Gaza Strip Faces Catastrophic Food Insecurity Amid Ongoing Conflict

A high risk of famine looms over Gaza as the conflict between Israel and Hamas persists, restricting humanitarian access. According to the IPC, over 495,000 people face severe food insecurity. Although food deliveries earlier this year temporarily alleviated hunger, recent negative trends threaten to reverse these gains.

A high risk of famine persists across the whole of the Gaza Strip as long as conflict between Israel and Hamas continues and humanitarian access is restricted, according to an assessment by a global hunger monitor. More than 495,000 people, or more than one fifth of Gaza's population, are facing the most severe, catastrophic level of food insecurity, an update from the Integrated Food Security Phase Classification (IPC) said, a copy of which was seen by Reuters ahead of its release on Tuesday.

The IPC said increased deliveries of food and nutrition services to northern Gaza in March and April appeared to have reduced the severity of hunger in the area, where the U.N.-backed body had previously projected that famine was likely. But it also said improvements seen in April could rapidly be reversed.

"The humanitarian space in the Gaza Strip continues to shrink and the ability to safely deliver assistance to populations is dwindling. The recent trajectory is negative and highly unstable," the IPC update said.

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