Israel accuses UN-backed Gaza famine report of political manipulation, demands withdrawal

Israel rejected a United Nations-backed study that declared famine successful Gaza, claiming it contained "gross forgeries." A overseas ministry authoritative warned Jerusalem would lobby donor countries to chopped backing unless the study is withdrawn.

In an Aug. 22 report, the Integrated Food Security Phase Classification (IPC) said famine is already taking spot successful the Gaza Governorate and is apt to dispersed to Deir al-Balah and Khan Younis by the extremity of September. The study said astir one-third of Gaza’s astir 2 cardinal residents — astir 641,000 radical — could soon look catastrophic starvation.

According to the IPC, 132,000 children nether property 5 are projected to endure acute malnutrition done 2026, including much than 41,000 terrible cases. It said implicit 55,000 large and breastfeeding women also require urgent nutrition support.

ISRAEL PUSHES BACK AT ‘TAILOR-MADE’ UN-BACKED REPORT CLAIMING GAZA FAMINE

The study blamed astir 2 years of war, the displacement of 1.9 cardinal people, the illness of section nutrient production, and terrible restrictions connected aid. It noted that adjacent erstwhile nutrient enters Gaza, overmuch of it fails to scope civilians. 

Israel flatly rejected the findings, with the Foreign Ministry Director General Eden Bar Tal telling reporters the IPC had committed "gross forgeries" and manipulated its ain grounds to state famine.

Bar Tal said the IPC fabricated 182 deaths to scope the famine threshold of 188. He accused the radical of breaking its ain rules by utilizing a malnutrition measurement barred successful Gaza, relying connected clinic-based samples that are prohibited, and cherry-picking surveys. He claimed that of 15,749 children surveyed, the IPC utilized lone 7,519, capable to propulsion results supra famine levels.

"The IPC study is forged for governmental purposes. No uncertainty the IPC manipulated and ignored data, broke its ain rules and hid contradictory evidence," Bar Tal said, saying the study was fabricated for the intent of "supporting Hamas’s starvation campaign."

ISRAEL SAYS UN MISLEADS WORLD AS GAZA AID STOLEN AND DIVERTED FROM CIVILIANS

The Foreign Ministry issued a ceremonial missive demanding the report’s withdrawal and warned that if it is not retracted, Israel volition impulse donor states to frost backing to the IPC "until nonrecreational credibility is restored." It besides distributed a PowerPoint presumption titled "The IPC Fraud," which described the process arsenic "shooting the arrow and past drafting the target." One descent read: "The facts are clear: The IPC study is forged."

The IPC did not respond to Fox News Digital requests for comment.

At a Security Council gathering connected Wednesday, Dorothy Shea, the acting U.S. ambassador to the U.N., said that hunger was a existent contented and a precedence for the U.S., but besides took contented with the IPC report. 

"We tin lone lick problems with credibility and integrity. Unfortunately, the caller study from the IPC doesn't walk the trial either. One of the report's cardinal authors has a lengthy grounds of bias against Israel, including openly justifying the Houthi violent attacks connected Israeli civilian targets. By his ain measure, helium ought to person recused himself. This helps explicate wherefore the mean standards were changed for this declaration, raising important questions," she said.

In effect to Fox News Digital’s questions, Stéphane Dujarric, the spokesperson for the U.N. Secretary General, defended the IPC process and rejected Israel’s claims: "The information that the IPC enactment retired connected famine successful Gaza is robust. It is technological and it is technical," Dujarric said. "IPC famine investigation uses a modular measurement … reviewed cautiously by an autarkic radical of experts who confirmed that a famine is taking spot successful Gaza Governorate."

He said the IPC relied connected "recent and verified" U.N. bureau information streams including WHO, UNICEF, UNRWA, and WFP, portion besides considering figures from Israel’s Coordinator of Government Activities successful the Territories (COGAT).

On whether Hamas’s exploitation of assistance factored in, Dujarric said the study "illustrates the constraints that hinder humanitarian organizations from distributing assistance and basal successful the mode of allowing radical to get the assistance they need."

On Thursday, Secretary-General António Guterres claimed that "Famine is nary longer a looming anticipation — it is simply a present-day catastrophe. People are dying from hunger, families are being torn isolated by displacement and despair," Guterres told reporters earlier briefing the Security Council.