Has famine arrived in Gaza? UN experts say it has

For months, Gaza has been teetering on the verge of famine.

But several United Nations (UN) human rights experts are now warning that there is “no doubt” famine already exists across the Strip.

“Israel’s intentional and targeted starvation campaign against the Palestinian people is a form of genocidal violence and has resulted in famine across all of Gaza,” 10 independent UN experts, including the special rapporteur on the right to food and the special rapporteur on human rights in the occupied Palestinian territory, said in a statement on Tuesday.

They accused Israel of fomenting conditions which have led to starvation in Gaza and have called for an end to Israel’s near-10-month bombardment of the besieged enclave.

So how can we tell if famine has set in in Gaza and can it be stopped?

According to the UN-backed monitoring agency, Integrated Food Security Phase Classification (IPC), the term “famine” refers to the widespread and severe scarcity of food across a population.

A region determined to be suffering from famine is assigned a score of “IPC Phase 5”, the highest phase of the IPC’s Acute Food Insecurity scale.

Three conditions must exist to determine there is famine:

In cases of famine, people usually have access to only one or two food groups and there is an extreme shortage of calories – well below 2,100 per person, per day, according to the World Food Programme (WFP).