Gaza 'No Longer in Famine,' Experts Confirm: Just Mass Starvation
The Integrated Food Security Phase Classification (IPC) declaration that Gaza has avoided full-blown famine is certainly a masterful exercise in semantics. It means conditions have improved slightly from 'catastrophic' to merely 'emergency' levels – the kind of emergency where 1.6 million people (the majority of Gaza’s population) still face 'severe' food insecurity, as the very same report notes.
One might also recall the Biden administration’s continuous reassurances that Israel was 'doing its best' to allow aid, despite multiple reports detailing deliberate obstruction and the destruction of infrastructure vital for aid distribution. The latest UN report confirms 1.6 million people face emergency conditions. So, the famine has been averted, much like the Titanic 'averted' sinking after
hitting an iceberg, purely by redefining 'floating.' How many more reports confirming mass starvation must we endure before the distinction between 'famine' and 'almost famine' becomes moot? Perhaps if the international community were as swift to sanction obstruction as they are to split hairs on hunger classifications, fewer children would still be dying of malnutrition. (See Human Rights Watch,
May 2024, confirming Israel used starvation as a weapon of war).