
‘Worst-case scenario of famine' is happening in Gaza, food crisis experts say
The alert, still short of a formal famine declaration, follows an outcry over images of emaciated children in Gaza and reports of dozens of hunger-related deaths after nearly 22 months of war. The international pressure led Israel over the weekend to announce measures, including daily humanitarian pauses in fighting in parts of Gaza and airdrops. The United Nations and Palestinians on the ground say little has changed, and desperate crowds continue to overwhelm and unload delivery trucks before they can reach their destinations.
The Integrated Food Security Phase Classification, or IPC, said Gaza has teetered on the brink of famine for two years, but recent developments have 'dramatically worsened' the situation, including 'increasingly stringent blockades' by Israel.
A formal famine declaration, which is rare, requires the kind of data that the lack of access to Gaza and mobility within has largely denied. The IPC has only declared famine a few times — in Somalia in 2011, South Sudan in 2017 and 2020, and parts of Sudan's western Darfur region last year.
But independent experts say they don't need a formal declaration to know what they're seeing in Gaza.
'Just as a family physician can often diagnose a patient she's familiar with based on visible symptoms without having to send samples to the lab and wait for results, so too we can interpret Gaza's symptoms. This is famine,' Alex de Waal, author of 'Mass Starvation: The History and Future of Famine' and executive director of the World Peace Foundation, told The Associated Press.
What it takes to declare famine
An area is classified as in famine when all three of the following conditions are confirmed:
At least 20% of households have an extreme lack of food, or are essentially starving. At least 30% of children six months to 5 years old suffer from acute malnutrition or wasting, meaning they're too thin for their height. And at least two people or four children under 5 per 10,000 are dying daily due to starvation or the interaction of malnutrition and disease.
The report is based on available information through July 25 and says the crisis has reached 'an alarming and deadly turning point.' It says data indicate that famine thresholds have been reached for food consumption in most of Gaza — at its lowest level since the war began — and for acute malnutrition in Gaza City. The report says nearly 17 out of every 100 children under the age of 5 in Gaza City are acutely malnourished.
Mounting evidence shows 'widespread starvation.' Essential health and other services have collapsed. One in three people in Gaza is going without food for days at a time, according to the World Food Program. Hospitals report a rapid increase in hunger-related deaths in children under 5. Gaza's population of over 2 million has been squeezed into increasingly tiny areas of the devastated territory.
The IPC's latest analysis in May warned that Gaza will likely fall into famine if Israel doesn't lift its blockade and stop its military campaign. Its new alert calls for immediate and large-scale action and warns: 'Failure to act now will result in widespread death in much of the strip.'
What aid restrictions look like
Israel has restricted aid to varying degrees throughout the war. In March, it cut off the entry of all goods, including fuel, food and medicine, to pressure Hamas to free hostages.
Israel eased those restrictions in May but also pushed ahead with a new U.S.-backed aid delivery system that has been wracked by chaos and violence. The traditional, U.N.-led aid providers say deliveries have been hampered by Israeli military restrictions and incidents of looting, while criminals and hungry crowds swarm entering convoys.
While Israel says there's no limit on how many aid trucks can enter Gaza, U.N. agencies and aid groups say even the latest humanitarian measures are not enough to counter the worsening starvation. In a statement Monday, Doctors Without Borders called the new airdrops ineffective and dangerous, saying they deliver less aid than trucks.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has said no one is starving in Gaza and that Israel has supplied enough aid throughout the war, 'otherwise, there would be no Gazans.' Israel's military on Monday criticized what it calls 'false claims of deliberate starvation in Gaza.'
Israel's closest ally now appears to disagree. 'Those children look very hungry,' President Donald Trump said Monday of the images from Gaza in recent days.
___
Anna reported from Lowville, New York.
Hashtags

Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles


CTV News
a few seconds ago
- CTV News
Canada airdrops aid to Palestinians in Gaza: Anand
UNICEF spokesperson Salim Owels describes the situation on the ground as more aid is getting into Gaza with many challenges. UNICEF spokesperson Salim Owels describes the situation on the ground as more aid is getting into Gaza with many challenges. More aid getting into Gaza but it's 'not nearly enough': UNICEF spokesperson OTTAWA — Foreign Affairs Minister Anita Anand says Canadian aircraft carried out an airdrop of 21,600 pounds of aid to Palestinians in Gaza on Monday. Earlier this week, Israel loosened restrictions on food and medicine reaching the Gaza Strip in response to an international outcry over starvation in the Palestinian territory. More coming. The Canadian Press


Toronto Star
an hour ago
- Toronto Star
Dozens killed as Palestinians in Gaza scramble for aid from air and land
DEIR AL-BALAH, Gaza Strip (AP) — Dozens of Palestinians were killed or wounded on Monday as desperate crowds headed toward food distribution points and airdropped parcels in the Gaza Strip, according to witnesses and local health officials. Israel's blockade and military offensive have made it nearly impossible to safely deliver aid, contributing to the territory's slide toward famine nearly 22 months into the war with Hamas. Aid groups say Israel's week-old measures to allow more aid in are far from sufficient. Families of hostages in Gaza fear starvation affects them too, but blame Hamas.

