Parts of Gaza are officially experiencing a “man-made” famine, according to a Friday report by a United Nations-backed initiative, which added that the situation is expected to worsen after months of relentless conflict.
The Integrated Food Security Phase Classification (IPC) found that famine has been confirmed in the Gaza Governorate, which includes Gaza City, now also the site of a major new Israeli offensive.
“As this Famine is entirely man-made, it can be halted and reversed,” the report said. “The time for debate and hesitation has passed, starvation is present and is rapidly spreading. There should be no doubt in anyone’s mind that an immediate, at-scale response is needed.”
The IPC called for an immediate ceasefire, saying that without a truce that allows humanitarian aid to reach everyone in the Gaza Strip, “avoidable deaths will increase exponentially.”
During nearly two years of war in Gaza, Israel has at times restricted or cut off the entry of aid to the ravaged enclave.
While some people have died of starvation and hunger, others have been killed trying to receive aid at distribution sites run by the controversial US- and Israeli-backed Gaza Humanitarian Foundation (GHF), which was brought in place to replace a UN system long criticized by Israel.
US Ambassador to Israel Mike Huckabee said Saturday that the UN should declare itself “corrupt” and “incompetent” after the IPC declaration of famine.
“The (international) media is missing the real story of ‘famine’ in Gaza. Hostages ARE starving, Hamas is getting fat, & the UN declares famine while 92% of THEIR food is stolen to be sold by Hamas,” Huckabee posted on X. “Meanwhile UN food sits rotting in sun. The UN should declare itself corrupt & incompetent.”
The Coordination of Government Activities in the Territories (COGAT), the Israeli agency tasked with facilitating aid distribution in Gaza, rejected the IPC report ahead of its release, saying it “relies on partial, biased data and superficial information originating from Hamas.”
COGAT said that the IPC’s “one-sided approach completely disregards the extensive humanitarian efforts undertaken in Gaza,” adding that the report ignored information provided to its authors by Israel.
It also stated that in terms of aid the “overall trend has shifted” in Gaza, but that Hamas has continued to exploit humanitarian supplies.
Aid groups, the UN and harrowing testimony and images emerging from Gaza have, however, painted a different picture.
US President Donald Trump last month said there is “real starvation” in Gaza, contradicting statements by Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who has said that no one is starving in the territory.
UN Secretary-General António Guterres said the famine reported in Gaza is “a man-made disaster, a moral indictment, and a failure of humanity itself.”
“As the occupying power, Israel has unequivocal obligations under international law – including the duty of ensuring food and medical supplies of the population,” Guterres added. “We cannot allow this situation to continue with impunity. No more excuses.”
Tom Fletcher, the UN emergency relief coordinator, urged the world to read the IPC report “from cover to cover.”
“Read it in sorrow and anger, not as words and numbers but names and lives. Be in no doubt that this irrefutable testimony. It is a famine, the Gaza famine. The famine that we could have prevented if we were allowed. Yet food stacks up at borders because of systematic obstruction by Israel,” Fletcher said Friday at a news briefing.
Amnesty International called the IPC’s findings “a scathing indictment of the failure of states to press Israel into ending its genocide in the occupied Gaza Strip” and said the report confirmed what human rights and aid groups have long been warning of.
The World Health Organization (WHO), the Food and Agricultural Organization (FAO), World Food Programme (WFP) and UNICEF all reiterated that “famine must be stopped at all costs” and expressed serious concern about the threat of an intensified offensive in Gaza City.
CNN, along with other media outlets, has widely reported on hunger and starvation in Gaza.
Arab nations including Kuwait, Jordan and Saudi Arabia condemned the situation, as did the UK, and New York City’s mayoral candidate Zohran Mamdani.
Last month, CNN reported the death of 4-year-old Razan Abu Zaher, who died at a hospital in central Gaza from complications brought on by malnutrition, according to a medical source. Her skeletal body was laid out on a slab of stone.
Two more deaths due to starvation were recorded Thursday by the Palestinian health ministry, bringing the total number of those who died of malnutrition to 271, including 112 children.
Friday’s IPC report added that “malnutrition threatens the lives of 132,000 children under five through June 2026, including 41,000 severe cases, doubling May’s numbers.”
Formal famine determinations are rare. The IPC has previously determined famines in Somalia in 2011, South Sudan in 2017 and 2020, and parts of Sudan’s western Darfur region last year.
This is the first time the IPC has confirmed famine in the Middle East.
Under the IPC system – a five-phase scale used to measure the severity of food insecurity – a famine can only be declared if data shows certain thresholds are met.
Those conditions are: at least 20% of all households must face an extreme food shortage, 30% or more of children must be acutely malnourished or 15% of children suffering from acute malnutrition based on body measurements, and at least 2 in every 10,000 people die every day because of outright starvation or the interaction of malnutrition and disease.
Israel accused the IPC of lowering its global standard for famine only for Gaza, an accusation which the organization said was “completely false,” pointing out that the same standard has been in use since 2019.
Palestinians living in Gaza City, many of whom were displaced from other corners of the enclave, say it is high time the city is classified as being in famine, which they say they have endured for months.
“This classification comes at the right time to show the world the magnitude of the tragedy and catastrophe in the Gaza Strip,” Ahed Ferwana, a Palestinian journalist and analyst residing in Gaza City, told CNN. “The strip has been suffering for months from starvation on the hands of (Israeli) aggression and closure of border crossings.”
Bisan Gazal, a displaced woman in the city, said that “of course there is famine,” adding that she and her family sometimes have one meal a day, while other days they don’t eat at all.
“Sometimes we find nothing to eat, it’s very hard,” she told CNN on Friday. “Our children fall asleep in tears.”
Tawfeeq Abu Rajad, another displaced man living in western Gaza City, said that food prices are skyrocketing and there is little to no protein available.
The IPC designation of Gaza as in famine is “accurate,” he said.
“We hope that all entities and international establishments put an end to this famine as soon as possible.”
CNN’s Niamh Kennedy and Khader Al-Za’anoun of Wafa, the official Palestinian news agency, contributed reporting.
