World Food Program director Cindy McCain: parts of Gaza in 'full-blown famine'

Cindy McCain, director of the World Food Program, says northern Gaza is experiencing "full-blown famine."

"There is famine – full-blown famine – in the north and it's moving its way south," McCain said in an interview set to air Sunday on NBC's "Meet The Press."

Her remarks are not an official declaration of famine, which is a technical designation spearheaded by the United Nations. The U.N. has said famine is "imminent" in Gaza since mid-March.

But McCain is the second American official to say that the humanitarian crisis in Gaza has reached the level of famine. Samantha Power, director of the U.S. Agency for International Development, was the first to do so during congressional testimony last month.

McCain told NBC's Kristen Welker that she believes there is famine in Gaza "based on what we've seen and what we've experienced on the ground."

"It's horror. It's so hard to look at and it's so hard to hear, also," she added. "So I'm so hoping that we can get a ceasefire and begin to feed these people, especially in the North, in a much faster fashion."

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The group estimated last week that 30% of children under the age of 2 in Gaza are "acutely malnourished" and 70% of the population in the north "is facing catastrophic hunger."

Local health authorities say that more than 34,000 people have been killed in Gaza since the war began on Oct. 7, when Israel began a bombing campaign in retaliation for an attack in which Hamas killed around 1,200 people and took more than 200 people as hostages into Gaza.

Gaza has been in a hunger crisis for months as Israel bombards the strip. In the wake of the Oct. 7 attack, Israel launched a counterattack and called for a "complete siege" of Gaza, stopping any electricity, food, water or fuel from entering the territory. Israel also destroyed Gaza's port, and fishing and farming have become inaccessible.

That siege has since ended, but it is still challenging for aid workers to get supplies through to Palestinians. Israel conducts extensive inspections of the goods crossing the border through few checkpoints. American military forces are now building two floating piers off the Gaza coast to help deliver 2 million meals a day to people facing starvation as a result of the war.

More: Pentagon begins building floating pier to ferry humanitarian aid to Gaza

Israel has faced increased pressure in recent weeks to make it easier for aid workers to get into Gaza. The death of seven international aid workers from World Central Kitchen in an Israeli airstrike pushed President Joe Biden to give Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu an ultimatum to either protect civilians and aid workers, or lose U.S. military support.

Israel said it would open new aid routes, but has not backed down from promises to invade the southern city of Rafah, where many refugees who have fled bombing in the north now reside.

This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: World Food Program director: parts of Gaza in 'full-blown famine'