'Famine', 'Starvation': The Challenges In Defining Gaza's Plight
But the difficulty of getting to the most affected areas in the Palestinian territory, besieged by Israel, means there are huge challenges in gathering the required data.
The internationally-agreed definition for famine is outlined by the Integrated Food Security Phase Classification (IPC), an initiative of 21 organisations and institutions including UN agencies and aid groups.
The IPC definition has three elements.
Firstly, at least 20 percent of households must have an extreme lack of food and face starvation or destitution.
Second, acute malnutrition in children under five exceeds 30 percent.
And third, there is an excess mortality threshold of two in 10,000 people dying per day.
Once these criteria are met, governments and UN agencies can declare a famine.
Available indicators are alarming regarding the food situation in Gaza.
"A large proportion of the population of Gaza is starving", according to the World Health Organization's chief, Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus.
Food deliveries are "far below what is needed for the survival of the population", he said, calling it "man-made... mass starvation".
Doctors Without Borders (MSF) said on Friday that a quarter of all young children and pregnant or breastfeeding women screened at its clinics in Gaza last week were malnourished, blaming Israel's "deliberate use of starvation as a weapon".
Almost a third of people in Gaza are "not eating for days" and malnutrition is surging, the UN's World Food Programme (WFP) said Friday.
The head of Al-Shifa hospital in Gaza City on Tuesday said that 21 children had died across the Palestinian territory in the previous 72 hours "due to malnutrition and starvation".
The very few foodstuffs in the markets are inaccessible, with a kilogramme (two pounds) of flour reaching the exorbitant price of $100, while the Gaza Strip's agricultural land has been ravaged by the war.
According to NGOs, the 20 or so aid trucks that enter the territory each day -- vastly insufficient for more than two million hungry people -- are systematically looted.
"It's become a technical point to explain that we're in acute food insecurity, IPC4, which affects almost the entire population. It doesn't resonate with people," said Amande Bazerolle, in charge of MSF's emergency response in Gaza.
"Yet we're hurtling towards famine -- that's a certainty."
NGOs and the WHO concede that gathering the evidence required for a famine declaration is extremely difficult.
"Currently we are unable to conduct the surveys that would allow us to formally classify famine," said Bazerolle.
She said it was "impossible" for them to screen children, take their measurements, or assess their weight-to-height ratio.
Jean-Raphael Poitou, Middle East programme director for the NGO Action Against Hunger, said the "continuous displacements" of Gazans ordered by the Israeli military, along with restrictions on movement in the most affected regions; "complicate things enormously".
Nabil Tabbal, incident manager at the WHO's emergency programme, said there were "challenges regarding data, regarding access to information".
For France's foreign ministry, malnutrition and the "risk of famine" is the "result of the blockade imposed by Israel".
The Israeli military denies it is blocking humanitarian aid entering Gaza. On Tuesday it claimed that 950 truckloads of aid were inside the Strip waiting for collection and distribution by international organisations.
Israeli government spokesman David Mencer insisted there was "no famine caused by Israel. There is a man-made shortage engineered by Hamas."
Hamas has consistently denied that. The New York Times on Saturday reported that, according to two senior Israeli military officials and two other Israelis involved, "the Israeli military never found proof" supporting the official Israeli allegation.
NGOs have accused Israel of imposing drastic restrictions.
More than 100 NGOs -- including MSF, Caritas, Save the Children, Amnesty International, Medecins du Monde, Christian Aid and Oxfam -- have urged Israel to open all land crossings and "restore the full flow of food" into Gaza.
A fresh Gaza IPC assessment is due very soon.
For some, the technical debates over a famine declaration seem futile given the urgency of the situation.
"Any famine declaration... comes too late," explained Jean-Martin Bauer, the WFP's director of food security and nutrition analysis.
In Somalia in 2011, when famine was formally declared, half of the total number of victims of the disaster had already died of starvation.
Israel launched its military campaign in Gaza after a deadly attack by Palestinian militant group Hamas on October 7, 2023.
The Israeli campaign has killed nearly 60,000 Palestinians, mostly civilians, according to the health ministry in the Hamas-run territory.
