UN: Famine in Gaza 'must haunt us all'

FAMINE was officially declared in Gaza as Israel threatened to “open the gates of hell” unless Hamas accepted its ceasefire terms.

- By Stephen Beech

Over 500,000 Palestinians face “starvation, destitution and death” amid “catastrophic conditions” in Gaza City and surrounding areas, according to the Integrated Food Security Phase Classification (IPC).

UN emergency coordinator Tom Fletcher blamed the “systematic obstruction” of aid by Israel. But Israel’s foreign ministry rejected the report as “false and biased”.

The IPC said 514,000 people — nearly a quarter of all Palestinians in Gaza — are experiencing famine, and that is due to rise to 641,000 by the end of September.

Mr Fletcher said: “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...a famine that will and must haunt us all.”

Horrifying