New York
\nGaza\u2019s two million people are experiencing \u201csevere levels of acute food insecurity\u201d, US Secretary of State Antony Blinken has said.
\nThis was first time an entire population had been so classified, he said when questioned by the BBC about conditions in the territory.
\nMr Blinken called on Israel to prioritise providing for those in need. UN agencies have said north Gaza could face famine by May without a pause in the fighting and a surge in aid.
\nMr Blinken\u2019s warning came during a trip to the Philippines as US officials announced that he would travel to the Middle East, his sixth trip to the region since October, as efforts to secure a ceasefire continue.
\nIsraeli negotiators are due to begin talks in Qatar on Tuesday in a fresh attempt to agree a deal with Hamas to halt the fighting, get humanitarian aid in, and Israeli hostages out.
\nMr Blinken\u2019s comments were among his strongest yet in setting out the scale of the humanitarian crisis in Gaza.
\nAsked by the BBC whether the current conditions were a harbinger of the territory\u2019s future without an agreed governance or security plan, he said: \u201cAccording to the most respected measure of these things, 100% of the population in Gaza is at severe levels of acute food insecurity. That\u2019s the first time an entire population has been so classified.\u201d
\nAcute food insecurity is when a person\u2019s inability to consume adequate food puts their life or livelihood in immediate danger. If unaddressed, it leads to starvation.
\nMr Blinken added: \u201cWe also see again, according to in this case the United Nations, 100% – the totality of the population – is in need of humanitarian assistance,\u201d he added.
\n\u201cCompare that to Sudan, about 80% of the population there is in need of humanitarian assistance; Afghanistan, about 70%. So, again, this only underscores both the urgency, the imperative, of making this the priority.\u201d
\nHe once again called on Hamas to lay down arms but said it was incumbent on Israel to make it a priority to provide for those who desperately needed humanitarian assistance.
\nAsked about the numbers of journalists killed in Gaza and lack of access to the territory for international reporters, Mr Blinken said that \u201cas a matter of principle\u201d journalists should have access wherever there is conflict so \u201cthe world can have knowledge\u201d.
\nHe said the issue was something \u201cwe bring up in every instance\u201d.
\nLater, the UN human rights chief stressed that the catastrophic hunger in Gaza was \u201chuman-made and… entirely preventable\u201d.
\nVolker T\u00fcrk put the blame firmly on what he called Israel\u2019s \u201cextensive restrictions on the entry and distribution of humanitarian aid and commercial goods, displacement of most of the population, as well as the destruction of crucial civilian infrastructure\u201d.
\nThe restrictions, he warned, \u201cmay amount to the use of starvation as a method of war, which is a war crime\u201d.
\nIsrael\u2019s diplomatic mission to the UN in Geneva said Mr T\u00fcrk was seeking to blame it for the situation in Gaza and \u201ccompletely absolve the responsibility of the UN and Hamas\u201d.
\n\u201cIsrael is doing everything it can to flood Gaza with aid, including by land air and sea,\u201d it insisted.
\nAid workers reject this, saying that much of the problem in the northern Gaza is due to a collapse in security around aid convoys, after Israel targeted police who were escorting them.
\nIsrael has said police have been hit because its military is dismantling Hamas. But the US has questioned this, saying such targeting makes aid distribution impossible and is counterproductive.
\nUS officials also announced on Tuesday that Mr Blinken would make his latest trip to the region since Hamas\u2019s attacks on Israel on 7 October and the start of the war in Gaza.
\nIt comes without a breakthrough so far on a ceasefire for hostage-release deal between Israel and Hamas.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
New York Gaza\u2019s two million people are experiencing \u201csevere levels of acute food insecurity\u201d, US Secretary of State Antony Blinken has said. This was first time an entire population had been so classified, he said when questioned by the BBC about conditions in the territory. Mr Blinken called on Israel to prioritise providing for those […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":394864,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-394962","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-world"},"yoast_head":"\n