Hamas's October 2023 attack resulted in the deaths of 1,219 people, most of them civilians, according to an AFP tally based on official figures. Naeema, a Palestinian mother, carries her malnourished two-year-old son Yazan as they stand in their damaged home in the Al-Shati refugee camp in Gaza City AFP Displaced Palestinians at the Nuseirat refugee camp in Gaza seen hauling hard-to-get food parcels and other items AFP
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Int'l Business Times
4 hours ago
- Int'l Business Times
Gaza Famine Warning As Israel Resists Ceasefire Calls
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"We already allow significant amounts of humanitarian aid into Gaza every single day, including food, water and medicine. Unfortunately, Hamas... has been stealing aid from the Gaza population, many times by shooting Palestinians." As late as Sunday, Netanyahu had been insisting there was "no starvation in Gaza" but even his close international ally, US President Donald Trump, has now warned the situation appears to be "real starvation". Israel imposed a total blockade on Gaza on March 2 after ceasefire talks broke down. In late May, it began allowing a small trickle of aid to resume, amid warnings of a wave of starvation. Then on Sunday, faced with a mounting international chorus of alarm, Israel began a series of "tactical pauses" while allowed aid trucks to cross two border crossings into Gaza, and Jordanian and Emirati planes to airdrop aid. 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Another 260 trucks were permitted to cross into Gaza to deposit aid at collection points, four UN tankers brought in fuel and 20 pallets of aid were airdropped from Jordanian and Emirati planes, COGAT said. Overnight, however, strikes continued. Gaza's civil defence agency said Tuesday that Israeli air strikes killed at least 30 Palestinians, including women and children, in the central Nuseirat district. Civil defence spokesman Mahmud Bassal said the strikes were carried out overnight and into the morning and "targeted a number of citizens' homes" in the Nuseirat refugee camp. The local Al-Awda hospital said it had received "the bodies of 30 martyrs, including 14 women and 12 children". An Israeli military spokesman told AFP that he would need more information to enable him to look into the strikes. With aid experts pushing for a ceasefire to enable a large-scale humanitarian operation, Israel's foreign minister addressed reporters in Jerusalem to denounce what he called a "distorted campaign" of international pressure. Gideon Saar told reporters that if Israel was to halt the conflict while Hamas is still in power in Gaza and still holding hostages it would be a "tragedy for both Israelis and Palestinians". "It ain't gonna happen, no matter how much pressure is put on Israel," he said. Miltary transport planes from Jordan and the the United Arab Emirates have begun to drop food pallets into Gaza, but the bulk of the aid effort will have to be carried by trucks AFP Much of Gaza, a densely-packed territory of more than two million Palestinians, lies in ruins and the entire population has been displaced from home at least once AFP Israel has rejected calls for a ceasefire in its war against Hamas despite international warnings that a famine is imminent in Gaza AFP
DW
20 hours ago
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Food insecurity: Nutrition and geography in a hungry world – DW – 07/28/2025
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DW
21 hours ago
- DW
Middle East: Germany announces plan to airlift aid to Gaza – DW – 07/28/2025
Germany's Friedrich Merz has announced plans to establish an airlift to deliver aid to Gaza with the support of Jordan. France said there is "no alternative" to a two-state solution to solve the conflict. DW has more. The leaders of Israeli rights organization B'Tselem and Physicians for Human Rights Israel (PHRI) have spoken to the press about their new investigation that found the Israeli government to be committing genocide in Gaza. "Nothing prepares you for the realization that you are part of a society committing genocide. This is a deeply painful moment for us," said B'Tselem Executive Director Yuli Novak. "After decades of separation, and of dehumanization of Palestinians, the horrors of the Hamas-led attack on October 7, 2023, created deep existential fear among Israelis. The extremist, far-right messianic government is using that fear to promote an agenda of destruction and expulsion," Novak said. The lives of Palestinians "are being treated as worthless. 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To view this video please enable JavaScript, and consider upgrading to a web browser that supports HTML5 video German Chancellor Friedrich Merz said Monday that Berlin plans to establish an airlift to deliver humanitarian aid to the Gaza Strip with the support of Jordan. "We know that this can only be a very small help for the people in Gaza," Merz said, adding it is "a contribution we are happy to make." "We want to end the humanitarian suffering of the civilian population in Gaza as quickly as possible," Merz said. "We want the weapons in Gaza to fall silent immediately. Above all, we want our friends in Israel to finally find peace after the horrific events of October 7, 2023, and to be able to live in lasting security and peace." Jordan has served as a hub for aid deliveries to Gaza and has parachuted food into the territory for the past two days. The Israeli army began dropping aid