UN humanitarian chief says Gaza famine 'openly promoted' by Israel

The UN's top humanitarian official on Friday described the famine declared in the Gaza Governorate of Gaza Strip as a "predictable and preventable" catastrophe deliberately fueled by the obstruction of aid by Israel.

"It is a famine that we could have prevented if we had been allowed. Yet, food stacks up at borders because of systematic obstruction by Israel. It is a famine within a few hundred meters of food in a fertile land," Tom Fletcher, head of the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA), said in a press briefing in Geneva.

Fletcher said it is a "21st century famine watched over by drones and the most advanced military technology in history."

"It is a famine openly promoted by some Israeli leaders as a weapon of war. It is a famine on all of our watch. Everyone owns this, the Gaza famine is the world's famine," he added.

He stressed the human toll of the crisis, explaining that the famine hits the most vulnerable, "forces a parent to choose which child to feed, that forces people to risk their lives to seek food."

His plea was direct: "Enough. Ceasefire, open the crossings, north and south, all of them. Let us get food and other supplies in unimpeded and at the massive scale required. End the retribution."

"It is too late for far too many, but not for everyone in Gaza," he added.

Fletcher's remarks came after the Integrated Food Security Phase Classification (IPC) confirmed famine in the Gaza Governorate, one of the five regions of the Gaza Strip, where Israel has killed more than 62,000 Palestinians since October 2023.

The global hunger monitor projected that famine will spread to Deir al-Balah and Khan Younis within weeks.