Famine has begun in northern Gaza, US official says
JERUSALEM — The chief US aid official told lawmakers this week a famine is underway in the northern Gaza Strip, which has been devastated by six months of Israeli military operations and is the part of the territory most cut off from aid.
The statement from Samantha Power, administrator of the U.S. Agency for International Development, makes her the first senior U.S. official to publicly identify the hunger crisis in Gaza as a famine. But her agency, known as USAID, later sought to temper Power’s comments, clarifying that her assessment was based on data collected in March, not on new information.
“While there has not been a new assessment, conditions remain dire,” USAID said in a statement Thursday.
Aid agencies and global experts have warned for months that nearly all 2.2 million Palestinians in Gaza would soon face extreme hunger.
Meanwhile, on Thursday, the top US military commander for the Middle East, Gen. Michael E. Kurilla, arrived in Israel amid rising tension between Tel Aviv and Iran following the April 1 strike in Syria that killed several senior Iranian commanders.
Iran has vowed to avenge their deaths and Kurilla is in Israel reviewing preparations as the countries brace for what is expected to be imminent retaliatory action, as well as to discuss the war in the Gaza Strip, Defense Department officials said, speaking on condition of anonymity because of the sensitivity of the matter.
Israeli military spokesperson Rear Adm. Daniel Hagari said Kurilla had carried out a situational assessment and reviewed “regional security challenges” with the Israeli military’s chief of staff.
“We are highly alert and ready to face various scenarios,” Hagari said in a televised news briefing, adding that any strike from Iranian territory would be a clear regional escalation.
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu acknowledged Thursday that Israel was facing “challenging times,” noting that “in the midst of the war in Gaza” his country was “also prepared for scenarios involving challenges in other sectors.”
While Biden has become increasingly critical of Netanyahu’s conduct of the war in Gaza — threatening to withhold U.S. assistance unless Israel does more to protect civilians — he emphasized Wednesday that American support for Israel in the face of an Iranian threat was unconditional.
“As I told Prime Minister Netanyahu, our commitment to Israel’s security against these threats from Iran and its proxies is ironclad,” he said at a news conference.
The widening tensions of the past weeks prompted new diplomatic efforts to avert a wider regional war. German Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock spoke to her Iranian counterpart “about the tense situation” in the Middle East on Thursday, according to her office.
“Avoiding further regional escalation must be in everyone’s interest,” her office said in a statement. “We urge all actors in the region to act responsibly and exercise maximum restraint.”
Also on Thursday the Israeli military announced it had carried out a new operation that killed at least one member of Hamas in Gaza.
The Israeli military said Thursday its forces had carried out a “precise, intelligence-based operation” in central Gaza overnight with fighter jets and ground troops to “eliminate terrorist operatives and strike terrorist infrastructure.”
“The goal of the operation, of course, is to destroy Hamas’ ability to rehabilitate itself in the area,” Hagari said in a briefing Thursday evening. “We continue fighting in Gaza and are preparing for future operations.”
On Wednesday, an Israeli airstrike in northern Gaza killed three sons of Ismail Haniyeh, who leads the political wing of Hamas from exile. Hamas-affiliated media reported that three of Haniyeh’s grandchildren also were killed in the attack.
The Israeli military said the three sons — Amir, Mohammad and Hazem — were active in Hamas’ military operations, Amir as a cell commander and his brothers as lower-level operatives. One of the brothers was also involved in holding hostages in Gaza, the Israeli military said, without specifying which one. The military did not provide further details, and its claims could not be verified.
The remarks by Power came during her testimony at a congressional testimony Wednesday, where she cited a March report from a consortium of relief agencies called the Integrated Food Security Phase Classification initiative that said northern Gaza could tip into famine between mid-March and May. The northern section was the first part of Gaza Israeli forces invaded in October and has been heavily damaged. It is also far from the two open border crossings in the south through which nearly all aid is arriving.
During her testimony, Power was asked by Rep. Joaquin Castro, D-Texas, about reports her agency had sent a cable to the National Security Council saying famine had begun in parts of Gaza. The cable was first reported by HuffPost.
“Do you think it is plausible or likely that parts of Gaza, and in particular northern Gaza, are already experiencing famine?” Castro asked.
Power said that appeared to be the case, and cited the report from IPC, as the food initiative is known. She described its methodology as sound.
“That is their assessment, and we believe that assessment is credible,” Power said.
“So famine is already occurring there?” Castro replied.
“That is — yes,” Power said.
The IPC usually classifies a food shortage as a famine when at least 20 percent of households face an extreme lack of food, when at least 30 percent of children suffer from acute malnutrition and when at least 2 adults or 4 children for every 10,000 people die each day from starvation or disease linked to malnutrition.
Power said later in her testimony the rate of severe malnutrition among children in Gaza had become “markedly worse” since Oct. 7, when a Hamas-led terrorist attack prompted Israel to launch its military offensive in Gaza.
“In northern Gaza, the rate of malnutrition prior to Oct. 7 was almost zero, and it is now 1 in 3 kids,” she said. She added: “In terms of actual severe acute malnutrition for under-5s, that rate was 16 percent in January and became 30 percent in February. We’re awaiting the March numbers, but we expect it to continue.”
In interviews, people in northern Gaza have described severe food shortages. Even in Beit Lahia, once known as Gaza’s breadbasket, people’s diets sometimes amount to little more than boiled bitter weeds, said Yousef Sager, 24, a farmer.
“I never thought we would be talking about famine here,” he said.
In the early months of the war, he said he ate only a small plate of rice each day, with breakfast and dinner replaced by tea or coffee. When rice, tea and coffee ran out, he and many other Palestinians in Gaza turned to khobeza, a leafy green that grows in early spring.
But the khobeza is starting to run out, he said, so he now lives off a soup made from hot water and stinging nettles. Before the war, not even farm animals ate that, he said.
“I had to close my nose and just swallow it to survive,” he said.