Catastrophic hunger - 40% of Gaza's population at risk of famine

[Createaplant]

Being reported by the Guardian:

40% of Gaza’s population is at risk of famine, the United Nations Relief and Works Agency said on Saturday.

“Every day is a struggle for survival, finding food and water,” the UN agency for Palestinian refugees added.

https://www.theguardian.com/world/live/2023/dec/30/israel-gaza-war-live-hamas-palestinians-khan-younis-deaths-un-aid-us#:~:text=40%25%20of%20Gaza's%20population%20is,is%20grappling%20with%20catastrophic%20hunger.

Too sad and completely unnecessary. If only adequate aid, food and water was allowed in.

David Cameron: “It is of enormous frustration that UK aid into Gaza has been routinely held up waiting for Israeli permissions. For instance, I am aware of some UK-funded aid being stuck at the border just under three weeks waiting for approval. The main blockers remain arbitrary denials by the government of Israel and lengthy clearance procedures including multiple screenings and narrow opening windows in daylight hours.”

Regadaing aid
urnwa is not allowed in the north(idf doesn’t allow it)
anera and wkc have returned their ships after idf killed 7 aid workers this week

This was published by the BBC less than 24 hours ago and once again highlights how insufficient food aid is being allowed into Gaza.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-middle-east-68551965.amp

This last paragraph sums up on the ridiculous denial of items that are routinely rejected from being allowed into Gaza.

In January the WFP said "generators, crutches, field hospital kits, inflatable water tanks, wooden boxes of children's toys and, perhaps most depressingly, 600 oxygen tanks" had all been rejected for entry to Gaza by Israeli authorities.

I think, for an historian, the poster's posts show a total disregard for primary and secondary sources. Instead, we have a total distortions of facts to suit their narrative, coupled with personal attacks and vile accusations.

I'm going to ignore the nonsense on this thread.

Saw an interview last night with a UNICEF spokeswoman who said there were 1200 waiting at the Rafah (I'm nearly sure) border and asked the parties, especially Israel, to let them in.

She said the situation is deteriorating extremely quickly. The situation in the north is obviously dire with children dying from malnutrition.

Old habits die hard, never realised that some people so ardently supported this tactic.
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2012/oct/17/israeli-military-calorie-limit-gaza

Where is your evidence from?
The UK Gov, Reuters, USAID, the UN and major international NGOS are all saying there is mass food insecurity and famine in Gaza and not enough aid is getting across the border. The US have even built a jetty to try and improve things. I have friends displaced in Rafah - comfortably-off professionals in times of peace - who have used up all their savings on basic food and clean water which is now incredibly hard to come by and very expensive (£5 a loaf). Only Israel is saying it's purely an issue of distribution.

And bringing in the bare minimum is just not enough in a situation like this where there is no record of where people are and no formal way of distributing. Equitable distribution is pretty much impossible, particularly when people are already food insecure and order has broken down (this is inevitable - I've seen it happen in far less catastrophic situations than Gaza), even when no-one is bombing you. It can sort of work short-term in a camp situation where everyone is registered and there are formal food distribution processes. 270g of food is about half a can of chickpeas and two portions of rice (strangely, chicken breasts are rarely on the menu in these situations) and this will not keep people healthy for any length of time. There needs to be excess to ensure any hope of equitable distribution. Yes, there will be looting - there always is and it needs to be factored in.

Well the research is not from WFP, they provide 2,100 cals per person per day for people fully dependent on food aid.
https://www.wfp.org/wfp-food-basket

If there is some food supply they provide additional supplementary food to vulnerable groups like children and women who are pregnant or breast feeding.

Israels channel 13 has reported of an angry phone call from Sunak to Netanyahu

This was on the BBC
Sunak reportedly warned Netanyahu: "If there is no change in the introduction of humanitarian aid to the Gaza Strip, we will have to declare Israel in violation of international humanitarian law."

