ROME, March 19 — Half of Gazans are experiencing “catastrophic” hunger, with famine projected to hit the north of the territory by May unless there is urgent intervention, a United Nations-backed food security assessment warned yesterday.
“To have 50 per cent of an entire population in catastrophic, near-famine levels, is unprecedented,” Beth Bechdol, deputy director general of the UN’s Food and Agriculture Organisation , told AFP.The WFP said this was the “highest number of people ever recorded as facing catastrophic hunger” under the IPC system, originally developed in 2004.
US State Department spokesman Vedant Patel said the findings were “alarming”, and revealed a “heart wrenching” picture of “children who are starving”. The IPC said Monday that while the technical criteria for famine had not yet been met, “all evidence points towards a major acceleration of deaths and malnutrition”.“Hunger is a slow and painful death,” said Hiba Tibi, country director for the CARE international aid group, who reported aid workers seeing children “who can barely talk and walk” for lack of food.
According to the WFP, “one in three children below the age of two is now acutely malnourished, or ‘wasted’”, meaning they are dangerously thin.
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