{"id":74736,"date":"2025-08-13T13:25:18","date_gmt":"2025-08-13T20:25:18","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lapost.us\/?p=74736"},"modified":"2025-08-13T13:25:18","modified_gmt":"2025-08-13T20:25:18","slug":"gaza-is-under-a-worst-case-scenario-of-famine","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lapost.us\/?p=74736","title":{"rendered":"Gaza Is Under a \u2018Worst-Case Scenario of Famine\u2019"},"content":{"rendered":"<div class=\"td_block_wrap tdb_single_author tdi_65 td-pb-border-top td_block_template_1 tdb-post-meta\" data-td-block-uid=\"tdi_65\">\n<div class=\"tdb-block-inner td-fix-index\">\n<div class=\"tdb-author-name-wrap\"><span class=\"tdb-author-by\">By<\/span><a class=\"tdb-author-name\" href=\"https:\/\/americancommunitymedia.org\/author\/selen-ozturk\/\">Selen Ozturk<\/a><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"td_block_wrap tdb_single_date tdi_66 td-pb-border-top td_block_template_1 tdb-post-meta\" data-td-block-uid=\"tdi_66\">\n<div class=\"tdb-block-inner td-fix-index\"><i class=\"tdb-date-icon tdc-font-fa tdc-font-fa-calendar\"><\/i><time class=\"entry-date updated td-module-date\" datetime=\"2025-08-13T11:30:56-07:00\">Aug 13, 2025<\/time><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"td_block_wrap tdb_single_subtitle tdi_67 td-pb-border-top td_block_template_1\" data-td-block-uid=\"tdi_67\">\n<div class=\"tdb-block-inner td-fix-index\">\n<p>For months, many of Gaza\u2019s two million residents have faced what international agencies now describe as catastrophic levels of hunger.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"td_block_wrap tdb_single_featured_image tdi_68 tdb-content-horiz-left td-pb-border-top td_block_template_1\" data-td-block-uid=\"tdi_68\">\n<div class=\"tdb-block-inner td-fix-index\">\n<div class=\"td-video-replacer\" data-id=\"undefined\"><\/div>\n<div class=\"wpb_video_wrapper\"><iframe loading=\"lazy\" id=\"widget2\" class=\"td-youtube-player\" title=\"The Engineered Famine in Gaza\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/gYS1XTwndJA?enablejsapi=1&amp;feature=oembed&amp;wmode=opaque&amp;vq=hd720&amp;&amp;&amp;\" width=\"100%\" height=\"560\" frameborder=\"0\" allowfullscreen=\"allowfullscreen\" data-gtm-yt-inspected-14=\"true\" data-mce-fragment=\"1\"><\/iframe><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"td_block_wrap tdb_single_content tdi_69 td-pb-border-top td_block_template_1 td-post-content tagdiv-type\" data-td-block-uid=\"tdi_69\">\n<div class=\"tdb-block-inner td-fix-index\">\n<p><em>Budour Hassan, Amnesty International researcher on Israel and Palestine, discusses the destruction of Gaza\u2019s food supply systems, including its agricultural lands, greenhouses and poultry farms.<\/em><\/p>\n<p>For months, many of Gaza\u2019s two million residents have faced what international agencies now describe as catastrophic levels of hunger.<\/p>\n<p>After nearly two years of war between Israel and Hamas, over 60,034 Gazans have been killed \u2014 over 18,592 of them children.<\/p>\n<p>According to the United Nations (UN), at least 1.9 million people, or roughly 90% of the population, have been displaced from their homes \u2014 some as many as 10 times or more.<\/p>\n<h2 id=\"h-the-famine-landscape\" class=\"wp-block-heading\">The famine landscape<\/h2>\n<p>Now, UN-backed\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.ipcinfo.org\/ipcinfo-website\/countries-in-focus-archive\/issue-133\/en\/\">Integrated Food Security Phase Classification<\/a>\u00a0(IPC) projections\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/news.un.org\/en\/story\/2025\/07\/1165517\">report<\/a>\u00a0that \u201cThe worst-case scenario of famine is currently playing out in Gaza,\u201d with over 20,000 children treated in hospitals for malnutrition since April and half a million Gazans expected to reach the worst IPC category \u2014 catastrophic famine, marked by starvation, destitution and death \u2014 by September.