A trickle of aid into the Gaza Strip must become an ocean, United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said on Tuesday.
“Food, water, medicine and fuel must flow in waves and without obstruction,” he said, describing an alert by a global hunger monitor on Tuesday as confirming “what we have feared: Gaza is on the brink of famine.”
“Palestinians in Gaza are enduring a humanitarian catastrophe of epic proportions. This is not a warning. It is a reality unfolding before our eyes,” he said in a statement.
A worst-case scenario of famine is unfolding in Gaza and immediate action is needed to end fighting and allow unimpeded aid access, a global hunger monitor warned on Tuesday, saying failure to act now would result in widespread death.
Its alert coincided with a statement from Gaza health authorities saying Israel's military campaign had now killed more than 60,000 Palestinians.
The Integrated Food Security Phase Classification (IPC) raised the prospect that the manmade starvation crisis could be formally classified as a famine, in the hope that this might raise the pressure on Israel to let far more food deliveries in.
"Mounting evidence shows that widespread starvation, malnutrition, and disease are driving a rise in hunger-related deaths," the IPC said.
It added that it would quickly carry out the formal analysis that could allow it to classify Gaza as "in famine".
