Famine in Gaza should be officially declared: Joint statement
More than 70 international organisations are calling on all authorities and international institutions to officially declare a famine in Gaza, Euro-Med Human Rights Monitor has said in a statement.
Food security levels have significantly declined due to the Israeli army’s ground operation in Rafah which began on May 7, the organisation said.
“The entire population in the Gaza Strip, including the governorates of Deir al-Balah, Khan Yunis, and Rafah, are experiencing high levels of acute food insecurity, with half of them in … the disaster/famine stage,” the statement said.
Due to fuel shortage, only one-eighth of water distributed: MSF
Christopher Lockyear, secretary-general of Doctors Without Borders (MSF), says his team is “seeing a further strangulation of the Gaza Strip” since Israeli forces closed the Rafah crossing as well as “a further collective punishment to the people of Gaza”.
Due to the “critical” supply of fuel, they have had to close certain hospitals and transfer patients to other hospitals, he told Al Jazeera.
“It’s becoming increasingly complicated there as we’re finding the supply of water critical; we ourselves are unable to distribute as much water as we have been able to,” he said.
Last week they distributed 400,000 litres of water; this week they distributed 50,000 litres, “one-eighth of what we’ve been able to do because of the fuel shortages”.
Palestinians who were forced to migrate to the central town of Deir al-Balah to protect themselves from the attacks on Gaza by Israel and ensure their safety, form queues to receive clean water distributed by aid organizations
More from Doctors Without Borders secretary general
Christopher Lockyear, secretary general of Doctors Without Borders, says the number of aid trucks entering Gaza has reduced since October 7, and even more so following the Israeli closing of Rafah Crossing since May 7, but he reiterated that distributing aid entails “more than just simply bringing in trucks into the Gaza Strip.
“Humanitarian assistance is a really complex echo system of activities that we need to legitimise throughout that whole chain. It is not just about crossing the border; it is about moving supplies around the border, it’s about having humanitarian workers who are safe, able to treat people, able to distribute food safely and to be able themselves to have somewhere to live,” he told Al Jazeera.
He said that 900,000 people have been displaced since Israel launched Rafah ground offensive earlier this month.
