Administrator of the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) Samantha Power warned that "famine is imminent in northern Gaza" between now and May.
"We urge increased safety and access in order to scale life-saving activities to those in dire need," Power said in a statement.
"We continue to call on Israel to open more land routes into Gaza and reduce bottlenecks and inspection delays to get land crossings operating at full capacity, even as we pursue air and maritime options to supplement these land routes," she added.
A report from the Integrated Phase Classification (IPC) said "Famine is imminent in the northern governorates and projected to occur anytime between mid-March and May 2024."
"The catastrophic levels of hunger and malnutrition described in the Integrated Food Security Phase Classification (IPC) report should be unimaginable in the current era, but for hundreds of thousands of Palestinians in Gaza, this is the reality. With just two previous Famine declarations in the twenty-first century, this is a horrific milestone," USAID Administrator said.
US President Joe Biden had previously announced that he had directed the military to build a temporary port on the Gaza coast to receive shipments of food, water and medicine, which the besieged Strip desperately needs, following United Nations warnings of widespread famine among the residents of Gaza.
