Gaza death toll hits 60,000 as global hunger monitor calls for action to avert famine
Widespread starvation, malnutrition and disease driving a rise in hunger-related deaths, IPC says
A worst-case scenario of famine is unfolding in Gaza and immediate action is needed to avoid widespread death, a hunger monitor warned on Tuesday.
The hunger alert from the Integrated Food Security Phase Classification came as the number of Palestinians killed in the conflict with Israel crossed the 60,000 threshold, according to Gaza health authorities.
The alert and the new death toll are grim milestones in a conflict that began almost two years ago when Hamas attacked Israel, sparking an offensive that has laid waste to much of the enclave and ignited hostilities across the region.
The alert raised the prospect that the man-made starvation crisis in Gaza could be formally classified as a famine.
With international criticism growing, Israel announced steps over the weekend to ease aid access. But the World Food Program said on Tuesday it was not getting the permissions it needed to deliver enough aid since Israel began humanitarian pauses on Sunday.
"Mounting evidence shows that widespread starvation, malnutrition and disease are driving a rise in hunger-related deaths," the IPC said, adding that "famine thresholds" have been reached for food consumption in most of the Gaza Strip.
It said that it would quickly carry out the formal analysis that could allow it to classify Gaza as "in famine."
For famine to be declared, at least 20 per cent of the population must be suffering extreme food shortages, with one in three children acutely malnourished and two people out of every 10,000 dying daily from starvation or from malnutrition and disease.
Gaza health authorities have been reporting more and more people dying from hunger-related causes. The total stands at 147, among them 88 children, most of whom died in the last few weeks.
Images of emaciated Palestinian children have shocked the world, with Israel's strongest ally, U.S. President Donald Trump, declaring that many people were starving. He promised to set up new "food centres."
Israel has denied pursuing a policy of starvation. Foreign Minister Gideon Saar said on Tuesday that the situation in Gaza was "tough" but there were lies about starvation there.
Ross Smith of the World Food Program told reporters in Geneva by video that they're getting roughly half of what they've requested since the pauses started Sunday.
The WFP says almost 470,000 people are enduring famine-like conditions, with 90,000 women and children in need of specialist nutrition.
Images of emaciated children have shocked the world and fuelled international criticism of Israel, prompting it on the weekend to announce daily humanitarian pauses to fighting in three areas of Gaza and new safe corridors for aid convoys.
Yet the supply remains far short of what aid agencies say is the bare minimum required.
The IPC alert said this meant 62,000 tonnes of staple food a month, but that according to the Israeli aid co-ordination agency COGAT, only 19,900 tonnes entered in May and 37,800 in June.
Smith said the WFP lacked the stocks or permissions to reopen the bakeries and community kitchens that had been a lifeline before a total Israeli blockade began in May.
IPC calls for end to catastrophic suffering
The IPC alert said that "immediate action must be taken to end the hostilities and allow unimpeded, large-scale, life-saving humanitarian response.
"This is the only path to stopping further deaths and catastrophic human suffering."
The latest data from the IPC, which partners with governments, international aid groups and UN agencies and assesses the extent of hunger suffered by a population, indicated that formal famine thresholds have already been reached for food consumption in most of Gaza and for acute malnutrition in Gaza City.
On Monday, the International Rescue Committee (IRC) sounded the alarm, saying Gaza should be "flooded with aid" and adding that staff on the ground are unable to do their jobs with little to no aid entering. David Miliband, head of the International Rescue Committee aid group, said that "formal famine declarations always lag reality."
Ciarán Donnelly, senior vice-president for crisis response, recovery and development with the IRC, said a significant amount of time and effort is required to issue a formal famine declaration in active conflict zones.
"When you have a formal famine declaration, it generally means two things: one, famine conditions have already been present on the ground for quite some time; and two, the numbers that are reported are generally an underestimate of the true scope of impact," Donnelly told CBC News Tuesday following the IPC alert.
The rival aid efforts have sparked a war of words — pitting Israel, the U.S., and the U.S.- and Israeli-backed Gaza Humanitarian Foundation (GHF) against the UN, international aid groups and dozens of governments from around the world.
Israel and the U.S. accuse Hamas of stealing aid — which the militants deny — and the UN of failing to prevent it. The UN says it has not seen evidence of Hamas diverting much aid.
The IPC said 88 per cent of Gaza was now under evacuation orders or within militarized areas, and was critical of GHF efforts.
It said most of the GHF food items "require water and fuel to cook, which are largely unavailable."
The IPC's Famine Review Committee said, "Our analysis of the food packages supplied by the GHF shows that their distribution plan would lead to mass starvation."
The GHF was not immediately available for comment. It has previously said it has so far distributed more than 96 million meals.
War has raged in Gaza between Israel and Hamas militants for 22 months. After an 11-week Israeli blockade, limited UN-led aid operations resumed on May 19 and a week later the new Gaza Humanitarian Foundation began distributing food aid.
The war in Gaza began on Oct. 7, 2023, when Hamas killed 1,200 people in southern Israel and took some 250 hostages, according to Israeli tallies. Fifty hostages remain in Gaza, of whom 20 are believed to be alive.
Israeli airstrikes overnight killed at least 30 Palestinians in Nuseirat camp in central Gaza, Gaza health authorities said. Doctors at Al-Awda Hospital said at least 14 women and 12 children were among the dead.
The hospital also said that 13 people had been killed and dozens wounded by Israeli fire along the Salahudeen Road as they waited for aid trucks to roll into Gaza.
A total of 55 Palestinians were killed in attacks overnight, Gaza health authorities said. The Israeli military did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
With files from CBC News