L'ONU déclare officiellement la famine à Gaza
The UN officially declared famine in Gaza on Friday, where 500,000 people are in a "catastrophic" condition, according to its experts, at a time when Israel threatens to destroy the largest city in the war-ravaged Palestinian territory.
After months of warnings of famine in the Gaza Strip, the Integrated Food Security Phase Classification (IPC), a UN agency based in Rome, confirmed that a famine was underway in the Gaza governorate.
Israel denounced the announcement as biased and "based on lies from Hamas," the Palestinian Islamist movement whose unprecedented attack on Israel on October 7, 2023, triggered the war.
"There is no famine in Gaza," the Israeli Foreign Ministry said.
According to the IPC, famine is expected to spread to the governorates of Deir el-Balah (central) and Khan Younis (south) by the end of September.
The Gaza governorate represents approximately 20% of the Palestinian territory. If we add Khan Yunis (29.5%) and Deir el-Balah (16%), we arrive at 65.5%, or approximately two-thirds of the total area of the Gaza Strip, a poor territory of 365 km2 where more than two million Palestinians are crammed.
According to UN experts, more than half a million people in Gaza are facing "catastrophic" conditions, the highest level of food distress in the IPC, characterized by famine and death.
This famine "could have been avoided" without "Israel's systematic obstruction," accused the head of the United Nations' humanitarian coordination office, Tom Fletcher.
COGAT, the Israeli Defense Ministry's agency that oversees civil affairs in the occupied Palestinian territories, denounced the IPC report as "misleading and biased," adding that the IPC failed to take into account efforts made in recent weeks to "stabilize the humanitarian situation in the Gaza Strip."
"Gates of Hell"
UN human rights chief Volker Türk reiterated on Friday that "starving people for military purposes is a war crime."
"We cannot allow this situation to continue with impunity," said UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres. "We need an immediate ceasefire, the immediate release of all hostages, and full and unhindered humanitarian access," he added.
Israel had earlier threatened to destroy Gaza City if Hamas did not accept peace on its terms, a day after Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu gave the green light to negotiations aimed at releasing all hostages kidnapped on October 7 and remaining in Gaza.
"Soon, the gates of hell will open on Hamas murderers and rapists in Gaza, until they accept Israel's conditions for ending the war, primarily the release of all hostages and the disarmament" of Hamas, Defense Minister Israel Katz wrote on X.
On Thursday evening, Mr. Netanyahu announced that he had ordered "immediate negotiations" with a view to "the release of all hostages and ending the war under conditions acceptable to Israel."
Without explicitly citing it, he was responding to the latest proposal from the mediators - Egypt, Qatar and the United States - for a ceasefire.
Empty bowls
"Do you know who is starving? The hostages kidnapped and tortured by the barbarians of Hamas," reacted the US ambassador to Israel, Mike Huckabee, a fervent supporter of Israel even before the publication of the IPC report.
Every day, AFP journalists in the Gaza Strip witness food distributions where crowds of Palestinians of all ages rush in, shouting, crying, begging for empty bowls or pans to be filled, held out with the energy of desperation towards field canteens.
While claiming to want to negotiate a ceasefire and the release of hostages in Gaza, Israel, which now controls about 75% of the Palestinian territory, is intensifying its military pressure. This week, the government approved a plan to attack Gaza City, the largest city in the territory, and announced the recall of 60,000 additional reservists.
Hamas on Monday agreed to a draft agreement that, according to Palestinian sources, would provide for a 60-day truce during which the hostages still held captive in Gaza (49 in number, including 27 declared dead by the Israeli army) would be released in two stages in exchange for the release of hundreds of Palestinian prisoners.
The October 7 attack resulted in the deaths of 1,219 people on the Israeli side, the majority of them civilians, according to an AFP tally based on official data.
The Israeli military reprisal campaign in the Gaza Strip has left at least 62,192 dead, mostly civilians, according to the Hamas government's health ministry in Gaza. The ministry, whose figures are considered reliable by the UN, does not specify the number of fighters killed.
Commentaires (6)
C'est écœurant comment tous les gouvernements du monde (pas seulement les US) sont complices de ce massacre, personne n'ose dénoncer ou critiquer les principaux soutient (USA, Germany, UK, France, Italy, Netherland, Poland, Canada, Egypt, KSA, UAE, Turkey etc.) tous commanditaires à cette extermination de masse. Les autres pays comme le Sénégal le sont tout autant complice pour ne pas couper leurs relations avec les pays commanditaires. L'histoire nous jugera !
Pas l'histoire uniquement, Dieu également nous jugera le jour du jugement dernier pour ne pas avoir réagit
On s'en fou on est au Sénégal ici, les pays arabes autour ont qu'à leur donner a manger
Vu que tu es sans cœur face à la souffrance d'être humain, le jour où des montres viendront te massacrer tu ferais mieux de ne demander l'aide de personne et de te débrouiller par tes propres moyens et ceux de tes voisins immédiats. Et si jamais t'es voisins refusent lâchement de t'aider tu n'as qu'à te taire et souffrir en silence
Tu ferais mieux d'utiliser la première personne du singulier quand tu t'exprimes. Tu n'es pas le représentant ni le porte parole de qui que ce soit ici, encore moins des sénégalais
C'est vraiment compliquée et dure
que le bon dieu libère définitivement les populations palestiniennes des meurtres , de l'oppression et de la maltraitance des israéliens
Nous on va pouvoir envoyer des moutons et des bouées grâce au gourou, son paillasson et Marius Mohamed...
C’est pas une guerre ce sont des tueries en masse Israël est le principal responsable c’est plutôt de la haine Israël est détruire
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