As expected, posters indeed are more interested in portraying Israel in a certain way than actually examining the issue at hand and discussing what the cause might be. My worry is that this global "Israel hate" phenomenon is a serious block. In any other humanitarian crisis the world would pull together to ask "what is the problem and how can we fix it?". With this, instead, people ask "What is the problem and how can we blame it entirely on Israel".

As the BBC have said, COGAT and the UN track whatever goes into Gaza. The UN doesn't dispute what's handed over to it. That data is here:

https://govextra.gov.il/cogat/humanitarian-efforts/home/

So here's the maths on that

Days of war: 180
Population of Gaza: 2.1 million
Tonnes of food into Gaza: 265090
Tonnes per day: 14723
Converted to kilos per day: 1473000
Kilos, per day, per person: 0.70 which is 700g

Notable points:

1. There have also been air drops in addition to this
2. This is based on 2.1 million people, not all are even adults

But for the sake of this let's pretend all 2.1 million are adults. And what we know is that 700g of food per day, per person, has been brought into Gaza since the war began. It doesn't really matter what quotes you have from individuals on their struggles or trucks waiting at borders. This is how much has been actually delivered.

That is equivalent to 20 slices of bread, per person, per day. Even if you're talking about full meals, according to Foodbunker online: "A main course with three components—like meat, vegetables, and grains—should weigh an average of 400 to 550 grams to satisfy an adult".

So that would be tight for sure, but I can't see anyone starving to death if they have a full meal and some bread and so on every day. These things are not measured in calories, but I'd imagine these NGOs know what foods are best for this.

So I am asking a perfectly reasonable bloody question aren't I? Which is why people are starving if it's clear sufficient food is going into Gaza for people to NOT starve. Especially if a lot of those people are small children who don't eat anything like that much. There is a reason (likely a combination of reasons) that it is going in, but not actually getting to people in parts of Gaza.

So what's the motivation here of participating in these discussions? Is it to work out the problem and solve it? Or is it to fit up Israel and make it appear they are deliberately starving people because you hate Israel and frankly don't care about the facts?

I despair!

This is calories and not weight. Food going into Gaza isn't calculated by calories, it is calculated by weight.

The best measure of the actual situation that applies here is from the UK Government. Their full statement is here:

https://www.gov.uk/government/news/largest-uk-aid-delivery-enters-gaza-to-feed-275000-people

I quote

"More than 2,000 tonnes of food aid, funded by the government, is being distributed by the World Food Programme (WFP) on the ground. The delivery includes fortified wheat flour for use in bakeries, hot meals and well as ready-to-eat (RTE) food parcels. The food parcels will be used to feed more than 275,000 people in Gaza. "Each food parcel is designed for family of 5 and consists of canned vegetables, meat and fish, and date bars. The parcel can meet half of the daily calorie needs of the family for 15 days"

So according to the UK government, 2000 tonnes of food aid feeds 275k people for 15 days. That works out to 484g per person, per day. According to the UK government this is sufficient to meet needs. And we know 700g of food per day is actually going into Gaza, so that's considerable more than the 484g needed.

It simply doesn't add up

This was eported just today

People in northern Gaza have been forced to survive on an average of 245 calories a day, according to Oxfam.
The charity says this amount of food represents "less than 12 per cent of the recommended daily 2,100 calorie intake needed per person".
The figure was calculated using demographic data taking into consideration age and gender variations.
Oxfam says 245 calories amounts to one can of fava beans a day.
For context, a 48g Snickers bar contains 248 calories.
The analysis is based on the latest available data used in the recent Integrated Food Security Phase Classification (IPC) analysis for Gaza.

WHO said yesterday that that there has been a significant increase in stillbirths and neonatal deaths due to maternal malnutrition and subsequent impaired foetal growth

One can of fava beans

I have just listened to an interview with a member of the opposition party in the Kensett and she said, nearly word for word, what I have read from posts who defend the Israeli government' actions.
I guess the law of propaganda (Repeat a lie often enough and it becomes the truth) is working for the Israeli politicians.

And we know 700g of food per day is actually going into Gaza, so that's considerable more than the 484g needed.