CBC
3 hours ago
- CBC
Hunger-related deaths continue to rise in Gaza as more Palestinians killed seeking aid
At least 40 Palestinians were killed by Israeli gunfire and airstrikes on Gaza on Monday, including 10 seeking aid, health authorities said, adding another five had died of starvation in what humanitarian agencies warn may be an unfolding famine. The 10 died in two separate incidents near aid sites belonging to the U.S.-backed Gaza Humanitarian Foundation (GHF), in central and southern Gaza, local medics said. The United Nations says more than 1,000 people have been killed trying to receive aid in the enclave since the GHF began operating in May 2025, most of them shot by Israeli forces operating near GHF sites. "Everyone who goes there, comes back either with a bag of flour or carried back [on a wooden stretcher] as a martyr, or injured. No one comes back safe," said Palestinian Bilal Thari, 40. He was among mourners at Gaza City's Al-Shifa Hospital on Monday who had gathered to collect the bodies of their loved ones killed a day earlier by Israeli fire as they sought aid, according to Gaza's health officials. At least 13 Palestinians were killed on Sunday while waiting for the arrival of UN aid trucks at the Zikim crossing on the Israeli border with the northern Gaza Strip, the officials added. At the hospital, some bodies were wrapped in thick patterned blankets because white shrouds, which hold special significance in Islamic burials, were in short supply due to continued Israeli border restrictions and the mounting number of daily deaths, Palestinians said. "We don't want war, we want peace, we want this misery to end. We are out on the streets, we all are hungry, we are all in bad shape, women are out there on the streets, we have nothing available for us to live a normal life like all human beings, there's no life," Thari told Reuters. U.S. envoy visits controversial aid site as Gaza starvation crisis worsens 3 days ago WARNING: Video contains distressing images | The U.S. special envoy to the Middle East, Steve Witkoff, visited Gaza on Friday to inspect a controversial aid distribution site, backed by the U.S. and Israel, after meeting with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Thursday. There was no immediate comment by Israel on the incidents of shootings on Sunday and Monday. Israel blames Hamas for the suffering in Gaza and says it is taking steps for more aid to reach its population, including airdrops, pausing fighting for part of the day in some areas and announcing protected routes for aid convoys. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netaynahu said on Monday he would convene his security cabinet this week to discuss how to instruct the military to proceed in Gaza and meet all his war goals. "We must continue to stand together and fight together to achieve all our war objectives: the defeat of the enemy, the release of our hostages and the assurance that Gaza will no longer pose a threat to Israel," Netanyahu said at the outset of a regular cabinet meeting. Netanyahu did not say when the security cabinet meeting would be held this week. 5 more people die of hunger Meanwhile, five more people died of starvation or malnutrition over the past 24 hours, Gaza's health ministry said on Monday. The new deaths raised the toll of those dying from hunger to 180, including 93 children, since the war began. UN agencies have said that airdrops of food are insufficient and that Israel must let in far more aid by land and quickly ease access to it. COGAT, the Israeli military agency that co-ordinates aid, said that during the past week, more than 20,000 tonnes of humanitarian aid in 1,200 trucks had entered Gaza but that hundreds of the trucks had yet to be driven to aid distribution hubs by UN and other international organizations. WATCH | Palestinians describe violent and chaotic conditions at aid drops: Palestinians scramble for aid after airdrop 5 days ago As the hunger crisis in Gaza deepens, the arrival of an aid plane — part of a joint operation by Egypt, Jordan and the United Arab Emirates — over Al-Zawayda on Wednesday sent people running and climbing over walls to retrieve its precious cargo, as some decried the chaotic conditions. 'Do I have to die so I can get it?' one man said. The Hamas-run Gaza government media office said on Sunday that more than 600 aid trucks had arrived since Israel eased restrictions late in July. However, witnesses and Hamas sources said many of those trucks have been looted by desperate displaced people and armed gangs. Palestinian and UN officials said Gaza needs around 600 aid trucks to enter per day to meet the humanitarian requirements — the number Israel used to allow into Gaza before the war. The Gaza war began when Hamas-led attacks killed around 1,200 people and took 251 hostages in southern Israel on October 7, 2023, according to Israeli figures. Israel's offensive has since killed more than 60,000 Palestinians, according to Gaza health officials.