Food authority declares famine in Gaza City ahead of Israel push
發佈日期: 2025-08-23 20:47
TVB News
The world's leading authority on food security has declared famine on the Gaza Strip's largest city.
In a tented refugee camp in Gaza City, Palestinians are without food and being displaced again ahead of Israel's renewed military push.
Camp resident Rabiha Abu Odeh says death is better than displacement. They are unable to move, unable to walk because of a lack of food, asking "why are they doing this to us?"
The United Nations has for months been warning that the enclave faces imminent famine.
According to the Integrated Food Security Phase Classification, or IPC, the world's top authority on food security made up of 21 international agencies, famine is official in Gaza City and likely to spread.
"Be in no doubt that this is irrefutable testimony," said U.N. Relief Chief Tom Fletcher. "It is a famine, the Gaza famine. It is a famine that we could have prevented if we had been allowed. Yet, food stacks up at borders because of systematic obstruction by Israel. It is a famine within a few 100 metres of food, in a fertile land. It is a predictable and a preventable famine, a famine caused by cruelty, justified by revenge, enabled by indifference and sustained by complicity. It is a famine that must spur the world to more urgent action, that must shame the world to do better."
The IPC says three conditions must exist for a famine to be declared: extreme lack of food, acute malnutrition or wasting, and daily deaths from starvation.
Officials say more than 270 starvation-related deaths have been recorded in Gaza in recent weeks, with more than half a million people under threat.
Israel has increasingly come under fire from countries, including allies, for the lack of food entering Gaza.
While thousands of trucks with humanitarian aid wait at the borders, agencies say Israel restricts entry and fails to provide security from criminal gangs.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanhayu said on social media that the IPC report is an outright lie, promoted by Hamas and that Israel does not have a policy of starvation.
Israel has allowed aid drops but agencies say they are ineffective and have even resulted in Palestinians being killed by falling pallets.
