Famine Officially Declared in Gaza City

The world's leading authority on food crises said Friday the Gaza Strip's largest city is gripped by famine, and that it is likely to spread across the territory without a ceasefire and an end to restrictions on humanitarian aid. The Integrated Food Security Phase Classification, or IPC, said famine is occurring in Gaza City, home to hundreds of thousands of Palestinians, and that it could spread south to Deir al-Balah and Khan Younis by the end of next month, the AP reports.

• The IPC determination comes after months of warnings by aid groups that Israel's restrictions of food and other aid into Gaza, and its military offensive, were causing high levels of starvation among Palestinian civilians, particularly children.

• The grim milestone—the first time the IPC has confirmed a famine in the Middle East—is sure to ramp up international pressure on Israel, which says it plans to soon escalate the war by seizing Gaza City and other Hamas strongholds, which experts say will exacerbate the hunger crisis.
• The IPC said hunger has been driven by fighting and the blockade of aid, and magnified by widespread displacement and the collapse of food production in Gaza, pushing hunger to life-threatening levels across the entire territory after 22 months of war.
• More than half a million people in Gaza, about a quarter of the population, face catastrophic levels of hunger, and many are at risk of dying from malnutrition-related causes, the IPC report said. Last month, the IPC said the "worst-case scenario of famine" was unfolding in Gaza, but stopped short of an official determination.

• The Israeli military agency in charge of transferring aid to the territory rejected the report Friday, calling it "false and biased." The agency, known as COGAT, rejected the claim that there was famine in Gaza and said that significant steps had been taken to expand the amount of aid entering the strip in recent weeks.
• 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.
• United Nations Secretary General Antonio Guterres described the famine as "a man-made disaster, a moral indictment, and a failure of humanity itself," the BBC reports. "Just when it seems there are no words left to describe the living hell in Gaza, a new one has been added: 'famine,'" he said Friday, calling for an immediate ceasefire, the release of all hostages, and "unfettered humanitarian access."