Israel considers allegations regarding UN-backed report on famine in Gaza to be “unfounded”
Israel has rejected a UN-backed report that nearly half a million Gaza residents face catastrophic famine, calling the assessment misleading and biased.
According to the Integrated Food Safety Classification Framework (IPC) report, published Tuesday, on which United Nations agencies are based, access to humanitarian aid has helped to avoid the feared famine in the last assessment published in March, but 22% of the population of the territory besieged by Israel still faces a catastrophic food situation.
“This report is very misleading. It is biased”, said Israeli government spokesman David Mencer today, pointing out that it is “based on data from Hamas health institutions”.
The Gaza government, led by Hamas, produces data on the war that Israel disputes, including the death toll, but which is generally reported by international media outlets and humanitarian aid organizations. .
“The allegations regarding hunger (…) in Gaza are unfounded”, added Mencer, considering that “their main objective is, of course, to put pressure on Israel”.
The IPC report states that around 495,000 people in Gaza still face “catastrophic levels of acute food insecurity”.
Furthermore, it mentions 745 thousand people that it considers to be in an emergency situation in terms of food security.
The United Nations World Food Program (WFP) highlighted that the new report painted “a grim picture of persistent hunger”.
“This improvement shows the difference that better access can make. Increased food deliveries to the north and nutrition services have helped reduce the most serious levels of hunger, leaving a situation still desperate”, highlighted the PAM, which fears for the south of the enclave.
“Hostilities in Rafah in May displaced more than a million people and severely limited humanitarian access. Meanwhile, the security vacuum has fostered anarchy and disorder, seriously hampering humanitarian operations rias”, lamented the UN agency.
The IPC is an initiative involving more than 20 partners, including governments, UN agencies and NGOs.
Israel rejected its previous report in March, saying it contained inaccuracies and questionable sources.
The ongoing conflict in the Gaza Strip was triggered by the attack by the Palestinian Islamist group Hamas on Israeli soil on October 7, 2023, which caused around 1,130 deaths and more than two hundred hostages, according to Israeli authorities.
Since then, Tel Aviv has launched an offensive in the Gaza Strip that has so far caused more than 37,000 deaths and more than 85,000 injuries, according to authorities in the Palestinian enclave, controlled by Hamas since 2007.
It is estimated that 10,000 Palestinians remain buried in the rubble after around eight months of war.
The conflict has also caused nearly two million people to be displaced, plunging the overpopulated and poor Palestinian enclave into a serious humanitarian crisis, with more than 1.1 million people in a “situation of catastrophic hunger” that is causing victims – “the highest number ever recorded” by the UN in studies on food security in the world.
