Famine looming in north Gaza - UN-backed report

ROME — Famine is looming in the northern Gaza Strip amid increased hostilities and a near-halt in food aid, a UN-backed assessment said Saturday. 

The alert from the Famine Review Committee warned of "an imminent and substantial likelihood of famine occurring, due to the rapidly deteriorating situation in the Gaza Strip."

"Famine thresholds may have already been crossed or else will be in the near future," said the alert.

On October 17, the body projected that the number of people in Gaza facing "catastrophic" food insecurity between November and April 2025 would reach 345,000, or 16 per cent of the population. 

The Integrated Food Security Phase Classification (IPC) report classified that as IPC Phase 5 -- a situation when "starvation, death, destitution and extremely critical acute malnutrition levels are evident."

Since that report, conditions have worsened in the north of Gaza, with a collapse of food systems, a drop in humanitarian aid and critical water, sanitation and hygiene conditions, the committee said. 

"It can therefore be assumed that starvation, malnutrition, and excess mortality due to malnutrition and disease, are rapidly increasing in these areas," it read.

Vast areas of the Gaza Strip have been devastated by Israel's retaliatory assault launched after the October 7 attack last year by Hamas. 

Israeli forces have intensified their operations in large swathes of the Gaza Strip's north since early October, where evacuation orders are in place. 

Aid shipments allowed to enter the Gaza Strip were now lower than at any time since October 2023, said the report.

Access to food continues to deteriorate, with prices of essentials on the black market soaring. Cooking gas rose by 2,612 percent, diesel by 1,315 percent and wood by 250 percent, it said. 

"Concurrent with the extremely high and increasing prices of essential items has been the total collapse of livelihoods to be able to purchase or barter for food and other basic needs," said the alert.

The body expressed concern over Israel's cutting ties last month with the UN aid agency for Palestinians (UNRWA), warning of "extremely serious consequences for humanitarian operations" in Gaza.