Palestine urges UN to declare famine in Gaza amid Israeli onslaught

By Qais Abu Samra

RAMALLAH, Palestine (AA) – Palestine on Tuesday called on the United Nations to officially declare famine in the Gaza Strip, which has been under relentless Israeli attacks since Oct. 7.

“International reports show the spread of hunger among Palestinian families who spend entire days without food,” the Foreign Ministry said in a statement.

“More than a million people in the Gaza Strip are starving,” it added.

UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres earlier said that four out of five of the hungriest people anywhere in the world are in Gaza.

“Some 1.9 million displaced people are in shelter centers and are exposed to severe hunger and 50,000 pregnant women are in shelter centers without water, medicine, or health care,” the ministry said.

Israel has pounded the Gaza Strip since a cross-border attack by the Palestinian group Hamas on Oct. 7, killing at least 20,915

Palestinians, mostly women and children, and injuring 54,918 others, according to local health authorities.

Around 1,200 Israelis are believed to have been killed in the Hamas attack.

The Israeli onslaught has left Gaza in ruins, with half of the coastal territory's housing damaged or destroyed and nearly 2 million people displaced within the densely populated enclave amid acute shortages of food and clean water.

*Writing by Ahmed Asmar