First senior Biden official says famine has begun in Gaza

A senior Biden official said Wednesday that famine is underway in the Gaza Strip as Israel presses forward with its war against militant group Hamas.

Humanitarian aid groups have been warning for weeks that a famine is looming in Gaza amid a lack of food, water and other necessary goods. Samantha Power, the director of the U.S. Agency for International Development, said during a congressional testimony Wednesday that a famine has already begun.

Rep. Joaquin Castro (D-Texas) asked Power about news reports that said members of her agency sent a cable to the National Security Council that warned a famine was ongoing in Gaza. He asked her whether it was “plausible or likely that parts of Gaza and particularly northern Gaza are already experiencing famine.”

Power pointed to an assessment from the Integrated Food Security Phase Classification initiative in her response, noting that the agency believes that their assessment is “credible.”

“So famine is already occurring there?” Castro asked.

“That is — yes,” Power told him.

A report by the Integrated Food Security Phase Classification initiative found last month that famine was “imminent” in parts of northern Gaza.

HuffPost reported last week that officials at the U.S. Agency for International Development sent a cable to the National Security Council saying famine was occurring in Gaza and warning that hunger-related deaths would “accelerate in the weeks ahead.”

Cindy McCain, the executive director of the World Food Programme, said on CNN’s “State of the Union” on Sunday that Gaza was on “the edge” of going “over the cliff with famine and not being able to recover.”

The Hill has reached out to the U.S. Agency for International Development for additional comment.

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