Does not compute

If this stuff was posted on the weight loss threads it would be deleted for being pro-ana

It's been 'explained' so many times by you on so many threads that I filtered and found it.

Do you genuinely think that starving a civilian population including women, children and non-combatants is proportionate? Or legal? Or moral?

You seem nice on other threads so I can't believe that you really do.

If you are so adamant that Israel are not deliberately restricting access to humanitarian aid into Gaza could you present evidence of this that does not come from an Israeli source or the IDF

@LemonyTicket Just to remind you of what the ICJ said and they have access to a lot more information than you have.
From ToI

"The International Court of Justice issued new provisional measures aimed at Israel on Thursday, ordering it to increase the provision of basic humanitarian goods to the Gaza Strip, including food, water, fuel and shelter, due to what it said are worsening living conditions for Palestinians in the war-torn territory.
“The catastrophic living conditions of the Palestinians in the Gaza Strip have deteriorated further, in particular in view of the prolonged and widespread deprivation of food and other basic necessities to which the Palestinians in the Gaza Strip have been subjected,” the court said in its decision.

Palestinians in Gaza are no longer facing only a risk of famine… but that famine is setting in,” the court said on Thursday, noting that “the provisional measures indicated in the Order of 26 January 2024 do not fully address the consequences arising from the changes in the situation… thus justifying the modification of these measures.”
On January 26, the ICJ ordered Israel to comply with a series of provisional measures based on its finding that there was plausibility to an application filed by South Africa against Israel that Israel’s actions in Gaza fall under the scope of the Genocide Convention."

@Silence1 this is why I'm curious because LemonyTicket continually denies there is an issue so I've no idea how they are coming to that conclusion when everything else I read or hear about from organisations and aid workers is that there is a huge issue and it's not just food it is crucial medical supplies. A doctor returning from Gaza last week said he couldn't get access to oxygen masks because they were on the IDF contraband list.
The WHO stated in February that before October less than 1% of children in Gaza were malnourished but now (in February) 50% of children were. Every statistic coming out of Gaza contradicts the premise that enough aid is getting through

See my second post, I will paste it again here

The best measure of the actual situation that applies here is from the UK Government. Their full statement is here:

https://www.gov.uk/government/news/largest-uk-aid-delivery-enters-gaza-to-feed-275000-people

I quote

"More than 2,000 tonnes of food aid, funded by the government, is being distributed by the World Food Programme (WFP) on the ground. The delivery includes fortified wheat flour for use in bakeries, hot meals and well as ready-to-eat (RTE) food parcels. The food parcels will be used to feed more than 275,000 people in Gaza. "Each food parcel is designed for family of 5 and consists of canned vegetables, meat and fish, and date bars. The parcel can meet half of the daily calorie needs of the family for 15 days"

So according to the UK government, 2000 tonnes of food aid feeds 275k people for 15 days. That works out to 484g per person, per day. According to the UK government this is sufficient to meet needs. And we know 700g of food per day is actually going into Gaza, so that's considerable more than the 484g needed.

So the UK government saying 484g per day is what's needed per person.

(Data aside, do you genuinely believe anyone is eating 2 - 3 kilos of food a day? or that they would die if they didn't? That defies basic common sense)

COGAT are the agency tracking admission of trucks. They count truck deliveries each day, and show what has been handed over to the UN. This data isn't disputed by the UN. I am sure if it was incorrect, the UN would speak out and say "actually we did not get these trucks", wouldn't they?

I think perhaps once you get down the road of not believing data which is publicly shared and not disputed really by anybody, then it's impossible to have a conversation. The BBC and elsewhere are happy to accept this data. If you are not, then maybe you have ulterior motives.

The parcel can meet half of the daily calorie needs of the family for 15 days

484g x 2 = 968g

700g < 968g

The 700g has also been worked out using the weigh bridge weight, so includes packaging and pallets. i.e. the edible part of the food aid weighs less than 700g.
Even COGATS says this is only enough food if there are large supplies of available intact stored food in Gaza.

I suggest your view is extreme and not held by many.