According to the latest figures, Gazans now make up a whopping 80 percent of all people on earth who currently face famine or catastrophic hunger, this due to Israel's "continued bombardment and siege," to quote the United Nations Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR).
Experts warn that every single person living in Gaza is hungry right now, with about a quarter of the population actually starving while struggling to find food and drinkable water.
"Pregnant women are not receiving adequate nutrition and healthcare, putting their lives at risk. In addition, all children under five – 335,000 – are at high risk of severe malnutrition as the risk of famine conditions continues to increase, a whole generation is now in danger of suffering from stunting."
When a child does not receive adequate nutrition, stunting occurs that can lead to irreparable physical and cognitive damage. This is what Israel is doing to Gaza, which faces the loss of an entire generation of people through lack of learning capacity caused by malnutrition.
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Even before the war, Israel's 17-year blockade on Gaza caused 80% of Palestinians to require humanitarian aid
Since October 9, Israel has declared and unleashed a "total siege" on Gaza that has not let up since. The roughly 2.3 million Palestinians who live, or lived, there were deprived of food, water, fuel and medicine, and this against a backdrop of a 17-year blockade set up by Israel.
Nowhere in Gaza is safe. And even before the war caused about half of the population to become "food insecure," more than 80 percent of the population was reliant upon humanitarian aid.
Initially, Israel told the residents of northern Gaza to flee south because Israel Defense Forces (IDF) were going to bomb those areas. After tens of thousands of Palestinians obeyed these orders and traveled south, Israel started bombing the south, too, while refusing entrance for humanitarian aid.
"While the majority of aid distribution is concentrated in the southern governorates, since 1 January, only 21 per cent (5 out of 24) of planned deliveries of aid containing food and other lifesaving supplies reached their destination north of Wadi Gaza," OHCHR reported.
"The experts are particularly alarmed about conditions in northern Gaza, where the population faces prolonged food shortages and extremely restricted access to essential resources. In southern Gaza, a large concentration of individuals resides in inadequate shelters or areas devoid of basic amenities, escalating the brutal situation."
The fact of the matter is this: never before has a country forced an entire civilian population to go hungry "this completely and quickly," to quote one source, adding that Israel is intentionally destroying Gaza's food system in order to weaponize food, starvation, famine and more against the Palestinian people.
Israel is even blocking Palestinian access to Gaza farmland and the sea. Since the IDF ground offensive commenced on October 27, roughly 22 percent of all agricultural land, including orchards, greenhouses and farmland in northern Gaza, has been completely razed, meaning destroyed, by Israeli forces.
Then there is Gaza's fishing fleet, which is now 70 percent destroyed by Israel. Israel has also destroyed more than 60 percent of Palestinian homes in Gaza, which is directly impacting the Palestinian people's ability to cook and care for their families.
"Even with little humanitarian aid that has been allowed to enter, people still lack food and fuel to cook," OHCHR reported. Most bakeries are not operational, due to the lack of fuel, water and wheat flour along with structural damage. Livestock are starving and unable to provide food or be a source of food."
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