War against Hamas
Is there a famine in Gaza? (Yet) according to official criteria
Aid deliveries are only occasionally achieved in the Gaza Strip. Helpers accuse Israel of targeting the population. When do you speak of a famine?
Experts are emphasizing about a famine in the Gaza Strip. Since March, Israel has only occasionally left aid deliveries into the coastal area. Since then, the humanitarian situation has come to a head. Questions and answers to what that means:
A “famine” is a rare and extremely dramatic event. Your proclamation is based on strictly defined criteria. These are defined by experts from the IPC initiative founded in 2004. The criteria are internationally recognized and apply to the analysis and evaluation of food crises in countries worldwide.
In the IPC scale there are five levels of the nutritional situation in a country or region. The highest – and worst – is level 5: “disaster/famine”. Below is about hunger crises.
Criteria for a famine
When will a famine be proclaimed?
For the classification as a famine, three criteria must be fulfilled at the same time:
- At least 20 percent of the households of a region are affected by an extreme lack of food;
- At least 30 percent of children suffer from acute malnutrition;
- Every day, at least two adults or four children die from hunger per 10,000 inhabitants or due to the interaction of malnutrition and illness.
Who officially calls out a famine?
Basically, the IPC experts create the technical assessment. The official proclamation is “in the responsibility either the government and the state itself or by authorized institutions” such as UN representatives, explains a senior faith representative, Abdulhakim Rajab Elwaer, the dpa news agency.
Why is a famine not always explained immediately?
Usually because it does not start suddenly, but often worsens itself for months – and that under conditions that make a formal classification difficult. A special feature of the IPC reports is that they make a trend visible because they appear at regular intervals, explains Elwaer. So you can observe whether the situation improves or further intensifies.
In addition, it is often extremely difficult in war zones to collect reliable data on mortality or health. In some cases, states or parties to the conflict also try to play a hunger crisis to avoid criticism or consequences.
When was a famine recently proclaimed?
According to the IPC, four famines have been confirmed in the past 15 years: 2011 in Somalia, 2017 and 2020 in South Sudan and most recently in Sudan in 2024.
Why was for the Gaza strip No famine explained yet?
In the Gaza Strip, the UN Nutrition and Agricultural Organization (FAO) has eleven employees on site who provide support for every IPC collection. Nevertheless, due to the limited access options and the authorities controlled by the Hamas, comprehensive data are currently missing.
Level four at the IPC scale currently applies to the entire Gaza strip. Among other things, this means that according to IPC assessment, many affected households do not have enough to eat. This is reflected in very high acute malnutrition and excessive mortality.
Phase five formally presupposes an extreme lack of food, acute malnutrition and a certain number of hunger -related deaths. The IPC experts warned this week that the first two criteria are already being met, at least in parts of the Gaza Strip.
How neutral is IPC’s assessment?
IPC is an international initiative in which governments, UN organizations such as the FAO, the Kinderhilfswerk UNICEF and the World Food Program (WFP) as well as NGOs and other partners work together to reliably assess nutritional crises.
Has Israel already criticized the IPC in the past?
Yes, for example on the occasion of a previous IPC report in May this year, which also underlined the risk of impending famine. The Israeli military agency Cogat, which approves (or blocked) the aid in the Gaza Strip, wrote in a statement at the time: “Even from the IPC’s own analysis, it can be seen that there is no famine in the Gaza strip.
Food deliveries to Gaza
What does Israel see in the Gaza Strip?
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu recently said: “There is no policy of starving in the Gaza Strip, and there is no hunger in the Gaza Strip.” Other Israeli politicians also always emphasize that there is no famine in the sealed coastal strip.
After increasing international criticism in view of the dramatic supply situation in the Gaza Strip, Israel again leaves major aid deliveries on the land path into the coastal area and also allows drops out of the air.
What does the official proclamation of a famine bring?
On the one hand, this has a psychological effect. Some governments and organizations only really take action when there is an official explanation – although the signs have long been there. This releases more funds to support.
The FAO representative emphasizes that a formal proclamation is “extremely necessary”. Such an explanation of governments is often avoided in man -made crises because it in fact evidence that the famine was not nature -related but politically caused. That makes those responsible. “It is a direct accusation,” said Elwaer.
Dpa
nik
Source: Stern
I have been working in the news industry for over 6 years, first as a reporter and now as an editor. I have covered politics extensively, and my work has appeared in major newspapers and online news outlets around the world. In addition to my writing, I also contribute regularly to 24 Hours World.
