US-funded group recalls Gaza famine alert after criticism by Washington

The US envoy to Israel has disputed the number of Palestinians facing starvation cited in a monthly update

The US government-funded Famine Early Warning System Network (FEWS NET) took down its own alert for Gaza on Tuesday after a rebuke by the US ambassador to Israel. The group was launched by the US Agency for International Development in the mid-1980s to warn of unfolding food crises.

FEWS NET has been releasing updates on the situation in the Palestinian enclave monthly since October. The latest issue stressed that “Israel’s near-total blockade of humanitarian and commercial food supplies to besieged areas of North Gaza Governorate” has been a major factor contributing to food scarcity in the area.

The report cited an estimate by the UN’s Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs, which said that as of mid-November some 65,000-75,000 people remained in the area. The figure was what triggered a negative reaction from Ambassador Jack Lew, Washington’s envoy to Israel, who called the data “outdated and inaccurate” and its mention by FEWS NET “irresponsible.”

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The US diplomat estimated the current civilian population in Northern Gaza at between 7,000 and 15,000 people and cited similar ranges reported by other sources, including the Israeli military.

FEWS NET took down its report hours after publication, but an archived version remains available online. No amended variant was published on its website at the time of the writing.

Some critics of Israel have argued that Lew’s intervention de facto acknowledged that West Jerusalem is succeeding in a campaign to depopulate Northern Gaza and that Washington is supporting that outcome.

“The US government is boasting of its success in committing crimes against humanity,” US journalist Ben Norton remarked, commenting on the ambassador’s statement.

The Israeli government has been accused of trying to make Gaza uninhabitable by destroying the enclave’s civilian infrastructure and subjecting its people to malnutrition.

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The ongoing humanitarian crisis was triggered by military action, which the country’s armed forces launched in October of last year in response to the deadly incursion into Southern Israel by the Palestinian militant group Hamas.

South Africa has filed a complaint with the International Court of Justice accusing Israel of pursuing genocide of Palestinians in Gaza. The UN’s top court ruled in late January that the claim was plausible enough for it to order an injunction while it reviews the merits of the case.