JNS
Jack Lew drew praise from the Israeli government, AIPAC and a former U.S. official for “speaking the truth” about a report funded by USAID.
Jack Lew, the U.S. ambassador to Israel, drew praise from the Israeli government, AIPAC and a former U.S. official for “speaking the truth” about a report funded by the U.S. government, which assesses that famine is imminent in northern Gaza.
“The report issued today on Gaza by FEWS NET relies on data that is outdated and inaccurate,” Lew stated on Tuesday. “We have worked closely with the government of Israel and the United Nations to provide greater access to the north governorate, and it is now apparent that the civilian population in that part of Gaza is in the range of 7,000 to 15,000, not 65,000 to 75,000, which is the basis of this report.”
The U.S. Agency for International Development, an independent U.S. federal agency more commonly known as USAID, funds the Famine Early Warning Systems Network, or FEWS NET. The network is supposed to provide alerts about potential famines around the world to allow the global community to react in time to help.
The U.S. government-funded network released a “Gaza Strip food security alert” on Monday, in which it claimed that Israel had enforced (a near-total blockade of humanitarian and commercial food supplies” for nearly 80 days in areas of northern Gaza. The report now longer appears on the network’s website. (JNS sought comment from FEWS NET and USAID.)
According to a copy of the report that JNS acquired, it stated that between 65,000 and 75,000 people remain in Gaza.
“Based on the collapse of the food system and worsening access to water, sanitation and health services in these areas, coupled with a comparative analysis of trends in food consumption and acute malnutrition data in late 2023/early 2024, it is highly likely that the food consumption and acute malnutrition thresholds for Famine (IPC Phase 5) have now been surpassed in north Gaza governorate,” the report stated.
“In the absence of a change to Israeli policy on the entry of food and nutrition supplies to this area, FEWS NET expects non-trauma mortality levels will pass the Famine (IPC Phase 5) threshold between January and March 2025, with at least two to 15 people dying per day,” it added.
The U.S. envoy called that information “irresponsible,” and cited estimates from the Coordination of Government Activities in the Territories, which is part of the Israeli government.
“COGAT estimates the population in this area is between 5,000 and 9,000. UNRWA estimates the population is between 10,000 and 15,000,” Lew stated. “At a time when inaccurate information is causing confusion and accusations, it is irresponsible to issue a report like this. We work day and night with the United Nations and our Israeli partners to meet humanitarian needs—which are great—and relying on inaccurate data is irresponsible.”
AIPAC thanked Lew for the statement, as did Oren Marmorstein, an Israeli Foreign Ministry spokesman, who told Lew that he was “speaking the truth.” Jason Greenblatt, a former U.S. special envoy to Israel and the Arab world, also thanked the U.S. ambassador for “speaking up and spreading the truth.”
“The U.S. ambassador to Israel is exposing a U.S. agency for lying about humanitarian aid in northern Gaza—just one of thousands of false claims about Israel since Hamas’s brutal Oct. 7 attack,” wrote Mark Dubowitz, CEO of the Foundation for Defense of Democracies.
Arsen Ostrovsky, a human rights lawyer and CEO of the International Legal Forum, thanked Lew for “setting the record straight and correcting FEWS NET over their malicious and misleading report on Gaza.”
FEWS NET and the U.N.-linked Integrated Food Security Phase Classification, or IPC, have said throughout Israel’s war against Hamas in Gaza that there is ongoing or imminent famine in the Strip.
IPC assertions and projections of famine have consistently been revised downward, and the IPC’s own Famine Review Committee has called into question its methodology for drawing conclusions. The review committee and IPC critics have noted that the classification didn’t include food deliveries from the commercial sector, the U.N. World Food Programme and international humanitarian groups that aren’t aligned with the global body.
States and organizations have vilified Israel, citing claims that the Jewish state is starving Gazans intentionally. Karim Khan, prosecutor of the International Criminal Court, which is based in The Hague and is not part of the United Nations, also referred to such allegations when he filed arrest warrants for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Yoav Gallant, then the Israeli defense minister.
