UN official warns half of Gaza’s population is starving

The Deputy Director of the UN World Food Programme, Carl Skau, warns that food insecurity in the strip means that most people are not able to eat one meal a day. Meanwhile, the head of the Israeli army vows to ‘press harder’ and intensify the offensive in Gaza.

Also on the programme: Egyptians head to the polls, with President Abdel Fattah el-Sisi hoping to win a third term in office, a result his critics say is inevitable. And how climate change is pushing up the price of home insurance in the US.

Joining Paul Henley in the studio to discuss all this and more are Laurie Goering, a London-based journalist and climate editor at the Thomson Reuters Foundation, and Christopher Sabatini, senior research fellow for Latin America at the Chatham House think-tank.

(Picture: A girl in Khan Younis mourns during a funeral for Palestinians killed in Israeli strikes, 9 December 2023 Credit: REUTERS/Ibraheem Abu Mustafa)