The World Food Program warned on Monday that the holy month of Ramadan begins in the Middle East while the region faces an unprecedented hunger crisis against the backdrop of conflicts, economic challenges and climate change.

The World Food Program’s Regional Director for the Middle East, North Africa and Eastern Europe, Corinne Fleischer, said in a statement: “We enter the month of Ramadan while the region is experiencing the worst food crisis in its modern history in the Gaza Strip.”

At the same time, in other countries in the region, prolonged conflicts and economic crises have turned the basic ritual of fasting in the holy month of Ramadan into a harsh daily reality for millions of people, according to the same statement.

The UN official noted that “more than 40 million people across the region suffer from severe levels of food insecurity.”

Fleischer explained: “Six months into the Gaza crisis, the entire population of the besieged Strip is now in dire need of food aid, with more than half a million people facing catastrophic levels of hunger (IPC Phase 5) while the risk of famine is increasing day after day".

As a result of the war and Israeli restrictions, the residents of Gaza, especially the Gaza and northern governorates, are on the verge of famine, in light of a severe scarcity of food, water, medicine and fuel supplies, with the displacement of about two million Palestinians from the Strip, which has been besieged by Israel for 17 years.