Screen grab courtesy of French President Emmanuel Macron’s official X account
A new alert from the Integrated Food Security Phase Classification (IPC) system released this week warned:
"Famine thresholds have been reached for food consumption in most of the Gaza Strip and for acute malnutrition in Gaza City." The alert added: "The worst-case scenario of famine is currently playing out in the Gaza Strip."
Concern has escalated sharply over the past week about famine in Gaza after more than 21 months of Israel’s war and a five-month blockade that has severely restricted access to food, water, and medical supplies.
"Faced with an urgent humanitarian crisis, we just conducted a food airdrop over Gaza," Macron said in English on X (formerly Twitter).
"But airdrops are not enough. Israel must grant full humanitarian access to address the risk of famine," he added, thanking France’s Jordanian, Emirati, and German partners for their support.
Several tonnes of food will be delivered over the coming days, according to a joint statement from France’s foreign and defence ministries.
"France is also working on land transport, by far the most effective solution for the large-scale and unhindered delivery of humanitarian goods desperately needed by the population," the statement said.
The UN estimates Gaza requires at least 500 aid trucks per day, with each truck typically carrying between 15 and 20 tonnes.
The French aid airdrops come a week after President Macron announced that his country would recognize the State of Palestine at the upcoming UN General Assembly in September.
Earlier this week, French Foreign Minister Jean-Noël Barrot said France would begin air-dropping 40 tonnes of aid into Gaza starting Friday.
On Wednesday, hospitals across Gaza reported seven new deaths from starvation and severe hunger in the previous 24 hours, including a child. Gaza’s health ministry later confirmed two more deaths, also including a child, bringing the total death toll from starvation to 159 since the war began — 90 of them children.
The ministry also reported that hospitals had received 101 bodies and treated 625 injuries in the past 24 hours due to ongoing Israeli airstrikes.
In the same period, at least 81 Palestinians were killed and more than 666 injured while trying to reach food near distribution points operated by the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation (GHF) — a US- and Israeli-backed scheme that has effectively replaced the UN-led humanitarian system in Gaza.
GHF began operations in late May. Since then, Israeli troops have routinely opened fire on Palestinian civilians approaching the centres for food, according to UN and rights groups.
The UN said that between 27 May and 31 July, at least 1,373 Palestinians were killed while attempting to access food, including 859 in the vicinity of GHF distribution sites.
On Friday, Israeli gunfire and airstrikes killed at least 22 people, including eight near GHF aid sites, Gaza’s civil defence agency reported. Many in Gaza now refer to those killed near food lines as "martyrs of the breadline."
A report released Friday by Human Rights Watch accused Israeli forces at GHF distribution sites of routinely opening fire on starving civilians in acts that amount to war crimes.
"The dire humanitarian situation is a direct result of Israel’s use of starvation of civilians as a weapon of war – a war crime – as well as Israel’s continued intentional deprivation of aid and basic services, ongoing actions that amount to the crime against humanity of extermination, and acts of genocide," the report said.
"The repeated use of lethal force against Palestinian civilians by Israeli forces, without justification, violates both international humanitarian and human rights law.... Regular killings by Israeli forces near GHF sites also amount to war crimes," it added.
According to the latest official figures, the death toll from Israel’s war on Gaza since 7 October 2023 has risen to 60,332, with 147,643 injured. The majority of those killed are women and children.
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