Children in Rafah waiting for food (Reuters)

The Economist magazine said that some parts of the Gaza Strip are suffering from “catastrophic hunger,” where food is scarce and many residents eat tree leaves and search for leftovers in the streets, which means there is a state of food insecurity that reaches 95% of the population.

The magazine quoted the United Nations Integrated Food Security Phase Classification Foundation as saying that after analyzing the conditions of 95% of the population of the besieged Strip - that is, about 2.2 million people in Gaza - it concluded that 30% of the population suffers from catastrophic food insecurity.

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On March 18, the United Nations stated that it had only declared a famine in 20 years twice, the first in Somalia in 2011, and the other in South Sudan in 2017, indicating that it would have reasons to declare a third famine in the northern Gaza governorates by May. And in its south next July.

What does famine mean?

The magazine asked: What exactly does famine mean? To clarify that it has a detailed technical definition in a 125-page guide through which the Integrated Food Security Classification Foundation places families in one of five categories of food insecurity, ranging from “minimum” - meaning that the family can meet its basic needs - to “famine.” .

In order for a household to be classified as suffering from famine, the United Nations must see evidence of famine or severe malnutrition, and for an entire area to be placed in this category, at least 20% of households must be in stage five, and the death rate from hunger must be higher than Two people per day for every 10,000 people, or more than 4 for children under 5 years old.

Any country or IPC partner can conduct a formal review if it suspects famine is occurring in a particular place, and when that happens a group of independent humanitarian organizations are tasked with collecting data, such as the World Food Program and UNICEF, to go door to door and weigh children. It asks about the amount of food and deaths.

Gaza is now going through the fourth stage

But conditions in Gaza now make that impossible, forcing the organization to rely on other data, including resorting to the United Nations Satellite Center (UNOSAT), which analyzed images of agricultural lands, and the World Food Program, which interrogated shop owners by phone about the shortage, and then reviewed a group Independent evidence compiled by security, nutrition and mortality experts.

On this basis, the satellite center concluded that Gaza is currently going through the fourth stage, which is a “food emergency,” but it warned that parts of the north may have already slid into famine - as the magazine says - despite the difficulty of providing health data in war conditions. , power outages, and the lack of functioning hospitals and clinics.

However, evidence collected by the UN Foundation paints a bleak picture, finding that 60% of agricultural land in Gaza has been damaged since last January, and 56% of water facilities have also been damaged since last February.

The United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs also found that “severely restricted” aid deliveries were not sufficient to support the population, and that less than 5% of food trucks entering the Strip arrived in the north during the period from February 18 to March 18.

Source: Economist