Gaza is at “grave risk” of famine, the United Nations warned Tuesday, with cases of acute malnutrition and starvation-related deaths spreading throughout the Palestinian territory. Aid groups continued calling for a ceasefire, saying Israel’s daily pause in military operations for the distribution of humanitarian supplies is not enough.
Gaza crosses two of three thresholds for famine
The U.N.’s World Food Program, which coordinates relief to regions experiencing food insecurity, shared an alert from the Integrated Food Security Phase Classification (ICP) that said Gaza is facing a “worst-case scenario” for famine. The IPC said Gaza has crossed two of three thresholds to declare a famine: food consumption and acute malnutrition.
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The IPC is a global partnership that urges nonprofits and governments to address critical shortages in countries facing food insecurity.
“Gaza is now on the brink of a full-scale famine,” said Qu Dongyu, director-general of the U.N.’s Food and Agriculture Organization agency. “People are starving not because food is unavailable, but because access is blocked, local agrifood systems have collapsed, and families can no longer sustain even the most basic livelihoods.”
The third famine threshold, acute malnutrition and starvation-related deaths, were difficult to track because of Gaza’s collapsing health system, the U.N. said.
On X, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu wrote Monday that “there is no starvation in Gaza.” He said Israel remains committed to destroying Hamas’ military and governing capabilities.
Israel’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs announced last week that the Israel Defense Forces will initiate “humanitarian pauses” from 10 a.m. to 8 p.m. local time in Muwasi, Deir al-Bala and Gaza City until further notice. The ministry added that the effort was done in coordination with the U.N. and several international organizations.
The ministry said “designated secure routes” will permanently be in place “to enable the safe passage of UN and humanitarian aid organization convoys delivering and distributing food and medicine to the population across the Gaza Strip.”
Millions at risk of famine
To declare a famine, the IPC said Tuesday that an area must have at least 20% of households facing extreme food shortages, 30% of children suffering from acute malnutrition and two or four non-trauma starvation deaths for every 10,000 persons per day.
In Gaza, 39% of the population is going days without eating, and more than 320,000 children are at risk of acute malnutrition, a severe nutritional deficiency, the World Food Program said in a Tuesday release. Both that agency and the IPC said counting non-trauma-related food deaths is difficult due to collapsing health systems and limited humanitarian access.
Much of the food distribution in Gaza is being spearheaded by the Israeli- and U.S.-backed Gaza Humanitarian Foundation (GHF). It said Tuesday that just over 1.2 million meals were delivered across its three sites in Saudi, Khan Younis and Wadi Gaza. It later shared two videos on its X account, criticizing the U.N.’s distributions as disorderly in contrast to its own.
“The Palestinian people deserve humane, orderly, and secure access to desperately needed food,” the foundation wrote in the post. “And that’s exactly what GHF is giving them.”
The IPC said the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation distributed food that requires water and fuel to cook, both of which are scarce. It added that people must take long, high-risk journeys to reach the four distribution sites, while nearly 2.1 million Palestinians are restricted to living in 141 square miles of land, or roughly 12% of the Gaza Strip.
The IPC projected that without intervention, Gaza will reach emergency levels of food insecurity and critical levels of acute malnutrition by September.
UN, MSF criticize Israel’s airdrops
Aid groups reiterated calls for a ceasefire that would stop combat, allow for the safe release of hostages and restart “lifesaving” humanitarian operations.
Doctors Without Borders, also known as MSF, which recently said its doctors are facing food shortages, criticized Israel’s airdrops for placing people’s lives at risk in resettled and militarized zones throughout Gaza.
“At the moment, 2 million people are trapped in a tiny piece of land – if anything lands in this area, people will inevitably be injured,” Jean Guy Vataux, MSF’s emergency coordinator in Gaza, said in a statement on the organization’s website.
Ross Smith, the director of emergencies at the U.N.’s World Food Program, said in a Tuesday release that Israel’s latest measure to institute humanitarian pauses could help Palestinians access more food. He still called for a ceasefire in order to fully implement humanitarian efforts and create safe distribution points.
Otherwise, he said, the territory won’t see sufficient change to “turn the dial on the humanitarian situation inside Gaza.”
