Gaza City and surrounding areas are officially suffering from famine, and it will likely spread, a global hunger monitor determined on Friday, an assessment that will escalate pressure on Israel to allow more aid into the Palestinian enclave.
The Integrated Food Security Phase Classification system said 514,000 people – nearly a quarter of Palestinians in Gaza – are experiencing famine, with the number due to rise to 641,000 by the end of September.
Some 280,000 of those people are in a northern region covering Gaza City – known as Gaza governorate – which the IPC said was in famine following nearly two years of war between Israel and Palestinian militants Hamas.
Tel Aviv rejected the report, with Israeli prime minister Binyamin Netanyahu calling it an “outright lie”.
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“This famine is entirely man-made, it can be halted and reversed,” the IPC report says. “The time for debate and hesitation has passed, starvation is present and is rapidly spreading. There should be no doubt in anyone’s mind that an immediate, at-scale response is needed. Any further delay – even by days – will result in a totally unacceptable escalation of famine-related mortality.
“If a ceasefire is not implemented to allow humanitarian aid to reach everyone in the Gaza Strip, and if essential food supplies and basic health, nutrition and [sanitation and water] services are not restored immediately, avoidable deaths will increase exponentially.”
It was the first time the IPC has recorded famine outside of Africa, and the global group predicted that famine conditions would spread to the central and southern areas of Deir al-Balah and Khan Younis by the end of next month.
It added that the situation further north could be even worse than in Gaza City, but said limited data prevented any precise classification.
Israel dismissed the report as false and biased, saying the IPC had based its survey on partial data largely provided by Hamas, which did not take into account a recent influx of food.
“There is no famine in Gaza,” the Israeli foreign ministry said in a statement.
Mr Netanyahu rejected the report, saying it ignored recent humanitarian steps by Israel.
“The IPC report is an outright lie. Israel does not have a policy of starvation. Israel has a policy of preventing starvation. Since the beginning of the war Israel has enabled two million tons of aid to enter the Gaza Strip, over one ton of aid per person,” Mr Netanyahu said in a statement.
For a region to be classified as in famine at least 20 per cent of people must be suffering extreme food shortages, with one in three children acutely malnourished and two people out of every 10,000 dying daily from starvation or malnutrition and disease.
Previously, the IPC has only registered famines in Somalia, South Sudan and Sudan.
Even if a region has not yet been classified as in famine because those thresholds have not been met, the IPC can determine that households there are suffering famine conditions, which it describes as starvation, destitution and death.
UN secretary-general Antonio Guterres said in a statement that the Gaza famine was a “man-made disaster, a moral indictment, and a failure of humanity itself”.
He called for an immediate ceasefire, the release of all hostages still held by Hamas and unfettered humanitarian access.
“People are starving. Children are dying. And those with the duty to act are failing ... We cannot allow this situation to continue with impunity.”
In a statement, President Michael D Higgins said the declaration of famine was not a surprise.
“Without urgent change, it is difficult to see how the international community can emerge without a loss of credibility and moral authority,” he said.
“What is at stake now is the status of international law, the granting of impunity in conditions of indiscriminate destruction, and misrepresentation of the right to food itself by an occupying power.
None of this will wait until September. It is now the time for action on behalf of the international community, including all members of the European Union.”
In a statement, Taoiseach Micheál Martin said “The withholding of food and water from civilians is collective punishment of the people of Gaza, and a war crime.
“The retention of hostages by Hamas is also a war crime”, Mr Martin said, calling for their release and an end to the war.
“The inhumanity we are witnessing in Gaza has shocked the world. The maiming, mutilation and killing of children simply has to stop,” he said.
The IPC analysis comes after Britain, Canada, Australia and many European states said the humanitarian crisis had reached “unimaginable levels”.
US president Donald Trump last month said many people there were starving, putting him at odds with Israeli prime minister Binyamin Netanyahu, who has repeatedly said there was no starvation and blamed Hamas for creating food shortages.
Israel controls all access to Gaza. COGAT, the arm of the Israeli military that oversees aid flows, said the IPC report ignored Israeli data on aid deliveries and was part of an international campaign aimed at denigrating Israel.
“The IPC report is not only biased but also serves Hamas’ propaganda campaign,” the agency said.
The UN has long complained of obstacles to getting aid into Gaza and distributing it throughout the war zone, blaming impediments on Israel and lawlessness. Israel has been critical of the UN-led operation and accuses Hamas of stealing aid, which the militants deny.
The IPC said the analysis released on Friday only covered people living in Gaza, Deir al-Balah and Khan Younis governorates. It was unable to classify North Gaza governorate due to access restrictions and a lack of data and it excluded any remaining population in the southern Rafah region as it is largely uninhabited.
It is the fifth time in the past 14 years that a famine has been determined by the IPC – an initiative involving 21 aid groups, United Nations agencies and regional organisations that is funded by the European Union, Germany, Britain and Canada.
The IPC has previously assessed that there was famine in areas of Somalia in 2011, South Sudan in 2017 and 2020, and Sudan in 2024. The IPC says it does not declare famine, but instead provides analysis for governments and others to do so.
A Reuters/Ipsos poll released this week found that 65 per cent of Americans believe the US should help those starving in Gaza.
Israel has long counted on the US, its most powerful ally, for military aid and diplomatic support. An erosion of US public support would be a worrisome sign for Israel as it faces not only Hamas militants in Gaza but unresolved conflict with Iran, its regional arch-foe.
The war in Gaza was triggered on October 7th, 2023, when Hamas killed 1,200 people in southern Israel and took some 250 hostages, according to Israeli tallies. Since then, Israel’s military campaign has killed more than 62,000 Palestinians, according to Gaza health authorities.
The United States, Qatar and Egypt have been trying to broker an end to the conflict. – Reuters
