Baku, November 11, AZERTAC

Israeli officials denied there were famine conditions in northern Gaza, hours ahead of a United Nations Security Council meeting to discuss the issue, Tazpit Press Service (TPS) reported. Meanwhile, an expert told The Press Service of Israel that Israel already places no limits on aid allowed into the Strip.

A declaration of famine would trigger restrictions on American military aid to Israel, with other countries likely to follow suit. The outgoing Biden administration gave Israel a November 12 deadline to take specific measures to address northern Gaza’s humanitarian situation.

The declaration would be based on the findings of the UN’s Famine Review Committee, which assesses famine conditions. The FRC issued an emergency alert on Friday, claiming “a strong likelihood that famine is imminent in areas within the northern Gaza Strip,” and that “immediate action, within days not weeks, is required.” The Israel Defense Forces rejected the alert, saying it was based on “partial, biased data and superficial sources with vested interests.”

Israel’s Coordinator for Government Activities in the Territories (COGAT), which coordinates civilian issues between the Israeli government, military, international community and the Palestinian Authority in Judea, Samaria and the Gaza Strip rejected the accusations.

“To date, all projections by the IPC [the FRC’s framework for assessing famine] have proven incorrect and inconsistent with the situation on the ground, with the IPC reports consistently predicting deterioration and then reporting improvement. Unfortunately, this is because the researchers continue to rely on partial, biased data and superficial sources with vested interests,” COGAT tweeted.

It added that since October, 600 aid trucks have entered northern Gaza alone even as the Israel Defense Forces battles Hamas efforts to re-establish itself there.

In addition, COGAT tweeted that there are 700 truckloads of undelivered humanitarian aid piling up at the Kerem Shalom border crossing. On several occasions in the past year, COGAT has called on the UN to “scale up” its aid distribution of food, water and medicine as thousands of undelivered aid pallets pile up on the Gaza side of the border crossings.