famine in palestine – Artifex.News

Children are dying in clinics from starvation in Gaza: WFP’s Carl Skau

admin — Mon, 25 Aug 2025 17:10:00 +0000

Carl Skau, Deputy Executive Director and Chief Operating Officer of the World Food Programme (WFP) in New Delhi on August 25, 2025.
| Photo Credit: Shashi Shekhar Kashyap

With the The Integrated Food Security Phase Classification (IPC), the institute that assess food insecurity, officially declaring famine in Gaza, the situation in the region is desperate and difficult, said Carl Skau, Deputy Executive Director of World Food Programme (WFP), in an interview to The Hindu in New Delhion Monday (August 25, 2025). Mr. Skau said there is international pressure on Israel to allow trucks carrying food to enter Gaza and the WFP is in constant touch with the Israeli Government.

A Palestinian children wait at a community kitchen before donated food is prepared and distributed in Gaza City, on August 22, 2025.
| Photo Credit:
AP

Mr. Skau, who visited the region recently, said malnutrition rates among children are spiking, and children and mothers are dying in clinics for starvation. “Right now, the situation is worse than we have ever seen it,” he said adding that the WFP has enough food on the borders to assist the entire population for over two months. “We have the capacity, the systems, the know-how to roll it out,” he said pointing that ceasefire is the only way to turn the disaster around. “We are in daily engagement with the Israeli authorities. At this point, approximately 60 to 100 trucks per day are entering, but that’s a drop in the ocean. We are talking about 2.1 million people. This is not a normal humanitarian situation. To reach 2.1 million people, you need at least 600-700 trucks per day and you need commercial sector to be able to bring in fruit and vegetables to broaden the intake of food to really be able to turn this trajectory of famine around,” he said.

Editorial | Man-made famine: On the state of Gaza

Mr. Skau said the current trade war is a big concern as it is driving up prices, also for WFP’s supply chain activities. “We have seen a three fold increase in the number of acutely food insecure over the past five years. This year, we estimate around 320 million acutely food insecure, and at the same time, the funding is coming down. During the start of the Ukraine war and the pandemic, there were generous contributions to deal with the international ramifications. But right now, the resources available for any international work is coming down. For us at WFP, it’s around 40% less this year than last year,” he said.

He said Sudan is the largest hunger crisis that the WFP has seen in decades, since the end of the 1980s in Ethiopia. “About 25 million people who are acutely food insecure, almost 10 million of those in the high category where you’re basically not eating every day. And we have 10 pockets of Sudan now where famine has been confirmed. That is dramatic,” he said.

Displaced Palestinian man Tayseer Obaid, who lives in a tent with his wife and eight children and has documented his struggle to obtain food and aid amid a hunger crisis, eats with his children outside their tent, in Deir al-Balah in the central Gaza Strip, on August 7, 2025.
| Photo Credit:
Reuters

Mr. Skau said in the situation in Myanmar is deteriorating and the WFP is estimating that around 10 million people are acutely food insecure. “We are reaching only, maybe between 10 to 20%, of the people that we would need to be reaching. Another challenge for us in Myanmar is that many of the hungry are in areas that are not fully controlled by government forces and here we have access challenges,” he said. In Afghanistan, where, WFP was assisting 10 million people two years ago, it is hard to reach two million people because of the funding cuts. On the Rohingya refugees in Bangladesh, he said about a million people are arriving the country from because of the intensified conflict. “We have money now until November this year, but there are no indications on new money following that,” he said.

He added that the WFP is are far behind on the goal of zero hunger by 2030. “We are struggling. If anything, we are moved in the wrong direction over the past five years, but we continue to be determined. From WFP’s point of view, we’re doing everything we can — to be the voice for the hungry, to bring global attention to food security and we mobilise resources beyond our traditional resources,” he said adding that WFP needs partnerships. He said India can add its capacity and resources to the international efforts of dealing with food insecurity. “India is also a source of inspiration. There are many impressive and successful initiatives that have been taken here to deal with domestic issues around malnutrition those we want to tap into and draw as lessons that the rest of the world can use as they also deal with their food security challenges,” he said.

