Gaza - Saba:
The Euro-Mediterranean Human Rights Monitor has said that the Integrated Food Security Phase Classification (IPC) report issued on Monday which warned that the entire population of the Gaza Strip is threatened with imminent famine due to the stifling blockade, proves that the Israeli occupation is using starvation as a central weapon and an integral part of the ongoing genocide that has claimed the lives of tens of thousands of civilians.
The Euro-Mediterranean Human Rights Monitor added in a statement that the Israeli starvation war is slowly claiming thousands of lives, especially among children and the elderly, in a daily scenario hidden from the media and without any documentation that reflects the scale of the catastrophe.
The Integrated Food Security Phase Classification (IPC) report, issued by UN and international organizations, predicts that approximately 470,000 people in the Gaza Strip will face catastrophic hunger (IPC Phase 5, the most severe) between May and September 2025, an increase of more than 250% over previous estimates.
It also indicated that the entire population of the Gaza Strip is suffering from high levels of acute food insecurity.
The report stated that approximately 71,000 children and more than 17,000 pregnant or breastfeeding women will require urgent treatment for acute malnutrition over the next 11 months, including more than 14,000 cases expected to be critical. Humanitarian agencies also estimated that, in early 2025, approximately 60,000 children will require therapeutic interventions due to malnutrition.
Since March 2, the Israeli occupation has imposed a suffocating blockade on the Gaza Strip, completely preventing the entry of food and medical aid. The Israeli occupation army also prevents farmers from accessing the vast majority of their remaining agricultural land and targets fishermen trying to secure food by fishing.
According to the report, the ongoing Israeli military offensive, the suffocating blockade, and the severe shortage of basic supplies will push the situation beyond the threshold of famine within the next five months, with alarmingly high levels of hunger, malnutrition, and mortality.
The vast majority of Gaza's children suffer from severe food deprivation, amid expectations of a sharp rise in acute malnutrition rates in the governorates of North Gaza, Gaza, and Rafah, amid almost complete limited access to health services and a severe shortage of clean water and sanitation.
The Euro-Mediterranean Human Rights Monitor explained that these conditions show a sharp deterioration compared to the Integrated Food Security Phase Classification (IPC) analysis issued in October 2024, stressing that the ongoing genocide and the tightened blockade are fueling one of the most severe food and nutrition crises in the world, amid unprecedented human suffering.
Euro-Mediterranean Human Rights Monitor documented the deaths of 14 elderly Palestinians in the Gaza Strip in one week (May 4-10) as a result of complications from malnutrition and lack of necessary medical care due to the ongoing blockade.
Euro-Mediterranean Human Rights Monitor emphasized that the continued international failure to save the lives of more than two million Palestinian civilians in the Gaza Strip constitutes a flagrant undermining of their fundamental rights to life, health, and food, and to protection from genocide. It also constitutes a grave violation of international humanitarian law and the fundamental principles that require the protection of civilians in times of conflict.
He pointed out that this inaction perpetuates a state of systematic impunity and sends a dangerous message that the use of starvation as a weapon can go unpunished, threatening to undermine the entire international legal system.
The Euro-Mediterranean Human Rights Monitor called on all states to halt the ongoing genocide in the Gaza Strip and to urgently respond to the demands of the United Nations and international organizations to restore humanitarian access and lift the illegal Israeli blockade, as this is the only way to halt the accelerating humanitarian deterioration and ensure the entry of aid into the Gaza Strip.
It also called for freezing the financial assets of officials involved in crimes against Palestinians and incitement to them, imposing travel bans on them, and suspending trade privileges and bilateral agreements that grant Israel economic advantages that enable it to continue committing crimes against Palestinians.
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