- After nearly two years of worsening violence and displacement, the latest IPC data released yesterday, 29 July, indicates that famine thresholds have been reached in most of the Gaza Strip.
- Between April and mid-July, more than 20,000 children have suffered from acute malnutrition.
- Hospitals have reported an increase in hunger-related child deaths, with at least 16 deaths since 17 July.
- In July, more than 25% of pregnant and breastfeeding women assessed by Action Against Hunger teams were malnourished, an increase of 16% compared to June.
- Almost 100% of children aged between 6 and 23 months, as well as pregnant and breastfeeding women, are not able to meet their nutritional needs. As a result, 300,000 children under the age of five and 150,000 pregnant and breastfeeding women are in urgent need of nutritional support.
- Nearly 100 Action Against Hunger staff work daily in Gaza to fight malnutrition by providing nutritional supplements, safe drinking water, hygiene promotional activities, and healthcare.
The latest Integrated Food Security Phase Classification (IPC) alert confirms what Action Against Hunger teams in the Gaza Strip have been observing for months: families in Gaza are experiencing, or are on the precipice of, famine. More than 20,000 children have been admitted to hospital for acute malnutrition, and 3,000 of them are in a serious condition. Since 17 July, at least 16 children under the age of five have died from causes directly related to hunger.
“Famine is not just a statistic. It is the result of a slow and painful process that shrinks organs, collapses the immune system and impairs cognitive abilities.
“Every day that passes without full and safe access to food, we are condemning thousands of people to avoidable suffering.”
Following the emergency cabinet meeting on Gaza, the UK must act now to ensure all humanitarian access barriers are lifted, and aid trucks waiting at the borders can enter. Nothing short of this will save lives.
“No new aid delivery model will work, not a dock, not an air drop, not an isolated centre – unless the siege is lifted completely and permanently. Humanitarian access is the problem, not logistics,” says Natalia Anguera.
“The aid that does arrive is insufficient and, in many cases, inadequate: most food requires water and fuel for cooking, resources that are virtually non-existent. In addition, current distribution points are far away, dangerous to reach and operate on a first-come, first-served basis, which excludes the most vulnerable.”
The survival strategies faced by families – which include fasting, diluting meals, rationing bread for children, borrowing, begging and even scavenging through rubbish – are no longer used to ‘stretch’ food, but to increase families’ chances of survival.
Despite facing severe hunger themselves, Action Against Hunger teams continue to respond
Our teams continue to work tirelessly in the Gaza Strip, providing care to thousands of children and women. Nearly 400 children under the age of five are receiving treatment for malnutrition in Action Against Hunger clinics, the highest since the war began and a 700% increase since the resumption of hostilities in March this year.
“The first thing I saw when I entered Gaza was destroyed buildings and areas with no signs of life.
“In the displacement camps, children collected food in silence, avoided eye contact and retreated to their tents, trying to protect what dignity they had left in a situation that had taken so much from them.”
Critical supplies to treat malnutrition, like therapeutic foods, supplements for infants and micronutrients for pregnant women, are extremely scarce, undermining the urgency of allowing food supplies into the Strip.
“A trickle of aid is not enough to sustain a population of two million people who have been on the brink of famine for almost two years,” says Natalia Anguera. “We need all administrative barriers to the import of goods to be removed, all borders to be open and operational, and access to all areas of the Gaza Strip to be allowed.”
Action Against Hunger urgently calls on all parties involved to:
- Secure an immediate and permanent ceasefire and release of hostages.
- Safe, regular and unrestricted access for humanitarian aid at all points across and within the Gaza Strip.
- The full reopening of border crossings and corridors, including the restoration of commercial goods flows.
- The assurance of a humanitarian response system led by the UN and independent organisations.
