World Health Organisation chief says Gaza is suffering ‘man-made mass starvation’

The chief of the World Health Organisation made the damning indictment as international criticism of Israel’s role in the chronic food shortages grows.

WARNING: Distressing content

Gaza is suffering “man-made mass starvation” caused by the blockade of aid, the head of the World Health Organisation has said, as Israel hits back at growing international criticism that it was behind chronic food shortages in the territory.

“I don’t know what you would call it other than mass starvation, and it’s man-made, and that’s very clear,” Tedros Adhanom Ghebreysus told reporters during a virtual press conference from Geneva. “This is because of (the) blockade.”

At least 10 people have died due to malnutrition and starvation in the last 24 hours, Gazan authorities report, bringing the death toll caused by the crisis to 111, 80 of them children. A quarter of the territory’s population is now facing famine-like conditions, according to World Health Organisation (WHO) assessments, and close to 100,000 women and children are experiencing severe acute malnutrition.

“Rates of acute malnutrition exceed 10 per cent, and over 20 per cent of pregnant and breastfeeding women that have been screened are malnourished, often severely,” Dr Ghebreysus said.

“The hunger crisis is being accelerated by the collapse of aid pipelines and restrictions on access (with) 95 per cent of households in Gaza facing severe water shortages.”

Naeema, a 30-year-old Palestinian mother, carries her malnourished son Yazan as they stand in their damaged home in the Al-Shati refugee camp, west of Gaza City. Picture: Omar Al-Qattaa/AFP

Human rights groups have warned that ‘mass starvation’ is spreading through the territory. Picture: Omar Al-Qattaa/AFP

His comments followed a letter signed by 109 global aid and human rights agencies – including Doctors Without Borders, Oxfam International and Amnesty International – warned that civilians and their colleagues are “wasting away”.

“As the Israeli government’s siege starves the people of Gaza, aid workers are now joining the same food lines, risking being shot just to feed their families,” the statement read.

“With supplies now totally depleted, humanitarian organisations are witnessing their own colleagues and partners waste away before their eyes.”

Getting vital aid into Gaza and to the more than two million people who need it has become a key issue in the conflict. A total blockade of aid delivery to the territory – imposed by Israel in early March – was eased in May, and the longstanding United Nations-led system was sidelined for the US and Israel-backed Gaza Humanitarian Foundation (GHF).

Two months later, however, Gaza’s population is still suffering extreme scarcities.

In their statement, the humanitarian organisations said that warehouses with tonnes of supplies were sitting untouched inside and outside Gaza, while people were “trapped in a cycle of hope and heartbreak, waiting for assistance and ceasefires”.

“It is not just physical torment but psychological. Survival is dangled like a mirage,” they said.

“An aid worker providing psychological support spoke of the devastating impact on children: ‘Children tell their parents they want to go to heaven, because at least heaven has food’.”

Palestinians, mostly children, push to receive a hot meal at a charity kitchen in the Mawasi area of Khan Yunis in the southern Gaza Strip. Picture: AFP

According to the UN, more than 1050 Palestinians have been killed trying to get food since May 27.

“In too many cases where UN teams are permitted by Israel to collect supplies from closed compounds near Gaza’s crossings, civilians approaching these trucks come under fire despite repeated assurances that troops would not engage or be present,” UN spokesperson Stéphane Dujarric said at briefing earlier this week.

“This cannot be stressed enough that this unacceptable pattern is the opposite of what facilitating humanitarian operations should look like. Absolutely no one should have to risk to their lives to get food.”

Israel acting ‘according to international law’

Israeli government spokesperson David Mencer denied the humanitarian organisations’ statement, accusing them of “serving the propaganda of Hamas, using their numbers and justifying their horrors”.

There was “no famine caused by Israel”, Mr Mencer said, but “a man-made shortage engineered by Hamas”. The extremist group, he said, was preventing supplies from being distributed and looting aid for themselves or to sell at inflated prices.

“Aid has been flowing into Gaza,” Mr Mencer said.

He also blamed the UN and its associates for failing to pick up truckloads of foodstuffs and other essentials cleared and waiting on the Gaza side of the border.

The bodies of Palestinians who were killed while attempting to access aid trucks entering northern Gaza through the Zikim crossing with Israel are brought to a clinic in Gaza City. Picture: AP Photo/Jehad Alshrafi

GHF said the UN, which refuses to work with it over neutrality concerns, “has a capacity and operational problem” and called for “more collaboration” to deliver lifesaving aid.

The Coordination of Government Activities in the Territories (COGAT), an Israeli defence ministry body overseeing civil affairs in the Palestinian territories, said the “main obstacle to maintaining a consistent flow of humanitarian aid” was a “collection bottleneck” blamed on international organisations.

While visiting IDF troops in Gaza, President Isaac Herzog similarly maintained his government was acting “according to international law” while Hamas was “trying to sabotage” aid distribution in a bid to obstruct the Israeli military campaign that began more than 21 months ago.

Mediators have been shuttling between Israeli and Hamas negotiators in Doha since July 6 in search of an elusive truce, with each side blaming the other for refusing to budge on their key demands.