World Health Organization: Gaza Population Facing Starvation

Residents in Gaza are facing starvation and selling their possessions for food while long-needed humanitarian aid is not reaching them, the head of the World Health Organization (WHO), Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, said here on Saturday.

“Hunger is present, and famine is looming in Gaza,” Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus wrote on X (ex-Twitter).

“People are facing starvation and selling their possessions in exchange for food. Parents are going hungry so their children can eat”, he added, “‘this is catastrophic to the health of people across the Strip”.

“4 out of 5 households in northern Gaza, and half of the displaced households in the south, go days and nights without eating . This is heartbreaking”.

Ghebreyesus explained that “this protracted conflict blocks much-needed access to food and other humanitarian aid. Displaced people are crowding in shelters amid harsh winter conditions, which will inevitably increase the spread of disease”.

He asserted that “children, pregnant and breastfeeding women, and older people are at greatest risk”.

“To stop a famine, WHO and partners are appealing for an urgent improvement in food security via accelerated flows of aid into Gaza. Health, clean water, sanitation and hygiene services must be restored”, Who’s head concluded.

In a report published Thursday, a UN-backed panel said that the entire 2.3 million population of the Gaza Strip is facing crisis levels of hunger and the risk of famine is increasing each day as the war grinds on.

Reuters cited a report by the Integrated Food Security Phase Classification Committee as stating that the proportion of households in the Palestinian enclave that are in hunger crisis, or suffering from high levels of acute food insecurity, is the largest ever recorded globally.

“There is a risk of famine and it is increasing each day that the current situation of intense hostilities and restricted humanitarian access persists or worsens,” the IPC report added.

The Zionist ground aggression, aid inspections demanded by the occupying state, communications blackouts, and fuel shortages hampered the distribution of aid in Gaza.

The World Health Organization also published a report on Thursday on its website about the “Lethal combination of hunger and disease to lead to more deaths in Gaza”.

The report said; “on recent missions to north Gaza, WHO staff say that every single person they spoke to in Gaza is hungry. Wherever they went, including hospitals and emergency wards, people asked them for food: We move around Gaza delivering medical supplies and people rush to our trucks hoping it’s food,” they said, calling it “an indicator of the desperation.”

“Gaza is already experiencing soaring rates of infectious diseases. Over 100,000 cases of diarrhoea have been reported since mid-October. Half of these are among young children under the age of 5 years, case numbers that are 25 times what was reported before the conflict”, the same report added.

WHO explained that “over 150 000 cases of upper respiratory infection, and numerous cases of meningitis, skin rashes, scabies, lice and chickenpox have been reported. Hepatitis is also suspected as many people present with the tell-tale signs of jaundice”.

“Breastfeeding mothers are also at high risk of malnutrition. From 0-6 months of age, a mother’s milk is the best and safest food a baby can get. This protects the child from nutritional deficiencies and catching deadly diseases such as diarrhoea, especially when access to safe drinking water is extremely limited. Mental health issues, on the rise across the population in Gaza, including among women, could further impact breastfeeding rates”.

WHO’s report asserted that “over 1.9 million people have been displaced from their homes, of whom over 1.4 million are staying in overcrowded shelters. These conditions are ripe for a continued rise in infectious diseases. In Gaza today, on average, there is only one shower for every 4500 people and one toilet for every 220. Clean water remains scarce and there are rising levels of outdoor defecation. These conditions make the spread of infectious diseases inevitable”.

“Tragically, access to health services across Gaza has plummeted as the war continues to degrade the health system. With the health system on its knees, those facing the deadly combination of hunger and disease are left with few options”.

“The people of Gaza, who have already suffered enough, now face death from starvation and diseases that could be easily treated with a functioning health system. This must stop. Food and other aid must flow in far greater amounts”, WHO reiterates its call for an immediate humanitarian ceasefire.

Since Oct. 7, the Zionist occupation armed forces have been waging a destructive war on Gaza, resulting in 20,057 deaths and 53,320 injuries, most of them children and women. It has caused immense damage to infrastructure and an unprecedented humanitarian catastrophe, according to Palestinian and international sources.