A press release published on FAO’s official website states that according to a new report published by the Integrated Food Security Phase Classification (IPC) in a global initiative, this situation will worsen as the conflict in the Middle East continues and Tel Aviv obstructs humanitarian aid.
The new IPC report stated that some 495,000 Palestinians, nearly one-fifth of Gaza’s population, are currently experiencing catastrophic food insecurity (IPC Phase 5), while some 2.15 million people, 96.0 percent of Gaza’s population, are facing acute food insecurity (IPC Phase 3+).
FAO’s Chief Economist Maximo Torero recently said, “We have observed a high risk of famine over the last eight months due to relentless hostilities characterized by bombardment and ground operations, and the limited access to those in need of urgent humanitarian aid, which has had severe impacts on the entire population of Gaza.”
Due to the war, the livelihood of farmers, herders, and fishermen in the Gaza Strip have been significantly impacted, and households with high dependency on agriculture have experienced up to 72.0 percent in income losses.
FAO is scaling up efforts to prepare essential food production inputs for transportation to Gaza once access by Israel is granted.
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