The vote was scheduled to take place on Monday this week. The reason for the postponement is that the council is struggling to come up with wording that the member states can agree on. Now the Insurance Council has agreed. There will be no ceasefire agreement, but more humanitarian aid. The fighting in the Gaza Strip continues. In the middle of the rain of bombs, the civilians sit in makeshift camps with minimal access to both food and clean water. – It can hardly get worse. I have never seen anything like it at such a speed and on such a scale, says chief economist Arif Husain in Verda’s food programme. Gloomy prediction 23 UN organizations and other aid organizations have drawn up a so-called IPC forecast to prepare for the coming months. The UN report finds that over half a million Palestinians in the Gaza Strip suffered from catastrophic food shortages. This corresponds to one in four inhabitants. – The report confirms our greatest fear regarding the terrible situation in Gaza. Almost all the inhabitants are starving, says Husain. Humanitarian aid on the Egyptian side of the Kerem Shalom border crossing to Gaza on 21 December 2023. Photo: MOHAMMED ABED / AFP If the war continues and sufficient emergency aid does not arrive, the Gaza Strip will experience famine within the next six months. – It could already happen in two months. It could happen in three. The point is that we will get there if this war does not end and emergency aid does not arrive, the chief economist points out. Famine is the most serious phase in the UN’s system for monitoring food insecurity. According to the forecast, half of Gaza’s 2.3 million inhabitants will probably starve before 7 February next year. – The population of the Gaza Strip is totally dependent on assistance from outside. They need food, water, medical help, shelter and, strictly speaking, everything else, underlines Arif Husain. Earlier this week, Israeli President Isaac Herzog said that the country was ready for a new ceasefire to release more hostages and bring in more emergency aid. – Israel is ready for a new humanitarian pause and additional humanitarian aid to facilitate the release of hostages. The responsibility lies entirely with Hamas leader Yahya Sinwar and others in the leadership, said the president. Critical According to the Reuters news agency, more than 90 percent of the population in Gaza is now experiencing a critical phase of starvation. Never before has such a large proportion of a population been threatened by global starvation. – On a global basis, we have around 129,000 people who are in this type of disaster. In Gaza alone, there are over half a million, i.e. four times as much, says the chief economist. Internally displaced Palestinians in the city of Rafah in the south of the Gaza Strip stand in line for a free meal on December 21, 2023. Photo: Fatima Shbair / AP After the Hamas attack on October 7, Israel imposed a full blockade on Gaza where no food, water, medicine or fuel let in. Before the war, 500 trucks crossed the border into Gaza every day. After two and a half months of war, the number of deliveries should thus have reached close to 40,000 loads. This has not been the case. Since 7 October, approximately 5,000 trucks with emergency aid have crossed the border into Gaza, according to figures from the UN. These deliveries only cover 10 percent of demand. In addition, demand has increased as a result of the hostilities. According to the Norwegian Refugee Council, a thousand cars are needed every day to avoid an accumulated deficit. With food shortages comes a weakened immune system and thus a real danger of outbreaks of catastrophic epidemics. This leads to an ever-increasing death rate. Over 20,000 people have been killed in the Gaza Strip since the war broke out. – Israel makes Gaza unlivable Jan Egeland, Secretary General of the Norwegian Refugee Council, confirms to news that the information in the report is consistent with observations from their people in Gaza. – Gaza is an artificially created ghetto that is one hundred percent dependent on outside help, affirms the Secretary-General. Israel controls the supplies coming into the Gaza Strip to avoid war material in the hands of Hamas. – Israel makes Gaza unlivable and abuses its role as occupying power and controller. We are strongly opposed to Israel being allowed to decide if – and when – the other party’s civilian population should receive aid. It is crazy and a siege, says Egeland to news. Jan Egeland, secretary general of the Norwegian Refugee Council, believes that Israel is making Gaza unlivable and is abusing its role as an occupying power Photo: Even Bjøringsøy Johnsen / news The organization is now advocating for what Egeland refers to as “an international flexible arrangement” for handling emergency aid across the border. – The Norwegian Refugee Council believes the best arrangement would have been if a third party such as the UN or the EU could go through the supplies, he says. news has submitted the criticism from Jan Egeland to the IDF. The IDF does not answer our questions, but refers to general information on their website which, among other things, can be read here and here. On their website it is stated, among other things, that concern for the humanitarian situation in Gaza must start with recognizing that Hamas is to blame for the killing of civilians. Worst in the north According to figures from the UN, over 1.9 million Palestinians have been forced to flee the Gaza Strip. This constitutes 85 per cent of the population. The situation is worst in the north. – In Gaza, literally the entire population is in phase three and above. In the north, approximately 30 per cent of people are in phase five, says the chief economist. Read more about the different phases of food poisoning; The five phases of food security PHASE 1: MINIMAL Households are able to meet important food and non-food needs without engaging in atypical and unsustainable strategies to gain access to food and income. PHASE 2: STRESS Households have a minimally sufficient food consumption, but cannot afford important non-food expenses without engaging in stress management strategies. PHASE 3: CRISIS households have other food consumption gaps that reflect high or above-normal acute malnutrition, or are marginally able to cover minimum food needs, but only by getting rid of vital resources or through crisis management strategies. PHASE 4: EMERGENCY SITUATION Households either have large food consumption gaps that reflect very acute malnutrition and an abnormally high number of deaths, or are able to mitigate large food consumption gaps, but only by using emergency aid strategies and decommissioning of resources. PHASE 5: FAMINE Households have an extreme lack of food and/or other basic needs even after full employment of coping strategies. Starvation, death, distress and extremely critical acute levels of malnutrition are evident. To be classified as a famine, the area must have extreme critical levels of acute malnutrition and death toll. Source: Integrated Food Security Phase Classification, IPC “Sit on the fence” The UN Security Council, with its 15 member countries, was due to vote on Monday this week to stop hostilities in the Gaza Strip. It didn’t turn out that way. The original draft, promoted by the United Arab Emirates, called for unimpeded deliveries of emergency aid to Gaza and the release of all Hamas hostages. The UN’s Security Council discusses the situation in the Middle East on Tuesday 19 December 2023. Photo: CHARLY TRIBALLEAU / AFP It is the US in particular that is pulling the brakes. On 8 December this year, the US vetoed the Security Council’s vote to demand an immediate humanitarian ceasefire in Gaza. Israel has been clear that it is strongly against a resolution that contains the word “ceasefire”. They have preferred the words “pause” and “humanitarian ceasefire” instead. Russia, which has veto power, and several other countries are now critical of the wording of the original draft being “watered down”. On Friday, a resolution was passed to increase aid to Gaza.
ttn-69
Every fourth resident of Gaza starved – news Urix – Foreign news and documentaries