supplies in the Gaza Strip over the weekend. It also announced the establishment of "humanitarian corridors" for trucks carrying aid supplies. Israel has been accused of engineering the starvation it now seeks to ease by dropping the aid into Gaza. Severe shortages of food and water in the sealed-off Palestinian territory have prompted warnings from UN agencies of "catastrophic hunger." The Israeli government has said an additional 180 trucks carrying aid have now entered Gaza. COGAT, the Israeli military unit responsible for approving and coordinating aid, wrote on X that the trucks are "now awaiting collection and distribution." It comes after 120 trucks were allowed to enter Gaza on Sunday. UN emergency relief coordinator Tom Fletcher told the BBC that the aid deliveries were welcome, but a "drop in the ocean" compared to what's needed. France's foreign minister Jean-Noel Barrot made the comment on Monday as he opened a United Nations (UN) conference dedicated to a two-state solution for Israelis and Palestinians. "Only a political, two-state solution will help respond to the legitimate aspirations of Israelis and Palestinians to live in peace and security. There is no alternative," he said. Barrot and his Saudi counterpart Prince Faisal bin Farhan are co-chairing the conference. UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres also condemned Israel's "creeping annexation" of the West Bank, saying it is "illegal" and that the "wholesale destruction of Gaza is intolerable." He said that both must stop. On a two-state solution Guterres said, "Unilateral actions that would forever undermine the two-state solution are unacceptable. They must stop." Israel and the US are boycotting the meeting, with the US calling the meeting "counterproductive." The European Commission is discussing a proposal today to partially suspend Israel's access to the Horizon research program. The proposal was mentioned in an agenda published by the Commission. Israel has been participating in the EU's research programs since 1996. Horizon Europeis a $93.5 billion research fund open for the period 2021-2027. Earlier this year, the Israel Innovation Authority reported that Israeli researchers and companies have secured grants totalling more than $1.1 billion between 2021-2024. This comes after several EU countries last week called for more pressure on Israel over the humanitarian crisis in Gaza. EU countries asked the Commission to put more options on the table, as they said Israel was not living up to its commitments on increasing aid. EU and Israeli officials had no comment on the proposal. US President Donald Trump said on a visit to the UK that he had discussed increased aid to Gaza with European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen and that he was also going to ask British Prime Minister Keir Starmer to join the effort when they met later on Monday. He also added that he felt a ceasefire in Gaza was "possible" a day after he spoke to Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu over the phone. Trump said that he told Netanyahu his current course of action against Hamas wasn't working, and that he needed to try something "different." The president had expressed concern over the weekend at the level of malnutrition in Gaza, which he reiterated to journalists ahead of the meeting with Starmer. At the same time, Egyptian President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi called on Trump to use his considerable influence — US aid is essential to the Israeli military — to "exert all efforts to end this war and allow the entry of aid." Jerusalem-based human rights NGO B'Tselem and Physicians for Human Rights Israel (PHRI) have presented their findings following an investigation into the conduct of the Israeli government and the military in the Gaza Strip. The B'Tselem report points to a decisive shift in policy following the October 7, 2023, attacks on Israeli civilians by Hamas. While purporting to be fighting only Hamas, the report found, the government was engaging in a policy of "mass killing, both in direct attacks and through creating catastrophic living conditions that increase the massive death toll." It also said that Israeli forces had inflicted "serious bodily or mental harm [on] the entire population of the Strip" and had engaged in "large-scale destruction of infrastructure" and "destruction of the social fabric, including Palestinian educational institutions and cultural sites." The report also pointed to "mass arrests and abuse of detainees in Israeli prisons, which have effectively become torture camps for thousands of Palestinians held without trial" and "mass forced displacement, including attempts at ethnic cleansing of Palestinians in Gaza and making the latter an official war goal." It accused Israeli authorities of carrying out an "assault on Palestinian identity through the deliberate destruction of refugee camps and attempts to undermine the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees (UNRWA)." To view this video please enable JavaScript, and consider upgrading to a web browser that supports HTML5 video The report points to the 1948 UN definition of genocide as "the intent to destroy, in whole or in part, a national, ethnic, racial or religious group," and points to both evidence on the ground in Gaza as well as statements made by Israeli officials to back up its findings that a genocide is being carried out in Gaza. The group added that "both morally and legally, genocide cannot be justified under any circumstance, including