UNICEF spokesperson Tess Ingram warned of the escalating risk of famine in Gaza City, which could spread to central Gaza within weeks if urgent action is not taken.
اضافة اعلان
She stressed that the threat of famine in Gaza City is real, noting that families are no longer able to provide food for their children and that the situation in the Strip has become “catastrophic.”
Speaking from Gaza in an interview with Anadolu Agency, Ingram explained that Palestinians in the Strip, particularly in the east and north of Gaza City, are living under constant threat from intensified Israeli bombardment.
She said, “Palestinians in these areas are fleeing westward toward the sea, where the number of camps and tents along the coastal strip continues to increase.”
Hospital directors, she added, reported a rising number of children suffering from fractures, burns, and wounds due to the recent Israeli strikes.
Many residents of Gaza City are considering moving south, she noted, but are aware that conditions there are similar—marked by shortages of food, safe drinking water, and ongoing bombardments.
“There is no safe place in Gaza,” she said.
A Complete Disaster
Ingram recalled that on August 22, the United Nations confirmed the existence of famine in Gaza, stressing that the situation has not changed since.
On that date, the UN’s Integrated Food Security Phase Classification (IPC) initiative reported the occurrence of famine in Gaza City (north) and projected that it would spread to Deir al-Balah (central) and Khan Younis (south) by the end of September.
She reiterated that famine could spread to central Gaza within weeks if urgent intervention does not take place.
Describing the situation, Ingram said: “Parents are desperately searching for food and water. I met mothers and fathers who held my hands crying, asking: When will food arrive? Will our child survive until then? The situation is a complete disaster.”
She pointed out that health workers, humanitarian staff, and journalists have been warning for months about famine in Gaza, “but nothing has changed.”
According to her, families feel helpless because they know that the worst is yet to come and that “there is not enough international pressure to change this reality.”
She added that UNICEF-supported clinics are overwhelmed with parents seeking examinations for their children, many of whom show signs of malnutrition and are already receiving treatment.
Children Dying of Hunger
On her visit this week to several malnutrition clinics in Gaza, Ingram said: “Overall, 15–20 percent of children examined suffer from malnutrition. This is a very high percentage, exceeding the famine threshold.”
“This means thousands of children are in urgent need of treatment, and that massive amounts of food and clean water must be delivered to Gaza immediately,” she continued.
“If the situation does not change, more children in Gaza will face the risk of dying from hunger.”
She reported that more than 110 children have died so far from malnutrition, nearly half of them in this year alone.
She stressed that these deaths are “man-made” and entirely preventable.
Ingram underlined that children are in desperate need of food, water, and medicine, emphasizing that hundreds of aid trucks must enter Gaza daily to meet basic needs—“but that is not happening yet.”
Israel has imposed a blockade on the Gaza Strip for 18 years, leaving around 1.5 million Palestinians out of 2.4 million without shelter after their homes were destroyed in what has been described as a genocidal war.
Since March 2, Israel has closed all crossings into Gaza, barring the entry of food, medicine, and humanitarian aid, plunging the Strip into famine despite aid trucks piling up at its borders.
Israel occasionally allows in very limited quantities of aid, insufficient to meet even minimal needs, while many trucks are looted by gangs that, according to Gaza’s authorities, operate under Israeli protection.
With U.S. support, Israel has waged a war of extermination on Gaza since October 7, 2023, killing 64,368 Palestinians and injuring 162,367, most of them women and children, with over 9,000 missing, hundreds of thousands displaced, and famine claiming the lives of 382 Palestinians, including 135 children.
--(Agencies)
