UN officially confirms hunger in Gaza City amid final offensive

BarcelonaThe international organization responsible for monitoring world hunger declared a famine situation in Gaza City for the first time this Friday at noon. The Integrated Food Security Classification (IPC) system, endorsed by the United Nations and recognized globally by 21 humanitarian organizations, confirms that the extreme conditions in which one million people live meet the criteria for full-blown hunger.

The 59-page report indicates, among other data, that in the coming months up to 132,000 children under five will suffer from "acute malnutrition." Furthermore, 41,000 of these cases will experience "severe" malnutrition, double the number predicted in May, placing them at "elevated risk of death." This is the IPC's fifth assessment of the food situation in Gaza.

Since its inception in 2004, the CPI had only recognized four episodes of famine, all in sub-Saharan Africa, the last of them in 2024 in SudanUntil now, the IPC had warned that the ""worst case scenario" was materializing in Gaza, but had not issued a formal declaration due to a lack of conclusive data. Now, with new evidence and after 22 months of war, the agency declares the situation in Gaza City—the last major urbanized area in the enclave, home to one million people—a "catastrophe," and predicts the emergency will spread to the districts of Deir al-Balah and Khan Yunis by the end of September.

According to IPC projections, nearly a third of the Strip's population, some 641,000 people, face catastrophic conditions, while 1.14 million live in a situation of "food emergency," the second highest level on its scale. The report is blunt: "The time for debate and hesitation is over; hunger is here and spreading rapidly. Any delay, even days, will lead to an unacceptable escalation of deaths."

According to the Hamas-controlled Gaza Health Ministry, 271 people, 112 of them children, have already died from starvation, more than half in the last three weeks. The overall death toll from the war has reached 62,192.

UN Secretary-General António Guterres has called the famine in Gaza a "man-made disaster [and] a failure of humanity itself." Guterres said the situation goes beyond a simple lack of food: "It is a deliberate breakdown of the systems necessary for human survival."

According to the UN official, Israel has "unequivocal obligations under international law," including the responsibility to ensure the supply of food and medicine to the population. He issued an urgent call for immediate action, stressing that the situation cannot be allowed to continue "with impunity." In addition, Guterres reiterated his demand for a ceasefire, the release of all hostages, and full and unrestricted humanitarian access to the Gaza Strip. "The time to act is not tomorrow, it is now," he concluded.

Historical precedent

The officially declared famine in Gaza sets a historic precedent: it is the first time the CPI has recognized this situation in the Middle East. Until now, only Somalia, South Sudan, Nigeria, and Sudan had suffered from it.

For a population to be classified as famine, at least 20% of households must suffer from extreme food shortages, 30% of children must suffer from acute malnutrition, and two people per 10,000 inhabitants must die each day from causes directly related to hunger. The CPI system is endorsed by the UN and establishes five stages, from "minimal food insecurity" to "hunger." Twenty-one organizations, including Save the Children, Oxfam, and UNICEF, collaborate with the Rome-based organization, and its declarations are globally recognized.

Israel, however, has flatly rejected the CPI's findings. The military agency in charge of managing aid to the Palestinians claims the report is "false" and based on "partial and biased" data from Hamas and local NGOs. It also criticizes the assessment for "ignoring extensive Israeli humanitarian efforts" and for being based on an "unpublished telephone survey." "There is a consistent policy to provide humanitarian assistance to the civilian population of Gaza, in full compliance with international law," the Israeli statement insists.

But the CPI has in turn dismissed Israel's accusations and lowered its usual thresholds for declaring famine. The answer is technical, but in essence, it involves different ways of assessing malnutrition in children under five, depending on the available evidence.

According to CPI data, a 30% threshold is used when assessing based on weight and height, but this measure is not currently available in Gaza for obvious reasons. In its absence, an alternative measure of children's arm circumference is used—which sets the hunger threshold when 15% of children have an arm below a certain size.

The CPI says this standard has been applied for more than a decade, and was recently used to assess hunger in Sudan. The use of arm circumference size, therefore, "does not represent a lowering of the threshold in the CPI methodology." From this perspective, the organization says, it demonstrates the continued application of its commonly established standards.

As the food crisis becomes unsustainable, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu confirmed late Thursday that his security cabinet has approved the final assault on Gaza City, in the north of the enclave, an offensive that has been underway for 48 hours. At the same time, he has assured that he has given instructions to resume negotiations with Hamas to secure the release of the hostages and end the war "under conditions acceptable to Israel." "Both priorities—defeating Hamas and freeing the hostages—go hand in hand," he argued.

This announcement comes just three days after Hamas accepted the temporary truce proposal pushed by Qatar and Egypt, which provides for a sixty-day ceasefire and the release of half of the hostages. However, Netanyahu has rejected the offer and warns that Israel will only accept a comprehensive agreement that includes the simultaneous handover of all hostages, both alive and dead, the demilitarization of Gaza, Israeli control of the borders, and the creation of a local administration independent of Hamas and the Palestinian Authority.

Hamas accuses Netanyahu of obstructing mediation efforts and denounces his disdain for the truce proposal. Israeli sources admit that contacts could resume soon, but insist that Israel will not accept a partial truce.

The civilian population faces an emergency that the UN describes as "unsustainable." Without regular food supplies, with hospitals overwhelmed and infrastructure devastated, the situation is worsening with the Israeli order to evacuate Gaza City before the ground offensive. Hospitals and health centers have received evacuation notices in recent hours, a measure that the Gaza Ministry of Health dismisses as "a deadly step in the health system." The United Nations warns that this order could cause a new wave of civilian casualties and further aggravate the current humanitarian collapse.

The analysis of the death toll reflects the magnitude of the tragedy. According to a joint investigation by The Guardian, +972 Magazine and Local Call, based on classified Israeli military intelligence data, only 17% of those killed in Gaza were Hamas or Islamic Jihad fighters. The remainder, up to 83%, were civilians, a figure that would place the conflict among those with the highest proportion of non-combatant victims in recent decades, comparable with the Srebrenica massacre, he Rwandan genocide or the Russian siege of Mariupol in 2022.