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UN PhotoUN / GAZA FOOD INSECURITY REPORT
SOURCE: UNIFEED
RESTRICTIONS: NONE
LANGUAGE: ENGLISH / NATS
DATELINE: 18 MARCH 2024, NEW YORK CITY / FILE
FILE - NEW YORK CITY
1. Wide shot, flag outside UN Headquarters
18 MARCH 2024, NEW YORK CITY
2. Wide shot, press room dais, speakers on screen
3. Wide shot, journalists
4. SOUNDBITE (English) Arif Husain, Chief Economist, World Food Programme (WFP):
“In northern Gaza - there are about 300,000 people over there - this is the place where famine is imminent between now and the end of May. Still have a small window, if we can act now, if the fighting stops, you have full access, if there are huge commodities of essential things like food, water and medicine going in, we can still avert this famine.”
5. Med shot, press room dais
6. SOUNDBITE (English) Arif Husain, Chief Economist, World Food Programme (WFP):
“If the conflict continues, if the magnitude and direction of displacements continue, if there is less humanitarian access, less humanitarian assistance, we can see a famine in these places as well.”
7. Wide shot, press room dais
8. SOUNDBITE (English) Rein Paulsen, Director, Office of Emergencies and Resilience, Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO):
“Famine is the worst-case scenario, and that worst-case scenario is set to unfold at any moment. The other point that I think is really important to underscore is that well before any finding of famine takes place, people are already in extreme hunger and experience profound suffering. Malnutrition is spiking, mortality numbers are going up. The message here, colleagues, is that the international community should not wait for famine as a trigger for action. The time for urgent action has long been upon us.”
9. Wide shot, press room dais
10. SOUNDBITE (English) Rein Paulsen, Director, Office of Emergencies and Resilience, Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO):
“FAO is also mobilised to provide key agricultural supplies into Gaza. Our focus specifically been around the priority to move animal feed. We have about 1,500 metric tons of vitamin in place, to move in. This is about keeping those livestock that are still alive, alive. And fundamentally, it's about ensuring, amongst other things, that children, these malnourished children we've been talking about and captured in the analysis have access to milk and that there's availability of, protein.”
11. Wide shot, press room dais
12. SOUNDBITE (English) Arif Husain, Chief Economist, World Food Programme (WFP):
“We have enough food to help 2.2 million people in Gaza. So, what do we need? We need to make sure that their food can come in. What else do we need? We need to make sure that our people, humanitarians who are actually taking this food in, they are safe. What else do we need? You need to make sure that people who are receiving this food, they are safe. And is that enough to do it for one day? No. Two days? No. Because it's food. It is water. It's medicine. We need to do it in a very sustainable way.”
13. Wide shot, end of presser
Following the release of a new report projecting that famine is to occur anytime between now and May 2024 in Gaza’s northern governorates, the World Food Programme (WFP) Chief Economist Arif Husain said, “still have a small window if we can act now.”
Husain said, “in northern Gaza - there are about 300,000 people over there - this is the place where famine is imminent between now and the end of May.”
He said, “if the fighting stops, you have full access, if there are huge commodities of essential things like food, water and medicine going in, we can still avert this famine.”
According to the report published today (18 Mar) by the Integrated Food Security Phase Classification (IPC) global initiative, the rest of the Gaza Strip is also at the risk of future famine in the worst-case scenario if the hostilities do not cease and humanitarian assistance at scale does not reach those most in need.
Husain said, “if the conflict continues, if the magnitude and direction of displacements continue, if there is less humanitarian access, less humanitarian assistance, we can see a famine in these places as well.”
The Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) has also raised alarm over rapidly deteriorating hunger crisis in the Gaza Strip.
The FAO’s Director at the Office of Emergencies and Resilience Rein Paulsen said, “famine is the worst-case scenario, and that worst-case scenario is set to unfold at any moment. The other point that I think is really important to underscore is that well before any finding of famine takes place, people are already in extreme hunger and experience profound suffering. Malnutrition is spiking, mortality numbers are going up.”
Paulsen said, “the international community should not wait for famine as a trigger for action. The time for urgent action has long been upon us.”
He said, “FAO is also mobilised to provide key agricultural supplies into Gaza. Our focus specifically been around the priority to move animal feed. We have about 1,500 metric tons of vitamin in place, to move in. This is about keeping those livestock that are still alive, alive. And fundamentally, it's about ensuring, amongst other things, that children, these malnourished children we've been talking about and captured in the analysis have access to milk and that there's availability of, protein.”
To conclude, Husain said, “we have enough food to help 2.2 million people in Gaza. So, what do we need? We need to make sure that their food can come in. What else do we need? We need to make sure that our people, humanitarians who are actually taking this food in, they are safe. What else do we need? You need to make sure that people who are receiving this food, they are safe. And is that enough to do it for one day? No. Two days? No. Because it's food. It is water. It's medicine. We need to do it in a very sustainable way.”
The new data released today indicates that the entire population in the Gaza Strip is facing high levels of acute food insecurity classified in IPC Phases 3 (Crisis), 4 (Emergency) or 5 (Catastrophe). This includes half of the population or about 1.11 million experiencing catastrophic food insecurity (IPC Phase 5). Compared to the IPC previous analysis issued in December 2023, acute food insecurity in the Gaza Strip has deepened and widened with 79 percent and 92 percent more people sliding into catastrophic levels of hunger in the current (mid-February – mid-March) and the projected period (mid-March – July), respectively.
According to the IPC latest data, virtually all households are skipping meals every day and adults are reducing their meals so that children can eat. In the northern governorates, in nearly two thirds of the households, people went entire days and nights without eating at least 10 times in the last 30 days. Recent data shows that, in the northern governorates, one in three children under the age of two is acutely malnourished.
