A worldwide hunger monitor declared Gaza City and its surrounding areas to be in famine on Friday, in a landmark judgment that puts pressure on Israel to lift restrictions on humanitarian deliveries to the besieged enclave.
According to the Integrated Food Security Phase Classification (IPC), 514,000 people, or roughly one-quarter of Gaza’s population, are suffering famine, with the figure anticipated to grow to 641,000 by the end of September. It is the first time the IPC has confirmed a famine outside Africa.
Following nearly two years of conflict between Israel and Hamas, around 280,000 people in the Gaza governorate, which includes Gaza City, have been designated as suffering from starvation.
Israel rejected the findings, calling them biased and based on incomplete data.
“The report is an outright lie,” Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said.
“Israel has enabled 2 million tons of aid to enter Gaza — more than one ton per person.”
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UN Secretary-General António Guterres described the starvation as a “man-made disaster, a moral indictment, and a failure of humanity itself,” urging a cease-fire, hostage release, and full humanitarian assistance.
Volker Türk, the UN’s human rights official, has warned that starving deaths may constitute war crimes.
The declaration resulted in significant diplomatic ramifications. The findings were described as “utterly horrifying” by British Foreign Secretary David Lammy, who accused Israel of causing a man-made tragedy.
Canada, Australia, and numerous European countries have all called on Israel to allow in significantly more food, medicine, and gasoline.
Israel’s military body overseeing aid, COGAT, dismissed the IPC analysis as part of a “propaganda campaign” by Hamas.
The IPC, a consortium of 21 aid groups and UN agencies funded by the EU, Germany, the UK, and Canada, has previously declared famines in Somalia, South Sudan, and Sudan.
A famine classification requires at least 20% of a population to suffer extreme food shortages, one in three children to be acutely malnourished, and two of every 10,000 people to die daily from hunger or related disease.
The Gaza war erupted on Oct. 7, 2023, when Hamas militants killed 1,200 people in southern Israel and abducted about 250 hostages, according to Israeli tallies.
