2:34 PM ET, March 18, 2024
The World Food Program has warned that famine is “imminent” in northern Gaza
From CNN's Morayo Ogunbayo, Richard Roth and Niamh Kennedy
Khatib/AFP/Getty Images said
The World Food Program released a report on Monday, the Integrated Food Security Status Classification (IPC) report on food security in the Gaza Strip, which found 88% of the region's total population faces “emergency or severe” food insecurity and warned of famine in northern Gaza. “Immediately.”
“People in Gaza are dying of starvation right now,” said WFP Executive Director Cindy McCain. “The speed at which this man-made hunger and malnutrition crisis is tearing Gaza apart is terrifying.”
The IPC report, written by a group of NGOs, governments and UN agencies, warned “under the assumption that the conflict will intensify between mid-March and mid-July, mostly including a ground offensive in Rafah”. , half of the population of the Gaza Strip (1.11 million people) will face catastrophic conditions (IPC Phase 5).”
Here's what else we know: According to the report, 300,000 people trapped in northern Gaza are “expected to face famine between now and May” and one in three children under the age of two in Gaza are “severely malnourished”.
Southern Gaza is also slowly approaching famine, according to the report, which found the region could reach famine status by July.
The looming famine could be halted if aid agencies were allowed full access to the Gaza Strip to bring food, water and other nutritional supplies to the population, and this would require a “humanitarian ceasefire,” the report said. occur.
