WASHINGTON (AP) — A leading organization that monitors food crises around the world withdrew a new report this week warning of an impending famine in the North. Gaza As part of what it called the “almost complete blockade” imposed by Israel, after the United States requested it be withdrawn, American officials told the Associated Press. This step comes after public criticism of the report from the US ambassador to Israel.
The rare public dispute sparked accusations from prominent aid and human rights figures that the work was being funded by the United States Famine Early Warning System Networkwhich was intended to reflect the opinion of unbiased international experts, has been tainted by politics. A famine declaration would be a major embarrassment to Israel, which insists that its 15-month war in Gaza is aimed at the armed Hamas movement and not its civilian population.
US Ambassador to Israel Jacob Liu Earlier this week Named The warning was issued by the internationally recognized group Inaccurate and “irresponsible.”Liu and the US Agency for International Development, which funds the monitoring group, said the findings failed to properly take into account the rapidly changing conditions in northern Gaza.
Humanitarian and human rights officials expressed concerns about American political interference in the system for monitoring famines in the world. The US Embassy in Israel and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs declined to comment. Famine Early Warning System officials did not respond to questions.
“We are working day and night with the United Nations and our Israeli partners to meet the humanitarian needs — which are significant — and relying on inaccurate data is irresponsible,” Liu said on Tuesday.
USAID confirmed to the Associated Press that it had asked the famine watchdog to withdraw its heightened warning issued in a report dated Monday. The report did not appear among the most prominent updates on the group’s website Thursday. But the link to it remained active.
The dispute partly indicates the difficulty of assessing the extent of famine in northern Gaza, which is largely isolated. Thousands have fled in recent weeks from an intensified Israeli military campaign that aid groups say has allowed only 12 truckloads of food and water to be delivered since around October.
The Famine Early Warning System Network said in its retracted report that unless Israel changes its policy, it expects the number of people dying from hunger and related diseases in northern Gaza to reach between two and 15 people per day sometime between January and March.
The internationally recognized mortality threshold for famine is Two or more deaths per day per 10,000 people.
USAID created the Famine Early Warning System (FEWS) in the 1980s and continues to fund it. But its purpose is to provide independent, impartial and data-driven assessments of hunger crises, including in war zones. His findings help guide aid decisions made by the United States and other governments and agencies around the world.
Israeli Foreign Ministry spokesman Oren Marmorstein welcomed the US ambassador’s public challenge to the famine warning. “Famine Early Warning System Network – Stop spreading these lies!” Marmorstein said X.
In publicly challenging the findings, the US ambassador “used his political power to undermine the work of this specialized agency,” said Scott Paul, a senior director at the humanitarian non-profit Oxfam America. Paul stressed that he was not thinking about the accuracy of the data or the methodology of the report.
“The primary goal of establishing the Famine Early Warning System was for a group of experts to make assessments about impending famine that were not tainted by political considerations,” said Kenneth Roth, former executive director of the Famine Early Warning Program. Human Rights Watch And now a visiting professor of international affairs at Princeton University. “USAID certainly appears to be allowing political considerations — the Biden administration’s concern about funding Israel’s starvation strategy — to interfere.”
Israel says it has carried out operations in recent months against Hamas activists who are still active in northern Gaza. It says the vast majority of the area’s population has fled and moved to Gaza City, where most of the aid directed to the north is delivered. But some critics, including a former defense minister, accused Israel of carrying out ethnic cleansing in the far north of Gaza, near the Israeli border.
Northern Gaza was one of the areas most affected by the fighting and restrictions imposed by Israel on aid during its war with Hamas activists. Global famine monitors and officials from the United Nations and the United States have repeatedly warned of the imminent danger of malnutrition and deaths from famine reaching famine levels.
International officials say that last summer, Israel increased the amount of aid it was accepting there, under American pressure. The United States and the United Nations said that the population of Gaza as a whole needs between 350 and 500 trucks per day of food and other vital needs.
But the United Nations and aid organizations say Israel has recently blocked almost all aid to this part of Gaza. Cindy McCainFormer American head of the United Nations World Food Programme Named To put political pressure on the flow of food to the Palestinians there.
Israel says it does not place any restrictions on the entry of aid into Gaza, and that hundreds of trucks loaded with goods are piling up at the Gaza crossings, and has accused international relief agencies of failing to deliver supplies. The United Nations and other relief organizations say ongoing fighting, looting and inadequate security by Israeli forces make it impossible to deliver aid effectively.
Liu, the US ambassador, said the famine warning was based on “outdated and inaccurate” data. He pointed to uncertainty about how many people have fled in recent weeks out of the 65,000 to 75,000 people who remain in northern Gaza, saying that skews the results.
The Famine Early Warning System said in its report that its famine assessment would stand even if as few as 10,000 people remained.
USAID said in its statement to the Associated Press that it reviewed the report before its publication and noted “inconsistencies” in population estimates and some other data. She added that the US agency asked the famine warning group to address those doubts and to be clear in its final report to reflect how those doubts affected its famine forecasts.
“This was conveyed prior to Ambassador Liu’s statement,” USAID said in a statement. “FEWS NET did not resolve any of these concerns and was published despite these technical comments and a request for substantive engagement prior to publication. As such, USAID has requested retraction of the report.”
Roth criticized the American appeal of the report in light of the seriousness of the crisis there.
“This debate about how many people are in dire need of food appears to be a politicized diversion from the fact that the Israeli government is preventing the entry of almost all food,” he said, adding that “the Biden administration appears to be closing its eyes to this reality.” But putting his head in the sand will not feed anyone.
The United States, Israel’s main backer, provided a record amount of military support in the first year of the war. At the same time, the Biden administration has repeatedly urged Israel to allow more aid to reach Gaza overall, and warned that failure to do so could lead to US restrictions on military support. The administration recently said that Israel was making improvements and refused to carry out its threat to impose restrictions.
Military support for Israel’s war in Gaza is politically charged in the United States, where Republicans and some Democrats strongly oppose any effort to limit American support for the suffering of Palestinian civilians trapped in the conflict. The Biden administration’s reluctance to do more to pressure Israel to improve the treatment of civilians undermined the support enjoyed by Democrats in last month’s elections.
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Sam Mednick and Joseph Federman in Jerusalem contributed to this report.
