Cindy McCain says Gaza ‘on the brink of famine’

Cindy McCain, director of the United Nations World Food Programme (WFP), said Sunday that Gaza, a strip controlled by the militant group Hamas, is “on the brink of famine” amid the militant group’s war with Israel. 

During an appearance on CBS’s “Face the Nation,” moderator Margaret Brennan mentioned recent information published by UNICEF, the U.N. children agency, that a life-threatening form of malnutrition in children could increase by nearly 30 percent in the territory. 

“First of all, the — the bottom line here is that we need to get more aid in as — as has been said, we’re looking at … possibly being on the brink of famine in this region,” McCain told Brennan. “This is something that … will spread. And with that comes disease and — and everything else that you can imagine.”

McCain, who is the widow of the late Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.), also said that her agency needs more humanitarian aid trucks entering Gaza. She noted that children in Gaza receiving access to proper aid has been an issue for years prior to the war. 

“It’s … a massive, catastrophic event that is — is occurring, and it will cross regions as it happens. We have got to be able to get in there. And not only that, we have to make sure that we can safely have access to be able to feed the people that we need to feed,” McCain added. “So far, we’ve fed about 110,000 since the — since the cease-fire, but we need to do a lot more than that.” 

McCain’s remarks come as the Israeli military announced Sunday that 17 people — 14 Israelis and three foreign nationals — were released from Hamas’s captivity in Gaza. The ages of the released Israeli citizens range from 4 to 84 years old.

This is the latest round of hostages to be freed amid the four-day cease-fire between Israel and the militant group; 50 hostages were expected to be released by Monday. Twenty-four of them were released in the first wave Friday, and an additional 17 were released the following day.

It’s been a month since Hamas’s surprise attack against Israel, which resulted in the deaths of 1,200 people. Israel has since launched a wave of attacks in the Gaza Strip, resulting in the death of tens of thousands of Palestinian residents, according to the Hamas-run Gaza Health Ministry.