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A new report published today by the world's leading food security organization says there is no longer famine in Gaza. Last August, the Integrated Food Security Phase Classification, or IPC, said it had detected famine in Gaza City, the territory's largest city. NPR's Hadeel Al-Shalchi brings us this report.
HADEEL AL-SHALCHI, BYLINE: The IPC says that there were, quote, "notable improvements" in food security and nutrition in Gaza, but it called the situation, quote, "highly fragile" and said that Gaza could still face starvation. The group credited a ceasefire deal brokered between Israel and Hamas in October, which has allowed more food into the territory. Fifty-one-year-old Khitam al-Hinawi who is sheltering in Al-Mawasi on the coast of Gaza says she's now able to have at least two meals a day.
KHITAM AL-HINAWI: (Speaking Arabic).
AL-SHALCHI: "I can find bread now, and flour is cheaper," she says. Aid organizations say that Israel continues to restrict aid into the strip. The Israeli military agency responsible for coordination in Gaza denied that there was any food scarcity there, saying it was allowing in the agreed amount of aid. The IPC is backed by the U.N. and brings together working groups of food security experts to analyze each crisis individually. The World Food Programme's Antoine Renard says affordability of food in Gaza remains a big challenge.
ANTOINE RENARD: How much do people have as income into the Gaza Strip? We need to move on in terms of what is supposed to be the phase two is actually to ensure that we go beyond pure humanitarian assistance and survival.
AL-SHALCHI: But while the famine didn't last in Gaza City, NPR's Anas Baba describes its long term effects in his own family.
ANAS BABA, BYLINE: My uncle's 4-years-old son lives with us during the famine. He screamed, cried in rage over his single piece of pita bread a day. He still hides food before he eats. He sleeps with pieces of bread clutched in his tiny hands. It's rewired childhood into survival.
AL-SHALCHI: Baba says they are still trying to help the little boy unlearn the fear.
Hadeel Al-Shalchi, NPR News, Tel Aviv. Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.
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