‘Worst-case scenario of famine’ is unfolding in Gaza, UN-backed food security initiative says
A UN-backed food security agency has warned that “the worst case scenario of famine” is unfolding in Gaza, its starkest alert yet as starvation spreads and Israel faces growing international pressure to allow more food into the territory.
“Conflict and displacement have intensified, and access to food and other essential items and services has plummeted to unprecedented levels,” the Integrated Food Security Phase Classification (IPC) said in an alert, adding that “mounting evidence shows that widespread starvation, malnutrition, and disease are driving a rise in hunger-related deaths.”
The IPC said that the alert is intended to “draw urgent attention to the rapidly deteriorating humanitarian situation” but doesn’t constitute a formal classification of famine. “Given the most recent information and data made available, a new IPC analysis is to be conducted without delay,” it added.
More than 20,000 children were admitted for treatment for acute malnutrition between April and mid-July, the IPC said, with more than 3,000 severely malnourished.
“Latest data indicates that famine thresholds have been reached for food consumption in most of the Gaza Strip and for acute malnutrition in Gaza City,” the alert said, calling for “immediate action” to end the hostilities and allow for “unimpeded, large-scale, life-saving humanitarian response.”
In May, the IPC reported that the enclave’s entire population was experiencing “high levels of acute food security” and the territory was at “high risk” of famine, the most severe type of hunger crisis.
Israel has come under mounting pressure by the international community to break its blockade, allow aid into Gaza and end the war.
In some of his strongest remarks on the crisis, US President Donald Trump on Monday said there is “real starvation” in Gaza, contradicting earlier statements by Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who insists there is no starvation.
“That’s real starvation stuff,” Trump told reporters in Turnberry, Scotland. “I see it, and you can’t fake that. So, we’re going to be even more involved.”
Trump added that the United States will set up “food centers” in Gaza to address the crisis.
Vice President JD Vance also lamented images coming out of the besieged territory.
“I don’t know if you’ve all seen these images. You have got some really, really heartbreaking cases. You’ve got little kids who are clearly starving to death,” Vance told reporters Monday during a visit to Canton, Ohio.
“Israel’s got to do more to let that aid in,” he said, adding that “we’ve also got to wage war on Hamas so that those folks stop preventing food from coming into this territory.”
Over the weekend, Israel announced a daily “tactical pause in military activity” in three areas of Gaza to enable more aid to reach people. The military said the move would “refute the false claim of deliberate starvation in the Gaza Strip.”
Israel has also allowed foreign countries to airdrop aid into the territory, but the practice has in the past been deemed by the UN and other aid groups as costly, dangerous and insufficient.
Meanwhile, the health ministry in Gaza said on Tuesday that more than 60,000 Palestinians have been killed in the territory since Israel’s war on Hamas began nearly two years ago.
The ministry reported that 113 people were killed in the past 24 hours, bringing the death toll to 60,034.
The announcement comes as hopes dim for a ceasefire anytime soon, after talks broke up last week without an agreement.
The war began after Hamas’ October 7, 2023 attack on Israel killed around 1,200 people and saw another roughly 250 people taken hostage.
Authorities in Gaza do not distinguish between civilians and Hamas fighters when reporting casualty figures, but the health ministry and the UN say the majority of deaths are women and children. And the true toll could be much higher, with many thousands still believed to be buried under rubble.
Israel does not dispute that a significant number of Palestinian civilians have been killed in its war in Gaza. But it has long argued that figures from the Hamas-controlled health ministry are exaggerated, and that Hamas embeds itself between civilians, using them as “human shields.”
On Monday, a pair of leading Israeli human rights groups accused Israel of “committing genocide against Palestinians in Gaza,” becoming the first such organizations to make the claim.
B’Tselem said it came to that “unequivocal conclusion” after an “examination of Israel’s policy in the Gaza Strip and its horrific outcomes, together with statements by senior Israeli politicians and military commanders about the goals of the attack.”
A second Israeli group, Physicians for Human Rights Israel (PHRI), announced it was joining B’Tselem in calling Israel’s actions in Gaza genocide. It published a separate legal and medical analysis documenting what it called “deliberate and systematic extermination of the health system in Gaza.”
Israeli government spokesman David Mencer dismissed the report. “We have free speech in this country but we strongly reject this claim,” he told reporters, adding that Israel has allowed aid into Gaza.