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21-03-2024
WASHINGTON/ GAZA CITY: Gaza’s two million people are experiencing “severe levels of acute food insecurity”, US Secretary of State Antony Blinken has said.
This was first time an entire population had been so classified, he said when questioned by media about conditions in the territory.
Blinken called on Israel to prioritize providing for those in need.
UN agencies have said north Gaza could face famine by May without a pause in the fighting and a surge in aid.
Blinken’s warning came during a trip to the Philippines as US officials announced that he would travel to the Middle East, his sixth trip to the region since October, as efforts to secure a ceasefire continue.
Israeli negotiators are due to begin talks in Qatar on Tuesday in a fresh attempt to agree a deal with Hamas to halt the fighting, get humanitarian aid in, and Israeli hostages out.
The US is Israel’s closest ally and biggest provider of military aid.
Blinken’s comments were among his strongest yet in setting out the scale of the humanitarian crisis in Gaza.
Asked by media whether the current conditions were a harbinger of the territory’s future without an agreed governance or security plan, he said: “According to the most respected measure of these things, 100% of the population in Gaza is at severe levels of acute food insecurity. That’s the first time an entire population has been so classified.”
Acute food insecurity is when a person’s inability to consume adequate food puts their life or livelihood in immediate danger. If unaddressed, it leads to starvation.
Blinken added: “We also see again, according to in this case the United Nations, 100%, the totality of the population – is in need of humanitarian assistance,” he added.
“Compare that to Sudan, about 80% of the population there is in need of humanitarian assistance; Afghanistan, about 70%. So, again, this only underscores both the urgency, the imperative, of making this the priority.”
He once again called on Hamas to lay down arms but said it was incumbent on Israel to make it a priority to provide for those who desperately needed humanitarian assistance.
Asked about the numbers of journalists killed in Gaza and lack of access to the territory for international reporters, Blinken said that “as a matter of principle” journalists should have access wherever there is conflict so “the world can have knowledge”. (Int’l News Desk)
