Famine Aid groups warn of 'man-made starvation'

Famine is imminent in northern Gaza and people are suffering "catastrophic levels of hunger", a coalition of aid groups warned yesterday.

- Ruth Michaelson

The situation was described as "man-made starvation", as the Integrated Food Security Phase Classification (IPC), a group that includes the World Food Programme and the World Health Organization, said 1.1 million people, half of Gaza's population, faced famine.

The head of Unrwa, the UN's agency for Palestinian refugees, said he had been denied entry to Gaza where he was due to work on improving the humanitarian response.

Philippe Lazzarini said the Israeli authorities had prevented him from entering Gaza yesterday. Unrwa, the largest aid organisation working in Gaza, is coordinating aid trucks entering via the Rafah and Kerem Shalom crossings.

"This man-made starvation under our watch is a stain on our collective humanity," Lazzarini wrote on X. "Too much time was wasted, all land crossings must open now. Famine can be averted with political will." Also yesterday, Oxfam said Israeli authorities were preventing "a warehouse full of international aid" from reaching the territory.

Israel has asked the international court of justice (ICJ) not to issue emergency orders for it to step up humanitarian aid to Gaza to address the looming famine, dismissing South Africa's request that it do so as "morally repugnant".