Gaza famine warning as Israel resists ceasefire calls

Gaza famine warning as Israel resists ceasefire calls

Miltary transport planes from Jordan and the the United Arab Emirates have begun to drop food pallets into Gaza, but the bulk of the aid effort will have to be carried by trucks

Gaza is slipping into famine, UN agencies warned on Tuesday, as the health ministry in the Hamas-run territory said the Palestinian death toll in the nearly 22-month war had topped 60,000.

The World Food Programme, UNICEF and the Food and Agriculture Organisation warned that time was running out and that Gaza was "on the brink of a full-scale famine".

"We need to flood Gaza with large-scale food aid, immediately and without obstruction, and keep it flowing each and every day to prevent mass starvation," WFP executive director Cindy McCain said in a joint statement from the agencies.  

This week, Israel launched daily pauses in its military operations in some parts of Gaza and opened secure routes to enable UN agencies and other aid groups to distribute food in the densely populated territory of more than two million. 

However, Israeli strikes continued overnight, killing 30 people in the Nuseirat refugee camp, according to Gaza's civil defence agency -- and experts warn a humanitarian catastrophe of historic proportions is imminent.

"The worst-case scenario of famine is now unfolding in the Gaza Strip," said the Integrated Food Security Phase Classification Initiative (IPC), a group of monitors who advise the United Nations on impending crises. 

The IPC stopped short of declaring a state of famine, but made clear the situation is critical.

- Urgent action now -

Britain, France and Germany could send their foreign ministers to Israel next week, German Chancellor Friedrich Merz said, adding: "We assume that the Israeli government is willing to acknowledge that something must be done now." 

In a statement released ahead of the IPC report, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's office accused Hamas of distorting casualty figures and of looting food intended for civilians.

"While the situation in Gaza is difficult and Israel has been working to ensure aid delivery, Hamas benefits from attempting to fuel the perception of a humanitarian crisis," his office said.

"We already allow significant amounts of humanitarian aid into Gaza every single day, including food, water and medicine. Unfortunately, Hamas... has been stealing aid from the Gaza population, many times by shooting Palestinians."

Israel's international isolation increased Tuesday, when Britain joined France in proposing to recognise a Palestinian state as early as September. 

"I have always said that we will recognise a Palestinian state as a contribution to a proper peace process at the moment of maximum impact for the two-state solution," Prime Minister Keir Starmer said.

"With that solution now under threat, this is the moment to act."

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, a frequent critic of Israel, accused Netanyahu's government of using "hunger as a weapon" against the Palestinians.  

Israel imposed a total blockade on Gaza on March 2 after ceasefire talks broke down. In late May, it began allowing a small trickle of aid to resume, amid warnings of a wave of starvation.

Then on Sunday, faced with mounting international criticism, Israel began a series of "tactical pauses" while allowing aid trucks to pass through two border crossings into Gaza, and Jordanian and Emirati planes to conduct airdrops.

Deliveries have been ramped up, but the IPC said this effort would not prove enough unless aid agencies were granted "immediate, unimpeded" humanitarian access.

"Failure to act now will result in widespread death in much of the Strip," it said, adding that 16 children under the age of five had died of hunger since July 17.

"Mounting evidence shows that widespread starvation, malnutrition and disease are driving a rise in hunger-related deaths," it said.

According to Netanyahu's office, the pause in military operations covers "key populated areas" between 10:00 am (0700 GMT) and 8:00 pm every day. Designated aid convoy routes will be secure from 6:00 am to 11:00 pm.

COGAT, an Israeli defence ministry body in charge of civil affairs in the Palestinian territories, said more than 200 truckloads of aid were distributed on Monday.

- Air strikes -

Another 260 trucks were permitted to cross into Gaza to deposit aid at collection points, four UN tankers brought in fuel and 20 pallets of aid were airdropped from Jordanian and Emirati planes, COGAT said.

Gaza's civil defence agency said that Israeli air strikes killed at least 30 Palestinians, including women and children, in the central Nuseirat district.

An Israeli military spokesman told AFP that he would need more information to enable him to look into the strikes.

The Hamas-run health ministry said Israel's campaign in Gaza had now killed 60,034 people, the majority civilians.

The war was sparked by Hamas's October 2023 attack on Israel, which resulted in the deaths of 1,219 people, the majority civilians, based on an AFP tally of official figures.

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Originally published as Gaza famine warning as Israel resists ceasefire calls