Here are the UN reports on Gaza's food situation for two months ago compared to today:
Apparently the situation has improved. In May OCHA reported that 1.1 million Gazans were projected to face the worst level of famine. Today it's 495,000. Likewise, the number facing Level 4 famine is down by 100,000.
Virtually all of Gaza is "projected" to "face" food insecurity of some level—the same as in May and previously. However, it's unclear exactly what that means. Presumably it means Gazans aren't starving right now but might in the future. I think.
Virtually all of Gaza is "projected" to "face" food insecurity of some level—the same as in May and previously. However, it's unclear exactly what that means. Presumably it means Gazans aren't starving right now but might in the future. I think.
It means that they, at least most of them, probably, aren't facing death by starvation, but that they aren't getting sufficient food to be healthy.
"Apparently the situation has improved. In May OCHA reported that 1.1 million Gazans were projected to face the worst level of famine. Today it's 495,000. Likewise, the number facing Level 4 famine is down by 100,000."
I think you mean the REPORTING has improved...
I'm not sure we have ANY idea of what the situation was like then, or is like now.
Every party responsible for making such claims has covered themselves in ignominy, and it's not like the UN is walking out of this war a shining beacon of competent non-partisan information and intervention...
still a genocide tho
Good news, Hassan! Because of the improvements you may now have 1.5 grains of rice per meal instead of none.
I dunno, I'd say about half a million people dealing with "catastrophic levels of food insecurity" sounds a lot like starvation to me, but what do I know, I didn't work as a marketing executive for a software company.
And you don’t think half a million is better than 1.1 million? Kevin’s point was just that the situation has improved.
and polio has been detected in the waste water...
If any Gazans were showing visible signs of starvation—and we all know what this looks like, as starvation is not uncommon—those photos would have been paraded in front of us by now. Instead, we regularly see photos of people who appear of healthy weight or even pudgy. The best explanation for this is that there actually is no food shortage in Gaza.
It is remarkable what you don't see by simply not looking.
Fear of famine grows in Gaza as emaciated children seen at hospitals
UNRWA: Over 50,000 Palestinian children need treatment for acute malnutrition
Israel’s Imposed Famine on Gaza
Families in northern Gaza ‘forced to survive on a less than a can of beans a day’
In Gaza, starving children fill hospital wards as famine looms
Gaza: Israel’s Imposed Starvation Deadly for Children
In besieged Gaza, poverty exacerbates child malnutrition
Videos of malnourished children show Gaza’s forced starvation crisis
It means Netanyahu is an evil asshole.
I don't think "has improved" is supported by the circumstances. For one thing, the challenges in accurate assessment are huge. This is all estimation, modeling and educated guesswork. So do the changes in numbers represent accurately changes in reality or better information? It is virtually inconceivable that things have improved.
In the same way the world did not know the full extent of what the Nazis did until they were defeated and the allies liberated places like Auschwitz, we won't know the full extent of what Israelis have done until Israel allows full access to journalists, humanitarian workers and the UN. There is a reason they are not doing that and perhaps never will until the bulldozers have finished burying the bodies.
Food insecurity is very different from starvation. In any given year 10+% of Americans face food insecurity. We’re not dying in the streets.
There are five different phases going from secure to famine. The middle three all involve food insecurity. On top of that, the USDA uses different definitions, and has our stages, the last three of which are levels of food insecurity.
https://www.wfp.org/stories/5-steps-food-security-famine
https://www.ers.usda.gov/topics/food-nutrition-assistance/food-security-in-the-u-s/measurement/
So, you can't assume that this means that Gazans aren't facing more of a crisis than American families.
The UN's Famine Review Committee report, which a lot of people are falsely saying found that there is no famine in Gaza, instead found that it is likely that most of Gaza is in Phase 4.
http://www.ipcinfo.org/fileadmin/user_upload/ipcinfo/docs/IPC_Famine_Review_Committee_Report_Gaza_June2024.pdf
Phase 4 is defined as:
Phase 4 – EMERGENCY: At least 20 percent of households in an area are experiencing Phase 4 or worse outcomes, and acute malnutrition rates are expected to be between 15 and 30 percent.
Phase 4 for households is:
Phase 4 – EMERGENCY: People are facing extreme food shortages, acute malnutrition and disease levels are excessively high, and the risk of hunger-related death is rapidly increasing.
So, the crisis is big.