The latest analysis from the Integrated Food Security Phase Classification (IPC) on Monday has warned that the situation in Gaza is catastrophic, with northern Gaza facing imminent famine while added that the rest of the Strip at risk as well.
The Integrated Food Security Phase Classification (IPC), a multi-partner initiative for improving food security and nutrition analysis and decision-making.
By using the IPC classification and analytical approach, governments, UN Agencies, NGOs, civil society and other relevant actors, work together to determine severity, magnitude of acute and chronic food insecurity, and acute malnutrition situations in accordance to internationally recognized standards.
As a member of the IPC partnership, World Health Organization WHO provided technical expertise and information on the health situation for this evaluation. The conflict is posing extreme limitations to the ability to deliver life-saving health assistance to the population.
In February 2024, attacks against health-care facilities, infrastructures and services continued, resulting in 58% of the hospitals not functioning in Gaza, especially in the Northern governorates (75% of the hospitals not functioning).
According to the Health Cluster, as of 5 March 2024, only 2 hospitals and no Primary Health Care Centres were fully functioning. Acute respiratory infections and diarrheal diseases are rampant among children under five, exposing them to high-risk nutritional deterioration.
WHO Director-General Dr Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus in his reaction said the IPC report reflects the dire situation the people of Gaza are facing, adding that before the crisis, there was enough food in Gaza to feed the population.
He said, “Malnutrition was a rare occurrence. Now, people are dying, and many more are sick. Over a million people are expected to face catastrophic hunger unless significantly more food is allowed to enter Gaza.”
Before the recent months’ hostilities, 0.8% of children under 5 years of age were acutely malnourished. Today’s report shows that as of February in the northern governorates, that figure is between 12.4 and 16.5%.
It stated that without a significant immediate increase in deliveries of food, water and other essential supplies, the conditions will continue deteriorating. Virtually households are already skipping meals every day and adults are reducing their meals so that children can eat.
It added that the current situation will have long-term effects on the lives and health of thousands. Right now, children are dying from the combined effects of malnutrition and disease. Malnutrition makes people more vulnerable to getting severely ill, experiencing slow recovery, or dying when they are infected with a disease.
The long-term effects of malnutrition, low consumption of nutrient-rich foods, repeated infections, and lack of hygiene and sanitation services slow children’s overall growth. This compromises the health and well-being of an entire future generation.
The IPC report confirmed what WHO, United Nations partners and nongovernmental organizations (NGOs) have been witnessing and reporting for months, when its missions reach hospitals, meet exhausted and hungry health workers who ask them for food and water.
WHO said, “We see patients trying to recover from life-saving surgeries and losses of limbs, or sick with cancer or diabetes, mothers who have just given birth, newborn babies, all suffering from hunger and the diseases that stalk it.
WHO said further that as a partner of the Nutrition Cluster, it currently supporting a nutrition stabilization center in Rafah to treat children with severe acute malnutrition with medical complications, who are at highest risk of imminent death if not urgently treated.
“We are supporting the establishment of two additional centres: one in the north of Gaza at Kamal Adwan hospital and one at the International Medical Corps field hospital in Rafah.
“Supporting the pediatric wards of Al-Aqsa and Al-Najjar hospitals through the provision of nutrition supplies and medicines as well as training of medical personnel, and the promotion of appropriate infant and young child feeding practices, including breastfeeding”, WHO said.
WHO and other UN partners again asked Israel to open more crossings and accelerate the entry and delivery of water, food, medical supplies and other humanitarian aid into and within Gaza.
“As the occupying force, it is their responsibility under international law to allow for the passage of supplies including food. Recent efforts to deliver by air and sea are welcome, but only the expansion of land-crossings will enable large-scale deliveries to prevent famine”.
In a Press Briefing on Monday, the UN Spokesman on Integrated Food Security Phase Classification (IPC) report, revealed that the Secretary-General, Antonio Guterres said that the report’s findings in Gaza is an appalling indictment of conditions on the ground for civilians.
He added that Guterres said that more than half of all Palestinians in Gaza — 1.1 million people — have completely exhausted their food supplies and are facing catastrophic hunger, according to the report.
“This is an entirely man-made disaster, the Secretary-General emphasized, and the report makes clear that it can be halted”, the Secretary-general added.
According to the Spokesman, the UN Chief called on the Israeli authorities to ensure complete and unfettered access for humanitarian goods throughout Gaza and for the international community to fully support UN humanitarian efforts.
Meanwhile, the Commissioner General for the UN Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA), Philippe Lazzarini while reacting to the IPC report lamented that the Israeli authorities had denied his entry to Gaza on Monday, according to the Spokesman.
Mr. Lazzarini who said that he had tried to visit Gaza today to coordinate and improve the humanitarian response, noted that the UNRWA has by far the largest presence among all humanitarian organizations in Gaza.
The Commissioner General stated further that too much time has been wasted, and all land crossings must open now. “Famine can be averted with political will,” he said.
In recommendation of the IPC report stated that the famine can be halted—both in the immediate term and it requires urgent and proactive measures from parties to the conflict and the international community.
It said the parties must immediately curb the rapidly escalating hunger crisis in the Gaza Strip, garner political support to put an end to the hostilities, mobilize necessary resources and ensure the safe delivery of humanitarian aid to the people of Gaza.
It added that the sustained supply of sufficient aid commodities, including but not limited to food, drugs, specialist nutrition products, fuel, and other necessities should be allowed to enter and move throughout the entire Gaza Strip by road.
“Traffic of commercial goods should also be fully resumed to meet the volume of commodities required”, IPC report recommended.