A famine has officially been confirmed in Gaza City and the surrounding neighbourhoods by the Integrated Food Security Phase Classification (IPC). This announcement is the IPC’s first outside of Africa. Gaza City is home to around half a million people.
The UN-backed, globally recognised system for classifying food insecurity and malnutrition has declared just four other famines since it was established in 2004. Prior famines were confirmed in Somalia in 2011, South Sudan in 2017 and 2020 and in
Deaths from malnutrition and starvation are spiking, according to figures from Gaza’s Health Ministry, verified by the World Health Organisation. In just the first 20 days of August, there were 133 deaths attributed to malnutrition or starvation, including 25 children, the ministry said.
There were almost 13,000 new admissions of children for acute malnutrition recorded in July, according to the latest from the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs.
The United Nations chief has described the famine confirmed in Gaza City and its surrounding areas as a “failure of humanity”. Antonio Gutteres said the situation was a “man-made disaster” after a UN-backed body, which identifies hunger levels around the world, raised its food insecurity status in parts of the territory to Phase 5 – the highest and most severe.
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