By Chris Menahan – Information Liberation
Gaza is on the brink of mass starvation and death due to Israel’s blockade of food and water against the besieged strip, a UN-backed global hunger monitor reports.
From Reuters, “Gaza’s catastrophic food shortage means mass death is imminent, monitor says”:
Extreme food shortages in parts of the Gaza Strip have already exceeded famine levels, and mass death is now imminent without an immediate ceasefire and surge of food to areas cut off by fighting, the global hunger monitor said on Monday.
The Integrated Food-Security Phase Classification (IPC), whose assessments are relied on by U.N. agencies, said 70% of people in parts of northern Gaza were suffering the most severe level of food shortage, more than triple the 20% threshold to be considered famine.
The IPC said it did not have enough data on death rates, but estimated residents would be dying at famine scale imminently, defined as two people out of every 10,000 dying daily from starvation or from malnutrition and disease.
Israeli civilians have been holding parties in the streets to block food aid from entering Gaza for starving Palestinians.
The US announced plans to build a seaport in Gaza over the coming months to distribute food aid to the Palestinians that Israel is starving but a Jordanian military and strategic affairs expert said the real purpose of the port is to transfer Palestinian refugees en masse to Europe.