Gaza death toll hits 60,000 as monitor demands action to avert famine
The alert by the Integrated Food Security Phase Classification (IPC) raised the prospect that the man-made starvation crisis could be formally classified as a famine, in the hope that this might raise the pressure on Israel to let in far more food.
Facing mounting international criticism over conditions in Gaza, Israel announced steps at the weekend to ease aid access. But the World Food Programme (WFP) said on Tuesday it was not getting the permissions it needed to deliver enough aid since Israel began humanitarian pauses on Sunday.
'Mounting evidence shows that widespread starvation, malnutrition and disease are driving a rise in hunger-related deaths,' the IPC said, adding that 'famine thresholds' have been reached for food consumption in most of the Gaza Strip.
It said it would quickly carry out the formal analysis that could allow it to classify Gaza as 'in famine'.
For famine to be declared, at least 20% of the population must be suffering extreme food shortages, with one in three children acutely malnourished and two people out of every 10,000 dying daily from starvation or from malnutrition and disease.
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