<\/p>\n<p>From fall 2023 into late 2024, \u201cthe United States pushed Israel to provide more assistance and kept it just below that threshold \u2026 What we\u2019ve had in the last few months is a worsening of this \u2014 a complete siege, a complete collapse in food availability,\u201d said Alex de Waal, executive director of the\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/worldpeacefoundation.org\/\">World Peace Foundation<\/a>\u00a0and a famine expert at the Tufts University Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy, at a Friday, 8 American Community Media briefing.<\/p>\n<figure class=\"wp-block-embed wp-embed-aspect-16-9 wp-has-aspect-ratio  is-type-video is-provider-youtube wp-block-embed-youtube\">\n<div class=\"wp-block-embed__wrapper video-seo-youtube-embed-wrapper\">\n<div class=\"video-seo-youtube-player\" data-id=\"LBbp7DVscs8\">\n<div class=\"video-seo-youtube-embed-loader\" tabindex=\"0\" role=\"button\" data-id=\"LBbp7DVscs8\" aria-label=\"Load YouTube video\"><picture class=\"video-seo-youtube-picture\"><source class=\"video-seo-source-to-maybe-replace\" srcset=\"https:\/\/i.ytimg.com\/vi\/LBbp7DVscs8\/maxresdefault.jpg\" media=\"(min-width: 801px)\" \/><source class=\"video-seo-source-hq\" srcset=\"https:\/\/i.ytimg.com\/vi\/LBbp7DVscs8\/hqdefault.jpg\" media=\"(max-width: 800px)\" \/><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"\" src=\"https:\/\/i.ytimg.com\/vi\/LBbp7DVscs8\/hqdefault.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"480\" height=\"360\" \/><\/picture>\n<div class=\"video-seo-youtube-player-play\"><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/figure>\n<p>After international pressure during a two-month blockade between March and May 2025, when mass food aid struggled to reach the roughly 400 United Nations food distribution sites embedded throughout Gaza, the Israeli- and U.S.-backed American nonprofit Gaza Humanitarian Foundation (GHF) began operating at four distribution sites, with three of them located in the far south of Gaza.<\/p>\n<p>As of mid-July, 875 people were confirmed killed while trying to get food, with 674 of these killed in the vicinity of GHF sites.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThe Gaza Humanitarian Foundation calls them \u2018secure distribution sites.\u2019 Well, the items are secure only up to the point where they reach that place. There is no security for the people,\u201d said de Waal. \u201cI can\u2019t tell you whether they\u2019ve been killed deliberately or if it\u2019s simply a matter of when you have these huge crowds of people rushing to get food from a place that is only open for a few minutes, if you have a soldier nearby, he doesn\u2019t know who\u2019s in that crowd, could be Hamas.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Israeli officials have justified the militarization of GHF operations with claims that food was being diverted by Hamas, but both\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/2025\/07\/26\/world\/middleeast\/hamas-un-aid-theft.html\">Israeli military officials<\/a>\u00a0and outside analyses, including an internal American federal\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.reuters.com\/world\/middle-east\/usaid-analysis-found-no-evidence-massive-hamas-theft-gaza-aid-2025-07-25\/\">USAID<\/a>\u00a0investigation, found no proof of systematic supply theft by Hamas.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThe moment when you really see famine is when, instead of a family being able to break bread together, they fight for bread. When you get that breakdown, that is the dividing line between what it is to be a human and what it is to be an animal,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n<figure class=\"wp-block-embed wp-embed-aspect-16-9 wp-has-aspect-ratio  is-type-video is-provider-youtube wp-block-embed-youtube\">\n<div class=\"wp-block-embed__wrapper video-seo-youtube-embed-wrapper\">\n<div class=\"video-seo-youtube-player\" data-id=\"col6npc3GwE&amp;pp=0gcJCa0JAYcqIYzv\">\n<div class=\"video-seo-youtube-embed-loader\" tabindex=\"0\" role=\"button\" data-id=\"col6npc3GwE&amp;pp=0gcJCa0JAYcqIYzv\" aria-label=\"Load YouTube video\"><picture class=\"video-seo-youtube-picture video-seo-youtube-picture-replaced-srcset\"><source class=\"video-seo-source-to-maybe-replace\" srcset=\"https:\/\/i.ytimg.com\/vi\/col6npc3GwE&amp;pp=0gcJCa0JAYcqIYzv\/hqdefault.jpg\" media=\"(min-width: 801px)\" \/><source class=\"video-seo-source-hq\" srcset=\"https:\/\/i.ytimg.com\/vi\/col6npc3GwE&amp;pp=0gcJCa0JAYcqIYzv\/hqdefault.jpg\" media=\"(max-width: 800px)\" \/><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"\" src=\"https:\/\/i.ytimg.com\/vi\/col6npc3GwE&amp;pp=0gcJCa0JAYcqIYzv\/hqdefault.