World Food Program director Cindy McCain says parts of the Gaza Strip are experiencing a “full-blown famine” that is spreading rapidly across the territory after nearly seven months of war.
McCain is the second high-profile American leading a U.S. government or U.N. aid initiative who has said there is famine in northern Gaza, although her comments do not constitute an official statement, which is a complex bureaucratic process.
“There’s a famine, a full-blown famine in the north, and it’s heading south,” McCain said in excerpts released Friday from an interview with “Meet The Press.” The interviewer, Kristen Welker, asked McCain to repeat his words.
“What you are saying is significant,” Welker said. “Are you saying there is a full-blown famine in northern Gaza?”
“Yes, I am,” McCain responded. “Yes I am.”
The first U.S. official to say there was famine in Gaza during the conflict was Samantha Power, director of the U.S. Agency for International Development, who made her comments in congressional testimony last month.
Ms. McCain was named by President Biden as U.S. ambassador to the United Nations Food and Agriculture Agencies in 2021 and became head of the WFP, a United Nations agency, last year.
An official declaration of famine typically involves both the United Nations and the government of the country where the famine is occurring, and it is unclear which local authority might have the power to do so in Gaza.
In the interview, McCain did not explain why an official famine declaration has not been made. But he said his assessment “was based on what we have seen and what we have experienced on the ground.”
“It’s horror,” he said. “It’s very difficult to see and it’s also very difficult to hear. “I am very hopeful that we can achieve a ceasefire and start feeding these people, especially in the north, in a much faster way.”
Gaza has been hit by what experts have called a serious man-made hunger crisis as a result of Israeli bombings and restrictions that have made delivering aid to the territory extremely difficult. The amount of aid entering Gaza has increased recently, but aid groups say it is far from adequate.
During the first weeks of the war, Israel maintained what it called a “complete siege” of Gaza, with Defense Minister Yoav Gallant saying that “no electricity, food, water or fuel” would be allowed into the territory. The Israeli army also destroyed Gaza’s port, restricted fishing, and bombed many of its farms.
Israel eventually eased that siege but instituted a meticulous inspection process that it says is necessary to ensure supplies do not fall into the hands of Hamas. Aid groups and foreign diplomats have said the inspections create bottlenecks and have accused Israel of using them to reject aid for spurious reasons, including water filters, solar lights and medical kits containing scissors.
Volker Türk, the U.N. human rights chief, said in a statement last month that Israel’s policies regarding aid in Gaza could constitute a war crime.
Israel has faced increasing pressure in recent weeks to allow aid into Gaza after its military killed seven international aid workers from World Central Kitchen in an airstrike.