An independent food security group backed by the UN officially confirms a famine in Gaza City and warns that it will run to the rest of the strip in the coming months if no measures are taken. This is the first time that this organism declares a famine in the Middle East, which is expected to increase the pressure on Israel.
“After 22 months of incessant conflict, more than half a million people in the Gaza Strip face catastrophic conditions characterized by hunger, destitution and death,” said the integrated classification of food security phases (IPC) on Tuesday.
The CPI argues that 514,000 people – a quarter of the Palestinians in Gaza – suffer from famine and warns that the figure will increase to 641,000 at the end of September. “As this famine is totally caused by man, it can stop and revert. The time of debate and hesitation has passed; the famine is present and spreads quickly. There should be no doubt that an immediate response is already needed already a large scale. Any additional delay, even days, will result in a totally unacceptable escalation of mortality related to the famine,” says the report.
Tom Fletcher, general undersecretary for humanitarian matters and emergency coordinator, said Friday that it is an “irrefutable testimony.” “This is a famine. Gaza’s famine. A famine that we could have prevented. The food accumulates at the borders due to Israel’s systematic obstruction. A famine a few hundred meters from food and a fertile land.”
“It is an openly promoted famine by some Israeli leaders as a gun of war,” Fletcher denounced. “It is a famine that will persecute us all. Allowed by indifference and sustained by complicity.”
Before Gaza City, the CPI has declared four famines: Somalia (2011), South Sudan (2017), South Sudan (2020) and Sudan (2024).
In order for a region to be classified in famine, at least 20% of its population must suffer extreme food shortage, with one in three seriously malnourished children and two people out of 10,000 dying daily or malnutrition daily and disease. Israel rejects the emergency declaration and alleges that it is based on Hamas data – at the beginning it also rejected the death count of the Ministry of Health, considered valid by the UN.
The worst is being lived in northern Gaza and particularly in the city of Gaza, where there are a million people and against which Israel prepares a new military offensive, but the data revealed this Friday indicates that “between mid -August and late September 2025 it is expected that the conditions worsen even more, with an expansion of the famine” towards the center and the south of the enclave.
“If we had had a famine policy, no one in Gaza would have survived,” Netanyahu said responding to international accusations and photographs of malnourished children. The prime minister even threatened to sue the New York Times newspaper for publishing some of those images.
The UN Secretary General, António Guterres, has also commented on the situation: “Just when it seemed that there were no words to describe the hell in Gaza, a new one is added: famine.” “This is not a mystery, it is a disaster caused by man and a failure of humanity.”
“As an occupying power, Israel has unequivocal obligations under international law, including the duty to guarantee the supply of food and medicines to the population. We cannot allow this situation to continue with impunity,” added Guterres.
Source: www.eldiario.es
