Algeria calls for UNSC meeting over famine in northern Gaza
NEW YORK (United Nations) – At the request of Algeria, Guyana, Slovenia, and Switzerland, the UN Security Council (UNSC) will meet Tuesday to discuss the imminent famine in northern Gaza.
The meeting will be held after the Integrated Food Security Phase Classification (IPC) Famine Review Committee (FRC) issued an alert on November 8 warning that there is “a strong likelihood that famine is imminent in areas within the northern Gaza Strip.”
The UK’s Parliamentary Under Secretary of State for Africa, Lord Collins of Highbury, will chair the meeting. The expected briefers are Acting Under-Secretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs Joyce Msuya, Assistant Secretary-General for Human Rights Ilze Brands Kehris, and a representative of the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO).
A special IPC snapshot from October 17 classified the entire Gaza Strip as being in Phase 4 (Emergency) on the IPC Acute Food Insecurity (AFI) scale for the period between September and October. The report indicated that nearly 133,000 people were facing catastrophic food insecurity (IPC Phase 5), while approximately 1.84 million people were experiencing high levels of acute food insecurity, classified as IPC Phase 3 or above. The snapshot also warned that the entire Gaza Strip faces a risk of famine between November 2024 and April 2025.
However, the November 8 FRC alert showed that the worst-case scenario outlined in the October 17 snapshot is actually unfolding in parts of the northern Gaza Strip.
This alert was issued to “draw immediate attention” to the urgent need for action. It emphasised that while a new IPC analysis is required, it can be assumed that starvation, malnutrition, and excess mortality due to malnutrition and disease are rapidly escalating in these areas. The alert further noted that famine thresholds may have already been crossed or will likely be reached in the near future.
At a press briefing on Monday, Secretary-General Spokesperson Stéphane Dujarric said that, according to information from the Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA), access to the North Gaza governorate remains severely limited.
Since October 5, the Zionist occupation forces have been conducting a military offensive in the northern Gaza Strip, tightening the siege on the Jabalia refugee camp and surrounding areas. The UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs estimates that between 75,000 and 95,000 people remain in northern Gaza, subjected to relentless and indiscriminate Zionist airstrikes, in addition to severe starvation imposed by the occupying forces.
