Famine declared in Gaza Strip: Over half a million affected as crisis set to spread to other regions

For the first time, famine has been confirmed in the Gaza Strip, affecting more than half a million people.

According to the latest Integrated Food Security Phase Classification (IPC) analysis, famine conditions are projected to spread from Gaza Governorate to Deir Al Balah and Khan Younis Governorates in the next few weeks.

The dire news does not end there.  

By the end of September, more than 640,000 people will face catastrophic levels of food insecurity – classified as IPC Phase 5 – across the Gaza Strip. An total of 1.14 million people in the territory will be in Emergency (IPC Phase 4) and a further 396 000 people in Crisis (IPC Phase 3) conditions. Conditions in North Gaza are estimated to be as severe – or worse – than in Gaza City.

"Classifying famine means that the most extreme category is triggered when three critical thresholds – extreme food deprivation, acute malnutrition and starvation-related deaths – have been breached. The latest analysis now affirms on the basis of reasonable evidence that these criteria have been met," said the UN in a statement. 

How does the famine affect children and society's vulnerable?

In the two years of the war on Gaza, repeated displacement and restrictions on humanitarian access, repeated interruptions to access to food, water, medical aid, support to agriculture, livestock and fisheries and the collapse of health, sanitation, and market systems, have pushed people into starvation and famine.

Access to food in Gaza remains severely constrained.

In July, the number of households reporting very severe hunger doubled across the territory compared to May and more than tripled in Gaza City. More than one in three people indicated they were going days at a time without eating, and adults regularly skip meals to feed their children.

Malnutrition among children in Gaza is accelerating at an alarming rate.

In July, more than 12,000 children were identified as acutely malnourished. Nearly one in four of these children were suffering from severe acute malnutrition (SAM), the deadliest form with both short and long-term impacts.

Since July, food and aid supplies entering Gaza have increased slightly but remain insufficient, inconsistent, and inaccessible compared to the needs.

Approximately 98% of cropland in the territory is damaged or inaccessible. Nine of ten people have been serially displaced from homes.

Cash is critically scarce, aid operations remain severely disrupted, with most UN trucks looted amid growing desperation. Food prices are extremely high, and there is not enough fuel and water.

While the Gaza hospitals are being bombed, the health system has severely deteriorated. Access to safe drinking water and sanitation services has been reduced and multi-drug resistant infections are surging. Levels of morbidity – including diarrhoea, fever, acute respiratory and skin infections – are alarmingly high among children.

Calls for a ceasefire mount

The UN agencies demanded an immediate and sustained ceasefire to stop the killing, allow for the safe release of hostages and permit unimpeded access for a mass influx of assistance to reach people across Gaza. 

The Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO), UNICEF, the United Nations World Food Programme (WFP) and the World Health Organization (WHO) stated that this man-made famine must be stopped at all costs.

“People in Gaza have exhausted every possible means of survival. Hunger and malnutrition are claiming lives every day, and the destruction of cropland, livestock, greenhouses, fishery and food production systems has made the situation even more dire,” said FAO Director-General QU Dongyu. 

Cindy McCain, WFP Executive Director, said the famine warnings have been "clear for months”, calling for aid, safer conditions, and proven distribution systems to reach those most in need.

UNICEF Executive Director Catherine Russell painted a grim picture of famine that the world should not forget: “As we have repeatedly warned, the signs were unmistakable: children with wasted bodies, too weak to cry or eat; babies dying from hunger and preventable disease; parents arriving at clinics with nothing left to feed their children. There is no time to lose. Without an immediate ceasefire and full humanitarian access, famine will spread, and more children will die.”

“A ceasefire is an absolute and moral imperative now,” said WHO Director-General Dr Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus. “The world has waited too long, watching tragic and unnecessary deaths mount from this man-made famine."

Israel denies the famine

Despite the mounting calls and widespread condemnation, the official hunger monitor rating classification and a year-long blockade, Israel vehemently denied the reports as “lies” and “modern blood libel”. The United States has also chimed in and claimed the declaration is part of a “false narrative of deliberate mass starvation” from Hamas.

However, the head of the UN agency for Palestine Refugees (UNRWA) criticised the Israeli government’s policy of denying the famine in Gaza, calling it “shameful.”

Speaking to the press at a seminar held in Santander, northern Spain, Philippe Lazzarini said: “There is a famine right now in Gaza. This is a man-made famine driven by political and military will.”

“Gaza today is like hell. People are not only dying under bombardments, they are dying of hunger, and even when they go out to look for food, they are killed. Those who could reverse the situation in Gaza are doing nothing — no measures, no condemnation.

“Today we are witnessing complete impunity for Israel. There is no economic, political, or diplomatic cost for those committing these violations,” he said.

The Palestinian Ministry of Health in Gaza reported that the death toll from the Israeli aggression on Gaza has risen to 62,895 and 158,927 injuries since October 7, 2023.

A number of victims are still under the rubble and on the roads, as ambulance and civil defense crews are unable to reach them at the moment.

Over the past 24 hours, Gaza Strip hospitals recorded 10 new deaths due to famine and malnutrition, including two children, bringing the total number to 313 deaths, including 119 children.

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