He was confident that India has the capacities necessary to deal with the issue of low ranking in global hunger index and the problem of nutritional insecurity. “The government has a plan and a vision to do so. I think it is also inspiring as I said to see the trajectory of India having gone from a country where we were assisting basically with food to a country now who has its surplus and we are discussing on how India can help other countries. But correctly there are still gaps and challenges that needs to be addressed,” he added.

Published – August 25, 2025 10:40 pm IST

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Israel may be using starvation as ‘weapon of war’: U.N.

admin — Tue, 19 Mar 2024 17:16:01 +0000

Palestinians gather to receive free food as Gaza residents face crisis levels of hunger, during the holy month of Ramadan, amid the ongoing conflict between Israel and Hamas, in Jabalia in the northern Gaza Strip March 19, 2024.
| Photo Credit: Reuters

The U.N. said on March 19 that Israel’s severe restrictions on aid into war-ravaged Gaza coupled with its military offensive could amount to using starvation as a “weapon of war”, which would be a “war crime”.

United Nations human rights chief Volker Turk denounced the rampant hunger and looming famine in Gaza.

In a statement slammed by Israel, Mr. Turk said that “the situation of hunger, starvation and famine is a result of Israel’s extensive restrictions on the entry and distribution of humanitarian aid and commercial goods”.

It was also linked to the “displacement of most of the population, as well as the destruction of crucial civilian infrastructure”, he said.

“The extent of Israel’s continued restrictions on the entry of aid into Gaza, together with the manner in which it continues to conduct hostilities, may amount to the use of starvation as a method of war, which is a war crime.”

His spokesman, Jeremy Laurence, told reporters in Geneva that the final determination of whether “starvation is being used as a weapon of war” would be determined by a court.

Imminent famine

The comments came after a U.N.-backed food security assessment determined that the war-torn Palestinian territory is facing imminent famine.

The devastating war since Hamas’s October 7 attack on Israel has left roughly half of Gazans — around 1.1 million people — experiencing “catastrophic” hunger, the assessment warned.

Without a surge of aid, famine would hit the 300,000 people in Gaza’s war-battered north by May, it said.

The finding comes just over five months into the Gaza war, which erupted after Hamas’s unprecedented October 7 that killed about 1,160 people in Israel, mostly civilians, according to an AFP tally of Israeli official figures.

Militants also seized about 250 hostages, of whom Israel believes 130 remain in Gaza, including 33 who are presumed dead.

Israel’s retaliatory offensive against Hamas has killed more than 31,800 people, most of them women and children, according to Gaza’s Health Ministry.

Jens Laerke, spokesman for the U.N. humanitarian agency OCHA, pointed to the difficulty of clearly determining if the strict criteria have been met to declare a famine.

“The famine thresholds may already be the case in northern Gaza,” he told reporters, highlighting that for weeks people had already been reduced to eating bird seed, animal fodder, wild grass and weeds.

“There is literally nothing left,” he said.

Looking ahead, he warned that without more aid, Gaza could soon be looking at “more than 200 people dying from starvation per day”.

‘Clock is ticking’

Already, health workers are seeing “newborn babies simply dying because their too-low birthweight” and “children that are at the… brink of death through starvation”, World Health Organization spokeswoman Margaret Harris said.

She noted that malnutrition had been basically “non-existant” in Gaza before the war.

The crisis was “entirely manmade”, she said, denouncing the lack of safe access to bring in the aid needed to meet the towering needs.

Mr. Turk said that “the clock is ticking”.

“Everyone, especially those with influence, must insist that Israel acts to facilitate the unimpeded entry and distribution of needed humanitarian assistance and commercial goods to end starvation and avert all risk of famine.”

He demanded “an immediate ceasefire, as well as the unconditional release of Israeli hostages still held in Gaza”.

Israel’s diplomatic mission in Geneva rejected Mr. Turk’s statement, insisting that he was seeking “once again to blame Israel for the situation and completely absolve the responsibility of the U.N. and Hamas”.

“Despite the rockets, the holding of our hostages, the acts of pure evil on October 7, Israel is committed to facilitating humanitarian aid into Gaza,” it said, insisting that “Israel is at war with Hamas, not the Palestinian people”.

The country, it said, was “doing everything it can to flood Gaza with aid, including by land air and sea”.

“The U.N. must also step up.”

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