Gaza is now facing its fiercest fight: absolute hunger.There’s no food to buy even if you could afford it, people there have told Al Jazeera.The widespread hunger has been imposed by the Israeli military as it restricted the entry of aid for months and enforced a food distribution system where people get shot almost daily.“It’s one of the most … barbaric ways to kill,” Dr James Smith, an emergency doctor who has volunteered twice in Gaza, told Al Jazeera. “Starvation is always something that is done by one person to another. It’s intended to be protracted and to maximise suffering.”On July 29, the United Nations-backed Integrated Food Security Phase Classification (IPC) issued its gravest warning yet: that “worst-case scenario of famine is currently playing out in the Gaza Strip”.Mounting evidence shows a rise in hunger-related deaths. Famine thresholds for food consumption have been reached in most of Gaza, and for acute malnutrition in Gaza City.According to the Health Ministry in Gaza, so far, at least 180 people have died of starvation, half of them children, underscoring the devastating toll of hunger on Gaza’s young.According to the IPC, more than 20,000 children have been admitted for treatment for acute malnutrition between April and mid-July – more than 3,000 of them severely affected. (Al Jazeera)As it begins to starve after being deprived of food for days, the body …
