Famine has been officially declared for the first time in Gaza according to the Integrated Food Security Phase Classification (IPC), the United Nations- backed and globally recognized authority for classifying the severity of food insecurity.
The IPC released a report Friday morning stating that famine was spreading in and around Gaza City. It applied this classification to an area hosting 514,000 displaced Palestinians, nearly a quarter of Gaza’s population. While the agency had previously warned that famine was imminent in Gaza, it had stopped short of making a formal declaration.
The IPC initiative involves 21 humanitarian aid organizations, as well as several United Nations agencies. It receives funding from the European Union, the United States, Germany, the United Kingdom, Canada, and other countries. Since its creation in 2004, it has declared five famines, the most recent of which began in Sudan last year.
Famine is declared if three criteria are met: at least 20 percent of households suffer from extreme food shortages, at least 30 percent of children suffer from acute malnutrition, and at least two adults or four children out of every 10,000 die each day from starvation or diseases caused by malnutrition.
“After 22 months of relentless conflict, more than half a million people in the Gaza Strip are facing catastrophic conditions, characterized by hunger, destitution, and death,” the IPC said, adding that “another 1.07 million people (54 percent) are in Emergency (IPC Phase 4), and 396,000 people (20 percent) are in Crisis (IPC Phase 3).”
The IPC also stated that the famine will spread to the areas of Deir al-Balah in central Gaza and Khan Younis in the south by the end of September, according to current projections. This would bring the number of people suffering from famine in Gaza to 641,000. Over that same time period, it projects the number of people in the Phase 4 “emergency” category would increase from 1.07 million to 1.14 million .
“The famine declared today in Gaza Governorate by the Integrated Food Security Phase Classification is a direct result of measures taken by the Israeli government,” said Volker Turk, the UN’s senior human rights official. “It is a war crime to use starvation as a method of warfare, and the resulting deaths may also constitute the war crime of intentional homicide.”
Genocidal Cynicism: Israel Says There is “No Famine in Gaza”
As is now customary, the Israeli government, and Netanyahu in particular, deny that there is famine in Gaza, even going so far as to cynically claim that they are actually very well fed, an inhumane form of propaganda designed to absolve Israel of all responsibility for it’s well-documented war crimes and the ongoing genocide.
In response to the UN report, Israel’s Foreign Ministry said Friday that there was no famine in Gaza. “The entire IPC document is based on Hamas lies, laundered through vested interest organizations. There is no famine in Gaza,” they wrote on X. The Israeli governing coalition labels any person or organization that questions the genocide or demands something basic like a ceasefire as an accomplice to Hamas. This is what happened last week when Netanyahu accused the 2.5 million Israelis who took to the streets to demand a ceasefire and negotiate the return of the hostages, of being Hamas supporters.
The State of Israel Is Responsible
While Israel claims there is no famine or, alternatively, that it is not responsible for any hunger taking place in Gaza, the connections between the famine and Israel’s near-total blockade on food and humanitarian aid imposed on March 2 when it broke the ceasefire are self-evident.
It wasn’t until late May that food and aid began to enter the Strip, but almost exclusively through the U.S.-and Israeli-backed Gaza Humanitarian Fund (GHF). But the GHF sites turned out to be little more than concentration camps, where thousands of Palestinians had to fight for insufficient food, often while under fire from IDF snipers. Gaza health officials say that since the GHF took over aid delivery, more than 2,000 Palestinians have been killed by Israeli forces while attempting to access aid. The UN and other major international aid groups have rejected U.S. and Israeli calls for cooperation with GHF, stating that the organization violates international humanitarian principles of neutrality.
In recent days, Israeli authorities have allowed more trucks of aid into Gaza, although far fewer than needed to meet the urgent needs of starving Palestinians. According to the UN, all children under the age of 5 in Gaza, (more than 320,000) are at risk of acute malnutrition due to a lack of safe drinking water, breast milk substitutes, and therapeutic feeding. More than 270 people have died of malnutrition in Gaza since October 7, 2023. That includes at least 112 children. Nearly 55,500 malnourished pregnant and lactating women also require urgent nutritional support.
The time for debate and hesitation is over; there is famine and starvation already happening in Gaza and it is spreading rapidly. There should be no doubt that an immediate and large-scale response is needed. As the report makes clear, without an immediate and sustained ceasefire, with access to humanitarian aid and food supplies for everyone in the Gaza Strip, “preventable deaths will increase exponentially.”
This is why it is more important than ever that the people of the world rise up against the imperialist states that are supporting Israel and demand an immediate, unequivocal, and permanent end to all military and economic aid to Israel.
This article, based on reporting from Middle East Eye, was originally published in Spanish on August 22 on La Izquierda Diario.
Translated and revised for Left Voice by James Dennis Hoff.