Israel on Thursday rejected a UN-backed report that said half a million people in Gaza were facing “catastrophic” starvation. Israel accused the assessment of being “misleading” and “biased”.
The latest Integrated Food Security Phase Classification (IPC) Partnership released on Tuesday said warnings in March of an impending famine in the north of the Palestinian territory have not come true.
“However, the situation in Gaza remains dire and there is a high and continuing risk of famine throughout the Gaza Strip,” the report said, warning against any complacency.
Israeli government spokesman David Mencer said Thursday, “This report is highly misleading. It is biased,” in part because “it is based on data from Hamas’ own health institutions.”
Gaza’s Hamas-run government presents figures regarding the war that Israel has disputed in the past, such as the number of deaths, but which have been generally accepted by international media and aid organizations.
“The claims about starvation in Gaza are baseless,” Menser said. “Their main purpose was obviously to put pressure on Israel.”
The IPC report said around 495,000 people in Gaza still face “catastrophic levels of acute food insecurity”.
Another 745,000 people are classified as being in a state of food security emergency.
The United Nations World Food Programme said the new report “paints a stark picture of persistent hunger”.
“This improvement shows how much of a difference improved access can make. While increased food supplies and nutrition services in the North have helped reduce the worst levels of hunger, the situation in the region remains dismal,” it says.
But he warned that the situation south of Gaza was getting worse.
“Hostilities in Rafah in May have displaced over one million people and severely limited humanitarian access,” it said.
The IPC is an initiative involving more than 20 partners, including governments, UN agencies and non-governmental organisations.
Israel rejected the IPC’s previous hunger report in March, saying it contained inaccuracies and its sources were questionable.
The war began with a Hamas attack on southern Israel on October 7, resulting in the deaths of 1,195 people, most of them civilians, according to an AFP count based on Israeli data.
At least 37,765 people, mostly civilians, have been killed in Israel’s retaliatory strikes, according to Gaza’s health ministry figures.
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