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"480\" height=\"360\" \/><\/picture>\n<div class=\"video-seo-youtube-player-play\"><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/figure>\n<h2 id=\"h-there-s-nothing-about-this-that-is-fair\" class=\"wp-block-heading\">\u2018There\u2019s nothing about this that is fair\u2019<\/h2>\n<p>\u201cThe way in which this all felt deliberate became very real to me while I was there,\u201d said Afeef Nessouli, a journalist who volunteered in Gaza with medical aid group\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/glia.org\/\">Glia<\/a>\u00a0for nine weeks from late March to early June.<\/p>\n<p>In the weeks before he arrived, he knew of roughly 170 community kitchens in operation; by the time he got there, there were dozens.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cProblems seemed like they were coming from every direction and that they were intentional,\u201d he explained, \u201cwhether it was that there was only so much fresh produce or that there was nothing on the market beyond tuna cans that were $10 each, $15 each, flour that was hundreds of dollars to get. And then eventually there was no flour \u2026 and then I had sources and colleagues trying to get food from the GHF and being shot at.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cDoctors had exorbitant amounts of evidence that showed that these were not accidental snipe shots,\u201d Nessouli continued. \u201cMorphine wasn\u2019t always available for people with explosive injuries. \u201cI mean, 20 year old men are tasked with being the (Palestinian) Civil Defense forces \u2026 they have to run into a site that has just been bombed and try to save as many people as possible within a certain amount of time before the second air strike might hit the same area.\u201d<\/p>\n<figure class=\"wp-block-embed wp-embed-aspect-16-9 wp-has-aspect-ratio  is-type-video is-provider-youtube wp-block-embed-youtube\">\n<div class=\"wp-block-embed__wrapper video-seo-youtube-embed-wrapper\">\n<div class=\"video-seo-youtube-player\" data-id=\"IqZX_boKOxs\">\n<div class=\"video-seo-youtube-embed-loader\" tabindex=\"0\" role=\"button\" data-id=\"IqZX_boKOxs\" aria-label=\"Load YouTube video\"><picture class=\"video-seo-youtube-picture\"><source class=\"video-seo-source-to-maybe-replace\" srcset=\"https:\/\/i.ytimg.com\/vi\/IqZX_boKOxs\/maxresdefault.jpg\" media=\"(min-width: 801px)\" \/><source class=\"video-seo-source-hq\" srcset=\"https:\/\/i.ytimg.com\/vi\/IqZX_boKOxs\/hqdefault.jpg\" media=\"(max-width: 800px)\" \/><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"\" src=\"https:\/\/i.ytimg.com\/vi\/IqZX_boKOxs\/hqdefault.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"480\" height=\"360\" \/><\/picture>\n<div class=\"video-seo-youtube-player-play\"><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/figure>\n<p>A UN\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/news.un.org\/en\/story\/2025\/08\/1165587\">report<\/a>\u00a0found that as of late July, 8.6% of cropland in Gaza is still accessible, while only 1.5% is both accessible and undamaged.<\/p>\n<p>As of late May, Gaza had\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.un.org\/unispal\/document\/building-to-starvation-systematic-attacks-on-fishing-in-gaza-and-implications-for-livelihoods-and-protection-may-2025\/\">lost<\/a>\u00a094% of its fishery catch, with the average daily catch dropping to 7.3% of 2022 levels.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWhen you\u2019re there, there\u2019s nothing about this that is fair. It is a genocide. It is intentional. There are several things happening at once, on purpose, and there is a result of one group of people being tortured and eradicated,\u201d Nessouli added.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThere was this process of dehumanization taking place, and people described it quite painfully to us about, first of all, the breakdown of social fabric,\u201d said Budour Hassan, an<a href=\"https:\/\/www.amnesty.org\/en\/\">\u00a0Amnesty International<\/a>\u00a0researcher documenting the situation in Palestine since 2022. \u201cThe first instinct of people when they see someone in need is to help each other \u2026 and then the fight over the very meager resources allowed in starts kicking in.