UNICEF warns of “very high" risk of famine in Gaza

By Joseph Tulloch

UNICEF, the United Nations agency responsible for providing aid to children worldwide, has warned that the risk of famine in Gaza is “very high”.

In statement released on Friday, the agency noted that one in four households in the Gaza Strip, or more than half a million people, are facing “catastrophic levels of acute food insecurity, the highest level of warning.”

Food and health systems facing collapse

The statement adds that nearly 1.2 million people are experiencing “emergency levels of acute food insecurity”.

UNICEF says that in the coming weeks at least 10,000 children under the age of five will suffer from the “severe wasting”,  the most deadly form of malnutrition.

This crisis, the agency says, comes at a time when Gaza's "food and health systems are facing complete collapse” - more than 80 per cent of young children are experiencing severe food poverty, and more than two thirds of hospitals are no longer functioning.

UNICEF also expressed its “particular concern” over the nutrition of more than 155,000 pregnant women and breastfeeding mothers, as well as more than 135,000 children under the age of two.

Call for immediate ceasefire

The UN agency notes that “these conditions do not have to persist”. The crisis, it says, can still be averted if an immediate and long-lasting humanitarian ceasefire is instituted, critical infrastructure restored and an immediate commitment made to respect international humanitarian law.

Pope Francis has been calling for a humanitarian ceasefire in Gaza since 29th October.

On that day, he quoted the Egyptian Franciscan Fr Ibrahim Faltas, the Vicar of the Custody of the Holy Land, who had appeared on Italian television to describe the situation in Gaza.

“"We too, like Father Ibrahim, say cease fire", the Pope said. “Stop, brothers and sisters: War is always a defeat—always, always!"