The head of the World Food Program said parts of the Gaza Strip are experiencing “widespread famine” across the territory after nearly seven months of war that have made the delivery of aid extremely difficult.
“There’s a famine – a widespread famine in the north, and it’s moving south,” Cindy McCain, the program’s director, said in excerpts released Friday evening. an interview with “Meet The Press.”
Ms. McCain is the second high-profile American leading a U.S. government or U.N. aid effort to declare that there is a famine in northern Gaza, although her remarks do not constitute a official statement, which is a complex bureaucratic process.
She did not explain why an official declaration of famine was not made. But she said her assessment was “based on what we saw and what we experienced on the ground.”
The hunger crisis is most severe in the northern part of the Gaza Strip, a largely lawless and gang-infested area where the Israeli military exercises little or no control. In recent weeks, after Israel faced growing global pressure to improve dire conditions there, more aid has flowed to the devastated area.
On the diplomatic level, negotiations resumed on Saturday in Cairo to reach a ceasefire and an agreement on the release of Israeli hostages and Palestinian prisoners. A delegation of Hamas leaders visited the Egyptian capital, the Palestinian armed group said.
Over the past few days, Israel and the mediators of the negotiations – Egypt, Qatar and the United States – have waited for Hamas’ response to the latest ceasefire proposal, with Hamas indicating that it was open to discussing the offer approved by Israel. On Friday, Secretary of State Antony J. Blinken said U.S. officials were waiting to see if Hamas “could accept a ‘yes’ answer to the ceasefire and the release of the hostages.”
“The only thing standing in the way of the people of Gaza and a ceasefire is Hamas,” Blinken said at the McCain Institute in Arizona. “So we’re watching what they’re going to do.”
Husam Badran, a senior Hamas official, said in a text message that the group’s representatives came to Cairo “with great positivity” toward the proposed deal. “If there is no deal, it will only be because of Netanyahu,” he said, referring to Benjamin Netanyahu, the Israeli Prime Minister.
For weeks, Mr. Netanyahu has promised that Israeli forces would invade Rafah, where much of Hamas’s remaining military forces would be deployed alongside some of its leaders. The project has drawn widespread criticism, particularly from the Biden administration, fueled by concerns about the safety of more than a million displaced Gazans who have found shelter there.
On Saturday, Israel did not send a delegation to Cairo to engage in indirect negotiations with Hamas officials, as Israeli officials had done in previous rounds of negotiations, according to two Israeli officials who, in accordance with diplomatic protocol, are expressed on condition of anonymity. .
Even if Hamas announced to Cairo that it accepted the proposed deal, a truce was unlikely to be imminent, one of the Israeli officials said. Hamas’ approval would be followed by intensive negotiations to iron out the finer details of a ceasefire, and such negotiations are likely to be long and difficult, the official added.
Ms. McCain said a ceasefire could help improve the situation in Gaza.
“It’s a horror,” she said on “Meet the Press.” “It’s so hard to watch, and it’s also so hard to hear. I really hope that we can get a ceasefire and start feeding these people, especially in the north, in a much quicker way. »
The first US official to declare that there was a famine in Gaza during the conflict was Samantha Power, the director of the US Agency for International Development, who made the remarks in testimony to Congress last month.
Ms. McCain, the widow of Senator John McCain, was named by President Biden as U.S. ambassador to the United Nations food and agriculture agencies in 2021 and became head of the World Food Program, a United Nations agency, Last year.
An official declaration of famine is made by a United Nations agency, the Integrated food safety phase classificationand the government of the country where famine is raging. It is not clear which local authority could have the power to do so in Gaza. The declarations, which are based on measured rates of hunger, malnutrition and mortality over short periods, are rare. But for humanitarian groups, a famine elevates a crisis above competing disasters and helps them raise funds to respond.
Gaza is grappling with what experts call a serious human-caused food crisis. The bombing and restrictions imposed by Israel on the territory have made the delivery of aid very difficult. The amount of aid entering Gaza has increased recently, but aid groups say it is far from enough.
During the first three weeks of the war, Israel maintained what it called a “full seat” of Gaza, with Defense Minister Yoav Gallant declaring that “no electricity, no food, no water, no fuel” would be allowed in the territory. The Israeli army also destroys Gaza portlimit fishing and bombed several of his farms.
Israel eventually eased the siege but instituted a meticulous inspection process that it says is necessary to ensure weapons and other supplies do not fall into the hands of Hamas. Humanitarian groups and foreign diplomats have said the inspections create bottlenecksand accused Israel of arbitrarily refuse helpincluding water filters, solar lamps and medical kits containing scissors, for false reasons.
Volker Türk, the UN human rights chief, said in a statement Last month, Israel’s policy regarding aid to Gaza could constitute a war crime.
Using famine as a weapon against civilians constitutes a serious violation of international humanitarian law and a war crime within the meaning of the Rome Statutethe treaty of the International Criminal Court, or ICC
Israeli and foreign officials said The New York Times last week that they were concerned that the ICC was preparing to issue arrest warrants against senior Israeli officials – particularly over accusations that they had blocked the delivery of aid to civilians in Gaza. (They also said they believed the court was considering arrest warrants for Hamas leaders, which could be issued simultaneously.)
Israel has previously vehemently denied imposing limits on aid, accusing the United Nations of failing to distribute aid adequately and Hamas of looting supplies. U.S. and U.N. officials said there was no evidence of this, except for a shipment sent by Hamas. grasped earlier this week, which is now being recovered.
Regardless of how the problem is resolved, there is no doubt that the living conditions of many Gazans, especially children, remain in danger. suffering from illnesses which make them particularly vulnerable. As of April 17, at least 28 children According to local health authorities, fewer than 12 years have died from malnutrition or related causes in Gaza hospitals, including a dozen babies aged less than a month. Authorities believe many other deaths outside hospitals have gone unrecorded.
There were some help flow improvements in recent weeks, and on Wednesday, Israel reopened the Erez border crossing, allowing some aid to enter directly into northern Gaza.
Fatma Edaama, a 36-year-old resident of Jabaliya in northern Gaza, said conditions in her neighborhood were still difficult. Many products, such as meat, are unavailable or sold at exorbitant prices, she explained.
But flour, canned goods and other products began to circulate much more freely and their cost fell sharply, Ms. Edaama said. “Before there was nothing, people were grinding animal food,” she says. “Now we have food.”
Yet foreign officials and aid agencies say more must be done.
“This is real and important progress, but more needs to be done,” Blinken said. told reporters this week after visiting an aid warehouse in Jordan.
