Blockade puts Gaza on brink of serious food crisis, says UN

Showing that Palestinians are having to spend a higher and higher share of their shrinking incomes on food, the findings are that the proportion of Gazan incomes now going on food is 66 per cent – significantly higher than the 61 per cent recorded for Somalia. Seventy per cent of Gazans are at a "deep poverty" income level of $1.20 (60p) per head per day or less.

The joint report from three UN agencies, the World Food Programme, the Food and Agriculture Organisation and the refugee agency UNRWA, points out that this proportion is a "key measure of destitution" because the poorest people in the world spend most of their incomes on food while the richest spend relatively little compared with spending on accommodation, healthcare transport and clothes.

The findings show that levels – which are the highest in the Middle East and reaching 73 per cent among the poorest sectors in Gaza – are not far behind in the West Bank at 58 per cent and that Palestinians in general are "extremely vulnerable" to the recent steep rise in world food prices as well as local factors driven by the Israeli-imposed economic blockade of Gaza.

The report says that half of Gaza's population bought food on credit between January and March 2008 and that one third stopped paying utility bills but that "credit lines are running out". It says that with two thirds of the poorest Palestinians having decreased their expenditure on food "many people are buying lower quality cheaper foods and reducing their consumption of fresh fruit, vegetable and animal protein to save money and also reducing their portion sizes".