Israeli Government Body Challenges UN Report on Gaza Famine Risks

The UN-backed report issued by the Integrated Food Security Phase Classification (IPC) surrounding an imminent famine in Gaza represents an “inaccurate image of famine” in the Gaza Strip, the Israeli government’s civilian policy arm in the territories said on Friday.  Following last week’s IPC report that claimed the number of people expected to experience “catastrophic hunger” by mid-July had ballooned to almost 1.1 million, Israel’s Coordination of Government Activities in the Territories (COGAT) released a response overviewing its own metrics on the current situation in the enclave.

After examining a variety of factors, including the delivery of aid such as water, medical supplies, and food, COGAT asserted that the IPC report had “multiple factual and methodological flaws, some of them serious.” Additionally, it noted that many of the claims are based on incomplete data and that several of the allegations—that civilians are limited to 1 liter of water per day, for example—were entirely unfounded.

Furthermore, the organization stated, “We outright reject any allegations according to which Israel is purposefully starving the civilian population in Gaza,” referencing the more than 12,000 food trucks that have entered Gaza since the war began. According to COGAT, a total of 205 humanitarian aid trucks entered Gaza on Sunday alone, but the organization also maintains that much of the aid has been confiscated by Hamas and used to control the population. 

While Israeli officials insist that famine is unlikely to sweep over the entirety of the Strip, one anonymous senior US State Department official disclosed to Reuters on Friday that “famine is a significant risk in the south and center but not present; in the north, it is both a risk and quite possibly present in at least some areas.”