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.

This is from Blinken just today

Speaking about the humanitarian situation in Gaza, he says: "Despite important steps that Israel has taken to allow assistance into Gaza, the results on the ground are woefully insufficient and unacceptable.
"100% of the population in Gaza knows acute levels of food insecurity.
"100% of the population is in need of humanitarian assistance, and those working heroically to provide that assistance are doing so in great peril to their own lives.

The entire population of Gaza is facing acute levels of food insecurity

Yes that has been requested a few times. The roads are in bits it is extremely difficult to move from south to north. The North has been virtually cut off and they are extremely concerned about civilians there

Hello there @stormy4319trevor there is a nice quiet safe military road parallel to the border fence which since it's in Israel is free from bombs, checkpoints, craters, Hamas marauding gangs etc

IDF trialled it successfully about 7-10 days ago and made a gap in the border fence in northern gaza and called it gate 98 - so it's quite possible if the will is there

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I have just also see that Biden has said the US policy in regards to Israel's war with Gaza will be dependant going forward on the steps Israel takes to address the humanitarian situation in Gaza which he called unacceptable.

From the times of Israel

Kirby goes further with the threat, telling reporters that if Israel fails to boost aid and reduce violence against civilians in Gaza, “there will have to be changes from our side.”

Hey @Efacsen Hope you are well. Gate 98, huh? Why have they done that, I wonder. Hopefully it can be opened for aid deliveries.

The US have essentially said their support is now conditional based on whether they see Israel taking certain steps. From amongst these steps one is boosting aid. So clearly there is an issue in allowing in sufficient aid if they are willing to change their policy based on it. Anyone at this point still saying sufficient aid is allowed in is being wilfully blind

Hope you are keeping well too - nice to 'see' you again @stormy4319trevor

IDK why they did it that way - at a guess maybe because it avoided backing down and opening one of the pre-existing proper gates which they have been refusing to do for 5 months? Just a ?temporary gap in the fence

But really no idea

Definite change in tone and content @Parkingt111 and time limit of 'hours or days' to see changes - not just talk of changes

Who knows maybe the worm is [finally] turning

@Parkingt111 Agree. If the US is saying this they must think Israel could do more. The killing of the 7 foreign aid workers has probably alarmed the US somewhat also.

I don't know what crossings there are in the North, but it does seem strange to just make an extra hole, rather than opening one. Still, it seems like progress if an aid agency can use it.

Just catching up with this thread, sorry to go back to food weight and number of trucks but I think this paragraph from the linked BBC news item on a previous page is relevant.

Cogat, the Israeli body that coordinates humanitarian aid to Gaza, said on 1 April that an average of 140 trucks a day carrying food entered Gaza. It said this was more than the 70 trucks carrying food specifically that entered Gaza before the war (500 trucks in total entered Gaza each day before the war).

Note it says "Cogat...said", the article is clear that Cogat coordinate humanitarian aid, they would have nothing to do with food "imported into Gaza" for sale in shops which would be in addition to the food aid trucks. Food insecurity for people in Gaza, before the war, was sufficient to warrant 70 trucks a day of food aid and now that little to no food for sale can be taken into Gaza the number of *aid trucks" have doubled to feed the entire population. It's clearly insufficient.

I would also like to note that food weight is not the best indicator of whether sufficient food is being allowed in. Water has zero calories per 100g, celery has 14 calories per hundred grams and cheese has 430 calories per hundred grams. All those items weight the same but have substantially different nutritional values. I would like to know how much water and how many calories are making it into Gaza.

I think we all know it's nowhere near enough even if there were no problems with distribution.

@FOJN the last figure I saw for water was 33 million litres about 3-4 weeks ago - that was just UNWRA

COGAT do not include water in their food tally. That is a separate tally.

You haven't addressed the fact that the number of pre war trucks you keep mentioning was food aid and doesn't include stock for shops to sell and you have ignored that Gaza produced some of its own food.

You haven't addressed the calorific content of the food and yet you seem certain that no one is starving on 700g a day. Unless you know exactly what's in those trucks you cannot make that claim.

I am simply informing you that water is not included.

I have no idea of the calorific content of the food aid.

I'd imagine, being food aid, that they have selected it based on ideal nutritional value, but that's pure speculation. They might indeed have sent 265000 tonnes of lettuce.

217 trucks got through yesterday. The second time this week the 200 mark has been exceeded. The second time this conflict the 200 mark has been exceeded.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-middle-east-68737846

Just shows that this could have been done all along so they were being deliberately disruptive and finally with US pressure have had to relent. I hope it isn't too late

You seemed keen to explain the maths to us in an earlier post but now don't want to a respond to follow up.

I agree that energy dense food would be good choice for aid agencies but you acknowledge you do not know the specifics and yet are certain there is enough food.

Your graphic isn't dated but I'm assuming you've included it because it's recent. We are about 180 days into the war and 12677 food trucks have been allowed into Gaza, that's an average of 70 a day, the same as before the war. So the quantity of food aid required to support the food insecure population of Gaza before the war now has to feed the entire population and you think that's enough.

I just did respond. But maybe you struggled with it, so let's do it again.

I did not mention the calorific content of aid. I merely pointed out to you that water is not included in the same tally. Thus your point that the weight might include water is not correct. It does not include water.

I do not know how many calories are in each truck of food aid.

Some might assume the aid agencies responding to starving people designed the contents to meet nutritional needs and ensured what's provided had a high nutritional and calorific content.

Others might assume the aid agencies sent over food for starving people with little to no calories in it.

You are welcome to decide which you believe to be the case using your common sense.

@FOJN the information from COGAT posted above is from an 'IDF Update' - the sub-text of which is COGAT's in charge now and doing so much better than UNWRA ever did

OCHAs infographics give a much clearer picture of aid entering over the whole time period time

No one's starving on 700g a day. I think that's what you said but you admit you have no idea what that 700g consists of and haven't accounted for packaging weight.

Any comment on the food aid being the same as before the war? I thought you'd appreciate the calculation but it seems to have provoked you. Hey ho you can't please everyone.

Excellent news. It seems that Biden's threats had an immediate impact In allowing in more aid. If the Ashdod port was allowed to be used from the start, the US wouldn't have to build a new pier.

It's a shame the Erez crossing into the North is only opening temporarily, hopefully the US can persuade Netanyahu to allow it to open indefinitely for aid transfer as parts of the North are suffering the most right now