as an act of self-defense." The report ends with a call to action from both Israeli civil society and the international community to " means available under international law to stop Israel's genocide against the Palestinian people." PHRI also released its report on Monday when it presented "this health-focused legal analysis of Israel's military campaign in Gaza since October 2023, concluding that it constitutes genocide under the 1948 Genocide Convention." "The evidence shows a deliberate and systematic dismantling of Gaza's health and life-sustaining systems — through targeted attacks on hospitals, obstruction of medical aid and evacuations, and the killing and detention of healthcare," the NGO said. Israel has dismissed accusations that its forces are committing genocide and other rights abuses in the Gaza Strip, saying its primary war aim is to eliminate the Hamas militant group. DW spoke to Jamil Sawalmeh, the country director for ActionAid Palestine, about Israel's announcement it would open some land routes to allow aid to enter Gaza. The group is the Palestinian branch of the Johannesburg-based NGO ActionAid. "Unfortunately this does not change the reality because it's very severe. The conditions are horrific," Sawalmeh said. "This temporary and tactical pause is not what we need right now," he said. "We are seeing that children particularly are actually most impacted by the engineered starvation in Gaza." He said he believed the announcement was "only a way to mitigate international pressure and it's not going to be sufficient or adequate for any scale of needs in Gaza." "However, we [also] consider this an opportunity and a call for the international community to continue increasing the pressure using all means to make Israel abide by its international obligations under international law and call for an immediate and permanent ceasefire," he stressed. He also criticized Israel's plan to deliver aid through air drops, asking, "Why do we need these air drops when we have a land crossing [and] tonnes and tonnes of aid piled up by the crossing?" "Previously when these air drops were conducted, some [civilians] were killed directly by the pallets falling from the skies on their head," he said. "Some of these air drops have landed into dangerous combat zones, which means that civilian populations cannot access it. And if they try to access it, they will be subject to direct fire from the Israeli army." German Chancellor Friedrich Merz is set to meet with his Security Cabinet in Berlin a day after speaking to Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu over the phone. Merz said he had urged Netanyahu to improve the humanitarian crises in Gaza, having previously called Israeli policy in the enclave "unacceptable." The cabinet includes Vice Chancellor Lars Klingbeil of the Social Democrats (SPD), the center-left junior coalition partners of Merz's center-right block. Last week, several prominent members of the SPD urged the government to take a stronger stance against Israel after 28 countries, including close allies France and the UK, issued a joint declaration condemning Israel's military actions in Gaza and calling for an end to the war. Representatives of B'Tselem, also known as the Israeli Information Center for Human Rights in the Occupied Territories, and Physicians for Human Rights Israel (PHRI) are due to present their latest report on the war in Gaza later on Monday. B'Tselem is a Jerusalem-based organization that focuses on human rights abuses in the Palestinian territories, and has expressed criticism of the Israeli government's policies in Gaza and the occupied West Bank. The Israeli government has said that 120 aid trucks having been allowed to enter Gaza, coinciding with a ten-hour pause in military operations in some areas, such as Al-Malawsi and Deir al-Balah. Last week, international criticism of Israel's conduct in Gaza reached a fever pitch as news of mass starvation, particularly of children, continued to circulate. There was also hefty criticism of the US-run and Israel-backed Gaza Humanitarian Foundation (GHF), one of the few aid organizations that was allowed to operate during Israel's months-long blockade, due to the reports of killings of hundreds of people waiting for aid at their distribution points. To view this video please enable JavaScript, and consider upgrading to a web browser that supports HTML5 video The UN welcomed the news, a week after Secretary-General Antonio Guterres called what was happening in Gaza a "horror parallel in recent times." The body's Emergency Relief Coordinator, Tom Fletcher, said: "We welcome Israel's decision to support a one-week scale-up of aid, including lifting customs barriers on food, medicine and fuel from Egypt and the reported designation of secure routes for UN humanitarian convoys." Fletcher cautioned, however, that it still wouldn't be enough "to stave off famine and a catastrophic health crisis," before adding: "And no more attacks on people gathering for food." Israel has announced a ten-hour pause in military action for Monday following an increasingly widespread global outcry over the mass starvation in the enclave, which has been under a months-long blockade of aid by the Israeli military. The Security Cabinet of German Chancellor Friedrich Merz is set to meet on Monday afternoon to discuss Berlin's position on Gaza and Israeli conduct there. Also on Monday, two Israel-based NGOs are expected to present their findings after an independent investigation on rights abuses in Gaza.
