XPost: uk.legal, soc.culture.jewish, alt.news-media   
   XPost: alt.politics.democrats, alt.atheism   
   From: void@invalid.noy   
      
   Nearly all of Gaza’s population is struggling with food shortages and   
   hunger, and half a million people are now facing starvation, a new   
   report by independent experts says.   
      
   The report by the Integrated Food Security Phase Classification, or   
   I.P.C., says in order to buy food, more than half of households in   
   Gaza have had to exchange clothes and other goods for money. A third   
   have resorted to picking up trash to sell. The report says many in   
   Gaza go entire days and nights without eating.   
      
   The analysis was conducted by 35 experts, some from U.N. agencies and   
   major aid groups. The I.P.C. was founded two decades ago to address   
   famine in Somalia at the time.   
      
   The I.P.C.report says more than 340,000 Palestinians in Gaza are   
   experiencing the most severe form of acute food insecurity and   
   starvation, or what is classified as “catastrophe,” a category just   
   short of famine. That number is expected to climb to 495,000 people   
   over the coming three months, the study says. The report team used   
   publicly available data as well as phone surveys to reach people in   
   Gaza.   
      
   Israel declared a siege on Gaza after the Hamas-led attacks on Oct. 7   
   that killed 1,200 and took around 250 hostages, according to the   
   government figures. Israeli airstrikes, shelling and violence in Gaza   
   since then has killed more than 37,000 Palestinians, including   
   thousands of children, according to Gaza’s Health Ministry. It has not   
   kept a tally of the missing or additional deaths from preventable   
   disease, malnutrition and other consequences of war.   
      
   Israel has since restricted everything that enters while stating it   
   has no official policy limiting aid. The government insists it has   
   facilitated the entry of aid by land, air and sea, but some human   
   rights organizations and the top prosecutor for the International   
   Criminal Court allege Israeli leaders are using starvation as a weapon   
   of war against civilians in Gaza, allegations they deny.   
      
   A previous I.P.C report in March warned of looming famine in north   
   Gaza unless more aid was allowed in. The Health Ministry in Gaza and   
   doctors reported babies dying in hospitals without formula or breast   
   milk from malnourished mothers in Gaza City.   
      
   Facing international pressure and demands by the Biden administration   
   to get more aid into Gaza, Israel opened a land crossing for aid to   
   enter the north in recent months. More aid overall reached the Gaza   
   Strip in March and April.   
      
   This appears to have “temporarily alleviated” conditions in north   
   Gaza, the I.P.C. study says, adding that the “available evidence does   
   not indicate that famine is currently occurring.”   
      
   The study, however, says that due to worsening conditions since May in   
   southern and central Gaza, there is a high risk of famine now across   
   all of Gaza. Humanitarian aid has slowed into Gaza since Israel’s   
   assault on the southern city of Rafah last month.   
      
   “The prolonged nature of the crisis means that this risk remains at   
   least as high as at any time during the past few months,” according to   
   the report from the I.P.C’s Famine Review Committeem,which added that   
   “extreme human suffering is without a doubt currently ongoing in the   
   Gaza Strip.”   
      
   Bombings and displacement hamper access to aid   
      
   In early May, Israeli tanks effectively shut the Gaza border in Rafah   
   with Egypt, where aid and fuel had been entering. Fighting between the   
   Israeli military and Hamas in Rafah also made it dangerous and   
   difficult for aid organizations to reach their warehouses there or   
   collect aid that entered Gaza at the southern crossing with Israel.   
   Aid groups told NPR at the time they were rationing food supplies to   
   distribute while tens of thousands more people needed hot meals.   
      
   “Renewed hostilities and repeated displacementcontinue to erode   
   people’s ability to cope and access humanitarian assistance,” the   
   I.P.C. report notes.   
      
   Aid groups react to the report   
      
   The World Food Programme, which distributes food in Gaza, says the   
   I.P.C. report paints a stark picture of ongoing hunger in the   
   Palestinian territory. The agency says in order to prevent famine,   
   people need to be able to have access to the nutrients found in fresh   
   food, clean water and functioning hospitals. Currently, people are   
   largely living off canned food and bread.   
      
   Israel blames Hamas for siphoning off aid that enters, something the   
   group denies. Israel has also blamed U.N. agencies and aid groups for   
   not distributing effectively the humanitarian assistance that does   
   enter.   
      
   Humanitarian workers have beenkilled in Israeli airstrikes and aid   
   groups say their trucks are being looted amid widespread hunger and   
   lawlessness. The Israeli military has targeted local clans and police   
   securing the aid.   
      
   Mercy Corps, an aid organization working in Gaza, says Israel is   
   allowing commercial trucks passage into the territory while the entry   
   of humanitarian aid trucks people depend on is limited. They say aid   
   is trickling in.   
      
   “People are enduring subhuman conditions, resorting to desperate   
   measures like boiling weeds, eating animal feed, and exchanging   
   clothes for money to stave off hunger and keep their children alive,”   
   Mercy Corp vice president of global policy and advocacy, Kate   
   Phillips-Barrasso said in a statement.   
      
   “The population cannot endure these hardships any longer. The toll of   
   military action has been far too high,” she added.   
      
   It’s not just food that’s lacking in Gaza   
      
   Hospitals, bakeries, ambulances and telecommunications systems are all   
   running on limited fuel due to unstable supplies entering Gaza.   
      
   The amount of medical aid crossing into Gaza is also insufficient,   
   according to the World Health Organization.   
      
   A surgeon in Gaza City with Project Hope, Dr. Osama Hamed, said in a   
   statement that he treated a 13-year-old boy last week with a vascular   
   and ureteral injury, but the hospital lacked the sutures needed to   
   operate. A staffer had to physically run to a nearby hospital to get   
   the last box they had, he says.   
      
   Dr. Hamed says doctors are also seeing malnourished children daily in   
   Gaza City. NPR has previously reported on malnourished children dying   
   in central Gaza as the health-care system collapses.   
      
   “We see patients who are just skin and bones, as a sign of severe   
   malnutrition,” he observed. “Patients have reported not eating any   
   protein for several months, making it impossible for their bodies to   
   recover from infections and injuries.”   
      
   Additionally, there isn’t enough drinking water in Gaza. “The other   
   day, a young girl was admitted to the operating room and begged me for   
   water,” he says.   
      
      
   [continued in next message]   
      
   --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05   
    * Origin: you cannot sedate... all the things you hate (1:229/2)