Israeli government spokesperson David Mencer and Israeli Foreign Minister Gideon Saar denied claims from the Integrated Food Security Phase Classification that the entire population of Gaza is at risk of famine. Israel imposed a humanitarian blockade on Gaza on March 2, cutting off food, medical supplies. Families in Gaza are starving while the food they need is sitting at the border.
GAZA CITY MAY 14: Israeli government spokesperson David Mencer, and also Israel’s Foreign Minister Gideon Saar has expressed the same opinion, denied claims from the Integrated Food Security Phase Classification that the entire population of Gaza is at risk of famine. One in five people in the Gaza Strip are facing starvation as the entire territory edges closer to famine, a new United Nations-backed report warns.
Israel imposed a humanitarian blockade on Gaza on March 2, cutting off food, medical supplies, and other aid to the more than 2 million Palestinians who live in the territory. David Mencer, a spokesperson for Benjamin Netanyahu, said Monday that “famine has never happened” in Gaza,
“Families in Gaza are starving while the food they need is sitting at the border. We can’t get it to them because of the renewed conflict and the total ban on humanitarian aid imposed in early March,” said the UN World Food Programme’s Executive Director Cindy McCain. “It’s imperative that the international community acts urgently to get aid flowing into Gaza again. If we wait until after a famine is confirmed, it will already be too late for many people.”
The vast majority of children in Gaza are facing extreme food deprivation as confirmed by 17 UN agencies and NGOs in the IPC report. Coupled with the severely limited access to health services and critical shortages of clean water and sanitation, rapid increases in acute malnutrition are expected in North Gaza, Gaza and Rafah governorates.
Israeli Foreign Minister Gideon Saar dismissed claims of famine in Gaza during a press conference at the Japan National Press Club in Tokyo on Wednesday, saying “there is no famine in the Gaza Strip, it is simply not true”. He argued that Israel continues to monitor the situation and facilitate humanitarian aid but insisted that assistance must not reach Hamas as “aid cannot feed the war machine”.
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Featured Image: © WFP/Ali Jadallah