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cAt this stage, what is needed is a full-on recovery process,\u201d she explained. \u201cStarvation doesn\u2019t end in the moment that more food is allowed, because we\u2019re talking about a completely devastated health sector system. Now we\u2019re seeing how there is the spread of Guillain-Barr\u00e9 syndrome. Meningitis is spreading. In order to start the process of treatment, you need a functional healthcare sector \u2026 There must be a ceasefire for this to even start working.\u201d<\/p>\n<figure class=\"wp-block-embed wp-embed-aspect-16-9 wp-has-aspect-ratio  is-type-video is-provider-youtube wp-block-embed-youtube\">\n<div class=\"wp-block-embed__wrapper video-seo-youtube-embed-wrapper\">\n<div class=\"video-seo-youtube-player\" data-id=\"ENyJI7tBu7o\">\n<div class=\"video-seo-youtube-embed-loader\" tabindex=\"0\" role=\"button\" data-id=\"ENyJI7tBu7o\" aria-label=\"Load YouTube video\"><picture class=\"video-seo-youtube-picture\"><source class=\"video-seo-source-to-maybe-replace\" srcset=\"https:\/\/i.ytimg.com\/vi\/ENyJI7tBu7o\/maxresdefault.jpg\" media=\"(min-width: 801px)\" \/><source class=\"video-seo-source-hq\" srcset=\"https:\/\/i.ytimg.com\/vi\/ENyJI7tBu7o\/hqdefault.jpg\" media=\"(max-width: 800px)\" \/><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"\" src=\"https:\/\/i.ytimg.com\/vi\/ENyJI7tBu7o\/hqdefault.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"480\" height=\"360\" \/><\/picture>\n<div class=\"video-seo-youtube-player-play\"><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/figure>\n<p>\u201cThat doesn\u2019t mean there aren\u2019t also many mass violations being committed by Hamas \u2014 not just against hostages, but also against Palestinians in Gaza. Even before the genocide, for the 17 years in which Hamas had been in power in Gaza, people had protested,\u201d continued Hassan. \u201cIt\u2019s just that the outside world was not interested in listening unless there was war. What was happening between the wars was rarely, if ever, listened to.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThis is our obligation: When the bombs cease to fall, when the situation improves, we have to keep our eyes on Gaza,\u201d she added. \u201cOne sentence that continues to haunt me, and I felt it was prophetic when everything restarted, was one father whose child was seriously injured in a drone strike. He said \u2018This time we survived. We don\u2019t know what will happen next. We don\u2019t know if you\u2019ll find us alive next.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>BySelen Ozturk Aug 13, 2025 For&#46;&#46;&#46;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9,7],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-74736","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-opinion","category-u-s-a"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lapost.us\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/74736","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lapost.us\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lapost.us\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lapost.us\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lapost.us\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=74736"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/lapost.us\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/74736\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":74737,"href":"https:\/\/lapost.us\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/74736\/revisions\/74737"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lapost.us\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=74736"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lapost.us\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=74736"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lapost.us\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=74736"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}