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Famine was officially announced on Friday in northern Gaza, encompassing Gaza City, by the global leading organization on hunger matters, as Israel pledged to destroy the region unless Hamas consents to its conditions.
The Integrated Food Security Phase Classification, or IPC, declared the famine amidst a growing crisis of starvation-related deaths within the Palestinian territory caused by Israel’s ongoing military actions and aid blockage.
Israel’s armed forces are getting ready to launch another operation to take control of Gaza City, potentially forcing hundreds of thousands to flee and making the desperate circumstances even worse. Intense attacks on the city have been carried out this week following the announcement that an initial phase of their assault was underway.
Famine declared
The IPC, a globally-respected system for evaluating food scarcity and malnutrition, reported Friday morning that famine was confirmed in Gaza Governorate and is expected to extend to the Deir al-Balah and Khan Younis Governorates further south by the end of September unless the humanitarian crisis improves.
Malnutrition now threatens the lives of 132,000 children under five, including 41,000 severe cases, doubling May’s numbers, the IPC said.
“Famine is a race against time,” the IPC emphasized. “A swift ceasefire and resolution of the conflict is crucial to allow a comprehensive humanitarian response capable of saving lives.”
The United Nations-supported agency has declared famine only four previous times since its inception in 2004, with the latest declaration occurring in Sudan last year.
The report’s findings were met with little surprise by global health authorities and humanitarian groups.
“Famine warnings have been clear for months,” said Cindy McCain, executive director of the World Food Programme.
“A ceasefire is an absolute and moral imperative now,” said World Health Organization Director-General Dr Tedros hanom Ghebreyesus. “The world has waited too long, watching tragic and unnecessary deaths mount from this man-made famine.”
Mike Huckabee, the United States’ ambassador to Israel, attacked the IPC’s famine declaration before it was officially announced.
“You know who IS starving? The hostages kidnapped and tortured by uncivilized Hamas savages,” he said in a post on X early Friday. “Maybe the over fed terrorists could share some of their warehouse full they stole with hungry people especially the hostages.”
Israel rejected the IPC’s declaration on Friday, with its foreign ministry saying it had published a “fabricated report to fit Hamas’s fake campaign.” It hit out at the IPC’s methods.
Famine, the highest phase of the IPC Acute Food Insecurity scale is classified when an area has at least 20% of households facing an extreme lack of food; at least 30% of children suffering from acute malnutrition and at least two people or four children out of every 10,000 people are dying each day from starvation.
But the bar can also be met if 15% of children are considered to be suffering from acute malnutrition based on mid-upper arm circumference with evidence of rapidly worsening underlying drivers, according to the IPC, which cited the latter practice in its report.
Israel has repeatedly denied reports of growing starvation in Gaza, while seeking to blame any hunger in the enclave on humanitarian groups for failing to distribute enough aid.
Israel threatens ‘gates of hell’ on Gaza City
Israeli Defense Minister Israel Katz vowed Friday to open the “gates of hell” on Gaza City until Hamas agreed to Israel’s conditions for ending the war, including the release of all hostages and the militant group’s complete disarmament.
If not, he said, the city would “become like Rafah and Beit Hanoun,” areas that have been largely reduced to ruins under Israel’s 22-month offensive.
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said a day earlier that he had authorized the operation to take over Gaza City, while also revealing he had instructed “immediate negotiations” to begin for a deal to end the war in Gaza and secure the release of the hostages who remain held in the enclave.
The video statement followed days of silence after Hamas announced it had accepted a ceasefire proposal put forward by Arab mediators.
The IPC’s declaration comes just over three weeks after it warned that the “worst-case scenario of famine” was already unfolding in the Palestinian enclave under Israel’s deadly offensive and crippling aid restrictions — but it had emphasized the alert was not a formal famine classification.
Aid groups have repeatedly warned in recent weeks there is still not enough food entering Gaza to stave off famine.
Meanwhile, deaths from starvation in Gaza have continued to rise.
The Palestinian health ministry in Gaza said on Monday it had recorded three new adult deaths “due to famine and malnutrition” within a 24-hour period, bringing the total death toll from starvation to 266 people, including 112 children.
Israel launched its offensive in Gaza following the Hamas-led Oct. 7, 2023 attacks, in which some 1,200 people were killed and around 250 taken hostage, according to Israeli tallies, marking a major escalation in a decadeslong conflict.
Since then, more than 62,000 people have been killed in Gaza, including thousands of children, according to the local Palestinian health ministry, with much of the territory destroyed.
Among the dead are hundreds of people who have been killed while trying to seek aid following the introduction of a new distribution system led by the Israel and U.S.-backed Gaza Humanitarian Foundation.
