A worst-case scenario of famine is unfolding in Gaza and immediate action is needed to end fighting and allow unimpeded aid access, a global hunger monitor warned on Tuesday, saying failure to act now would result in widespread death.
Its alert coincided with a statement from Gaza health authorities saying Israel’s military campaign had now killed more than 60,000 Palestinians.
The Integrated Food Security Phase Classification (IPC) raised the prospect that the manmade starvation crisis could be formally classified as a famine, in the hope that this might raise the pressure on Israel to let far more food deliveries in.
“Mounting evidence shows that widespread starvation, malnutrition, and disease are driving a rise in hunger-related deaths,” the IPC said.
It added that it would quickly carry out the formal analysis that could allow it to classify Gaza as “in famine.”
But it is unclear whether any such announcement would help to remove the main obstacle to food reaching Gaza’s 2.1 million people: Israel’s refusal to allow more than a trickle of trucks in.
Israel is beginning limited pauses in fighting amid criticism over the hunger crisis in Gaza. Sana Bég, executive director for Doctors Without Borders Canada, warns the limited aid that has entered Gaza during these pauses is a ‘trickle’ in Gaza’s ‘vast ocean of needs.’
On Monday, the International Rescue Committee (IRC) sounded the alarm, saying Gaza should be “flooded with aid” and adding that staff on the ground are unable to do their jobs with little to no aid entering.
“IRC staff and our Palestinian partners are exhausted, delivering nutrition, health, and water and sanitation — all while facing the same hunger and relentless threats to their lives and that of their families. They are not just witnesses to this crisis; they are living it,” said the statement ahead of the IPC alert issued.
Ciarán Donnelly, senior vice-president for crisis response, recovery and development with the IRC, said a significant amount of time and effort is required to issue a formal famine declaration in active conflict zones.
“When you have a formal famine declaration, it generally means two things: one, famine conditions have already been present on the ground for quite some time; and two, the numbers that are reported are generally an underestimate of the true scope of impact,” Donnelly told CBC News Tuesday following the IPC alert.
Not enough food entering Gaza
Ross Smith of the World Food Program (WFP) told reporters in Geneva by video that they’re getting roughly half of what they’ve requested since the pauses started Sunday.
The WFP says almost 470,000 people are enduring famine-like conditions, with 90,000 women and children in need of specialist nutrition. Gaza’s Health Ministry says at least 147 people have died of hunger including 88 children, most in the last few weeks.
Images of emaciated children have shocked the world and fuelled international criticism of Israel, prompting it on the weekend to announce daily humanitarian pauses to fighting in three areas of Gaza and new safe corridors for aid convoys.
As humanitarian organizations demand major increases to aid for Gaza, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said ‘there is no starvation’ in the region. U.S. President Donald Trump countered, saying the situation couldn’t be faked.
Yet the supply remains far short of what aid agencies say is the bare minimum required.
The IPC alert said this meant 62,000 tonnes of staple food a month, but that according to the Israeli aid co-ordination agency COGAT, only 19,900 tonnes entered in May and 37,800 in June.
Smith said the WFP lacked the stocks or permissions to reopen the bakeries and community kitchens that had been a lifeline before a total Israeli blockade began in May.
Israeli Foreign Minister Gideon Saar said on Tuesday that the situation in Gaza was “tough” but that there were lies about starvation. He said 5,000 aid trucks had entered Gaza in the last two months, and that Israel would assist those wanting to conduct airdrops — a delivery method that aid groups say is ineffective and tokenistic.
Israel has consistently said its actions are justified as self-defence. It says the Palestinian militant group Hamas, which ruled Gaza, is to blame for refusing to release hostages and surrender, and for operating in civilian areas, which Hamas denies.
IPC calls for end to catastrophic suffering
The IPC alert said that “immediate action must be taken to end the hostilities and allow unimpeded, large-scale, life-saving humanitarian response.
“This is the only path to stopping further deaths and catastrophic human suffering.”
The IPC partners with governments, international aid groups and UN agencies and assesses the extent of hunger suffered by a population.
Its famine classification requires at least 20 per cent of people to be suffering extreme food shortages, with one in three children acutely malnourished and two people out of every 10,000 dying every day from starvation or malnutrition and disease.
Israel has resumed airdrops of aid into Gaza after it faced waves of international criticism over its role in Gaza’s hunger crisis. The Israeli military also said it would begin a ‘tactical pause’ in three populated areas of Gaza for 10 hours a day to allow more humanitarian aid to be delivered.
The IPC’s latest data indicated that formal famine thresholds have already been reached for food consumption in most of Gaza and for acute malnutrition in Gaza City.
But David Miliband, head of the International Rescue Committee aid group, said that “formal famine declarations always lag reality.”
“By the time that famine was declared in Somalia in 2011, 250,000 people — half of them children under five — had already died of hunger,” he said in a statement. “By the time famine is declared, it will already be too late.”
War has raged in Gaza between Israel and Hamas militants for 22 months.
After an 11-week Israeli blockade, limited UN-led aid operations resumed on May 19 and a week later the obscure new U.S.-based Gaza Humanitarian Foundation — backed by Israel and the United States — began distributing food aid.
88% of Gaza under evacuation orders, militarized zones
The rival aid efforts have sparked a war of words — pitting Israel, the U.S. and the GHF against the UN, international aid groups and dozens of governments from around the world.
Israel and the U.S. accuse Hamas of stealing aid — which the militants deny — and the UN of failing to prevent it. The UN says it has not seen evidence of Hamas diverting much aid.
The IPC said 88 per cent of Gaza was now under evacuation orders or within militarized areas, and was critical of GHF efforts.
It said most of the GHF food items “require water and fuel to cook, which are largely unavailable.”
The IPC’s Famine Review Committee said, “Our analysis of the food packages supplied by the GHF shows that their distribution plan would lead to mass starvation.”
The GHF was not immediately available for comment. It has previously said it has so far distributed more than 96 million meals.
Jolien Veldwijk, CARE Palestine Country Director, said that Palestinians were suffering a “manmade famine, caused by Israel’s siege and the deliberate obstruction of aid, fuelled by the inaction of world leaders.”
“The haunting images of emaciated children are evidence of a failure of humanity to act.”
The war in Gaza began on Oct. 7, 2023, when Hamas killed 1,200 people in southern Israel and took some 250 hostages, according to Israeli tallies.