Thursday Briefing: U.N. Warns of Famine in Gaza

Displaced Palestinians gathered for food in Rafah, in the southern Gaza Strip, yesterday.Credit…Agence France-Presse — Getty Images

Gaza is close to famine, the U.N. warned

At least a quarter of Gaza’s population is “one step away from famine,” a U.N. humanitarian aid official told the Security Council yesterday. Aid groups say that people are so hungry they are resorting to eating leaves, donkey feed and food scraps.

In northern Gaza, one in six children under the age of 2 is suffering from acute malnutrition, the official, Ramesh Rajasingham, said. The U.N. has not been able to deliver any aid to the region since early this month, it said, because of security risks and Israeli restrictions.

The fighting, damage from the war and Israeli restrictions on essential goods entering Gaza have decimated the territory’s ability to feed itself through farming, livestock and fishing, Rajasingham said.

Data: A new World Bank report found that the enclave’s economic output shrank by over 80 percent in the last quarter of 2023, calling it “one of the largest economic shocks ever recorded in recent history.” Up to 96 percent of Gaza’s agricultural infrastructure has been damaged or destroyed, and about 80 percent of the population has lost its jobs. In the short term, “every resident of Gaza will live in poverty,” the report said.

Cease-fire talks: Hamas’s political leader said the group was being flexible, but was prepared to continue the war. The president of Egypt said that a truce could be reached “in the next few days.”