<\/p>\n
12 May 2025<\/p>\n
Ä¢¹½ÊÓƵ Secretary-General Ant\u00f3nio Guterres is alarmed by the findings, released today, that one in every five people in\u00a0Gaza\u00a0is facing starvation \u2013 while the entire population is facing high levels of acute food insecurity and the risk of famine \u2013 according to the latest\u00a0snapshot<\/a><\/em>\u00a0by the Integrated Food Security Phase Classification (IPC).<\/p>\n The Secretary-General is especially alarmed that the vast majority of children in Gaza are facing extreme food deprivation. This is now confirmed by 17 Ä¢¹½ÊÓƵ agencies and NGOs in the IPC report.<\/p>\n According to the latest analysis, 470,000 people in Gaza are facing catastrophic hunger \u2013 IPC Phase 5, the highest level \u2013 and the entire population is experiencing acute food insecurity. The report also projects that an alarming 71,000 children and more than 17,000 mothers will need urgent treatment for acute malnutrition.<\/p>\n Over 70 days into the blanket ban imposed by Israeli authorities on the entry of any supplies into Gaza \u2013 regardless of how critical they are for people\u2019s survival \u2013 stocks have run out, bakeries have shut down, community kitchens are closing daily, and people are starving. This is not a natural disaster but a human-made catastrophe that the world should not allow.<\/p>\n The way to address this crisis should be clear: open up Gaza so that aid and other essential supplies can reach everyone who needs them, wherever they are.<\/p>\n Humanitarian teams on the ground have pre-positioned enough supplies \u2013 including more than 116,000 metric tons of food assistance \u2013 to respond to people\u2019s needs at scale quickly and efficiently, as they did during the 42-day ceasefire earlier this year. These stocks are enough to feed 1 million people for up to four months. But to accomplish that, the crossings into Gaza must open immediately, and international humanitarian law must be fully respected.<\/p>\n Earlier today, the World Food Programme (WFP) and Ä¢¹½ÊÓƵICEF\u00a0warned<\/a><\/em>\u00a0that hunger and malnutrition have intensified sharply since all aid was blocked from entering Gaza on 2 March, reversing the clear humanitarian gains seen during the ceasefire earlier this year.<\/p>\n WFP Executive Director Cindy McCain said families are starving while the food they need is sitting at the border. \u201cIt\u2019s imperative that the international community acts urgently to get aid flowing into Gaza again,\u201d she said. \u201cIf we wait until after a famine is confirmed, it will already be too late for many people.\u201d<\/p>\n Partners on the ground in Gaza report that the number of hot meals served by those community kitchens that are still operating is declining very quickly. Today, about 260,000 meals have been prepared and delivered across the Gaza Strip. That marks a decrease compared to 840,000 meals last Wednesday \u2013 a 70 per cent reduction of 580,000 daily meals in just five days.<\/p>\n OCHA stresses that humanitarian assistance is not limited to food; it includes visiting people in their communities, assessing what they need, identifying those at risk of being left behind, and mobilizing support across sectors \u2013 food, but also water, hygiene, health, nutrition, education, protection and beyond.<\/p>\n OCHA underscores that under the ongoing blockade, medical supplies and shelter materials are also urgently needed. Healthcare in Gaza is hanging by a thread \u2013 with hospitals facing mass casualty incidents amid severe shortages of supplies, equipment, blood and staff. The fuel that powers healthcare and water facilities is also being rationed and running out.<\/p>\n Principled humanitarian aid means reaching people wherever they are and based on what they need. Israel, as the occupying power, must facilitate humanitarian relief for people in need throughout Gaza.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" 12 May 2025 Ä¢¹½ÊÓƵ Secretary-General Ant\u00f3nio Guterres is alarmed by the findings, released today, that one in every five people in\u00a0Gaza\u00a0is facing starvation \u2013 while the entire population is facing high levels of acute food insecurity and the risk of famine \u2013 according to the latest\u00a0snapshot\u00a0by the Integrated Food Security Phase Classification (IPC). The […]<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":299,"featured_media":0,"parent":0,"template":"","meta":{"footnotes":""},"country":[],"document-category":[1329],"document-source":[2169],"committee-meeting":[],"document-subject":[2517,1769,1945,2005,6871],"entity":[1729],"document-language":[6542],"class_list":["post-307289","document","type-document","status-publish","hentry","document-category-press-release","document-source-office-for-the-coordination-of-humanitarian-affairs-ocha","document-subject-access-and-movement","document-subject-armed-conflict","document-subject-assistance","document-subject-gaza-strip","document-subject-malnutrition","entity-united-nations-system","document-language-english"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.un.org\/unispal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/document\/307289","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.un.org\/unispal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/document"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.un.org\/unispal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/document"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.un.org\/unispal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/299"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.un.org\/unispal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/document\/307289\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":307291,"href":"https:\/\/www.un.org\/unispal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/document\/307289\/revisions\/307291"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.un.org\/unispal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=307289"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"country","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.un.org\/unispal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/country?post=307289"},{"taxonomy":"document-category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.un.org\/unispal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/document-category?post=307289"},{"taxonomy":"document-source","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.un.org\/unispal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/document-source?post=307289"},{"taxonomy":"committee-meeting","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.un.org\/unispal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/committee-meeting?post=307289"},{"taxonomy":"document-subject","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.un.org\/unispal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/document-subject?post=307289"},{"taxonomy":"entity","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.un.org\/unispal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/entity?post=307289"},{"taxonomy":"document-language","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.un.org\/unispal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/document-language?post=307289"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}