Senior managers of the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) interviewed at the headquarters of this multilateral institution in Rome estimate that hundreds of thousands of Palestinians trapped in the Gaza Strip and deprived of food and water are at immediate risk of dying from starvation and malnutrition.
According to the latest FAO data, which quantify the situation as of February 7, more than half a million people - 25% of the population of Gaza - will have been included in the fifth and most serious category of the classification of food security, defined as "catastrophic and famine".
"When people are classified as IPC five [the organization's food security scale], there is what we call excess mortality and acute malnutrition," said Rein Paulsen, director of the emergency office of the FAO in an interview on Thursday.
Due to the de facto Israeli blockade on food entry imposed after Hamas's attack on Israel on October 7, "every day that passes, the situation becomes more serious," warns Paulsen. "If there is no change in these circumstances, there will be deaths related to hunger." Máximo Torero, chief economist of the FAO, is even more angry in another interview conducted at the headquarters of the main agency to fight hunger of the United Nations. "If you are in category 5, you will die," he says.
Another 1.2 million Palestinians will be in category 4 this week - equivalent to a critical state of food insecurity -, according to the FAO forecast. Given the near impossibility of obtaining enough food, "it's only a matter of days before they also enter category five", warns Torero. "What is unprecedented about the crisis in Gaza is the speed of change," said Torero.
The ranking used by the FAO to coordinate the fight against hunger on a global scale includes three categories considered to be serious. "Category three is crisis, four is emergency, and five is catastrophe and famine," says Beth Bechdol, deputy director general of the FAO. "The entire population of Gaza - more than two million people - is already in one of these three categories and a growing number are moving to category 5. We had never seen this in any country," adds Bechdol.
If the Israeli blockade is not lifted, which some analysts consider a flagrant violation of international law, "hundreds of thousands of people will die", warns Torero. Hence the sense of alarm that is felt in every department of the FAO. Given the high percentage of minors in the population of Gaza and the susceptibility of this group to lethal malnutrition, this is a new phase of the great period of deprivation and suffering that began four months ago with the first Israeli bombings against Gaza, which has already accumulated a balance of more than 27,000 dead, half of them children.
The shortage of proteins is already critical for the entire population, warns Paulsen. Access to milk is vitally important for a child suffering from malnutrition. (...) Keeping livestock alive as a means for households to have access to milk is a high priority," he says.
Before the Israeli bombings, FAO managed to coordinate the delivery of feed for livestock and poultry, in order to increase the capacity of the inhabitants of Gaza to produce their own food to combat dependence on Israel. "Sheep, goats, cows, chickens and other birds are crucial," says Paulsen. FAO also provided support for vegetable garden production to facilitate the strip's self-sufficiency in vegetables and fruit.
But since the attack by Hamas on October 7, Israel has blocked the entry into Gaza not only of the food that directly supplies the inhabitants of the strip but also of their animals. As a result of the bombing and the lack of food, "up to 50% of the cattle have died", says Paulsen. This has immediately exacerbated the danger of starvation for the human population.
There is still time to prevent a second human catastrophe: "A significant amount of animals are still alive. Keeping them alive, by sending animal fodder, is an essential priority for the survival of 80,000 people", Paulsen calculates. "It is essential that this fodder comes in for the animals", he adds.
