Gaza could face a famine by May. What does that mean?

FOOD IS SCARCE in Gaza. Many residents are eating leaves and foraging for scraps on the streets, according to Save the Children, a charity. Since the outbreak of war between Israel and Hamas, deliveries of food to the strip have been insufficient. Evidently, neither Israel nor Hamas considers getting food to the starving to be a priority. Israel insists it is not obstructing aid lorries. But the situation is so bad that America and others have begun air-dropping food into Gaza. America is also planning to build a pier to allow faster deliveries by sea.

On March 18th the Integrated Food Security Phase Classification (IPC), a UN-backed initiative responsible for a scale that measures hunger, said that 30% of Gaza’s population is experiencing catastrophic food insecurity. It was able to analyse 95% of the population, about 2.1m people, and concluded that none of them were “food secure”. Since it was established 20 years ago the IPC has declared only two famines: in Somalia in 2011, and in South Sudan in 2017. Unless there is a ceasefire and faster supplies of aid, the IPC believes it will have grounds to declare a third in Gaza’s northern governates by May, and in southern Gaza by July. What exactly constitutes a famine?