Mothers and children are starving in gaza says un food agency chief

Mothers and children are starving in gaza says un food agency chief

Cindy McCain says there isn’t enough food in the territory and that she spoke with Netanyahu about the urgent need for more aid; Israeli military declares Gaza City is now ‘a dangerous combat zone’, and suspends mid-day pauses to fighting.

The head of the UN food agency said on Thursday it was “very evident” during her visit to Gaza this week that there isn’t enough food in the Palestinian territory and that she spoke with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu about the urgent need for more aid.

The world’s leading authority on food crises said last week the Gaza Strip’s largest city is gripped by famine, and that it was likely to spread across the territory without a ceasefire and an end to restrictions on humanitarian aid.

Cindy McCain, the World Food Program’s executive director, said starvation was under way in Gaza. “I personally met mothers and children who were starving in Gaza,” she said. “It is real and it is happening now.”

Mr. Netanyahu, she said, was “obviously very concerned that people aren’t getting enough food”. In the past, he has denied that there is famine in Gaza and said the claims about starvation are a propaganda campaign launched by Hamas. “We agreed that we must immediately redouble our efforts to get more humanitarian aid in. Access and security for our convoys is critical,” Ms. McCain said.

Global pressure

The famine declaration has increased international pressure on Israel, which has been fighting Hamas since the militant group’s deadly October 7, 2023, attack. Israel now says it plans to seize Gaza City and other Hamas strongholds, and there have been no public signs of progress on recent efforts for a ceasefire.

Israel rejects the declaration — issued by the authority on food crises known as the Integrated Food Security Phase Classification, or IPC — and on Wednesday asked for a formal retraction.

The Israeli military agency in charge of transferring aid to the territory, known as COGAT, said Thursday that more than 300 humanitarian aid trucks enter Gaza every day, most of them carrying food. But aid groups say it’s not nearly enough.

Ms. McCain spent most of Tuesday on a tour of Gaza speaking to displaced families living in tents and facing hunger.

“I got to meet a family who had come from the North, there were 11 of them, and they’d come from the North and they literally had not had enough food at all and they still don’t have enough food,” she said.

Ms. McCain said her programme is getting more food in to Gaza, but said a surge in food supplies was needed.

U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said famine in Gaza is “a present-day catastrophe” and the start of expanded Israeli military operations present “a new and dangerous phase.”

He said it will have “devastating consequences” and force hundreds of thousands of traumatised civilians to flee again.

Meanwhile, Israel’s military said Gaza City is now a dangerous combat zone, adding that it is in the “initial stages” of the planned offensive.

The military said it suspended midday pauses to fighting, which had allowed food and aid supplies to enter from 10 a.m. to 8 p.m. in Gaza’s largest city.

It also said it had recovered the body of a hostage and the remains of another, and vowed its military offensive would return more.

The Health Ministry in Gaza said five people have died from starvation and malnutrition over the past 24 hours. That raises the total number of deaths from such causes to 322, including 121 children.