and the vast human suffering and anguish in Gaza is unmatched, emphasising the need for urgent, extensive, and sustained humanitarian response.”
On Monday, EU foreign policy chief Josep Borrell accused Israel of “provoking” famine and using starvation as a weapon of war.
He added: “It’s a graveyard for tens of thousands of people and also a graveyard for many of the most important principles of humanitarian law.”
Israel rejected the claims, saying it does not target civilians and is only interested in eliminating Hamas.
The UN introduced the Integrated Food Security Phase Classification system, known as the IPC scale, in 2004. It rates hunger levels from one to five and is used by the UN or governments in deciding whether or not to declare a famine.
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