GAZA, (PIC)
The Palestine Red Crescent Society (PRCS) has said that thousands of Gaza citizens are facing an imminent famine, calling for urgently opening the border crossings and allowing aid to flow into all areas of the war-torn coastal enclave.
In a statement on Wednesday, the Red Crescent said that the airdropped aid is not enough to reduce the high hunger levels among the population in Gaza.
RPCS affirmed that the Israeli army continues to target aid convoys and relief workers in Gaza.
A UN-backed group of experts said on Tuesday that the threat of famine in the Gaza Strip was revived after Israel’s military operation in the southern area of Rafah disrupted aid deliveries, leaving more than 500,000 Palestinians on the brink of starvation.
Palestinians throughout the Strip are now facing a “plausible” risk of famine in the coming months, according to the latest UN-partnered Integrated Food Security Phase Classification (IPC) analysis.
“A high risk of Famine persists as long as conflict continues, and humanitarian access is restricted,” the IPC report on hunger levels said.
IPC, an internationally recognized assessment method, uses a five-point scale to classify food insecurity. The highest is Phase 5: Catastrophe or Famine.
Phase 5 means people experience an extreme lack of food, starvation and exhaustion of coping capacities leading to malnutrition and mortality. Coping strategies include skipping meals, picking up trash to sell or exchanging clothes for money — something that more than half of the households in Gaza were forced to do in the past months in order to buy food, according to IPC.
