UN-backed experts declare famine in and around Gaza City

An “entirely man-made” famine is taking place in Gaza’s largest city and its surrounding area amid deteriorating conditions that threaten an exponential increase in deaths across the devastated territory, UN-backed experts have declared.
The Integrated Food Security Phase Classification (IPC), a globally recognised organisation that classifies the severity of food insecurity and malnutrition, found that three key thresholds for famine had been met, signalling a major escalation of the humanitarian crisis in Gaza.
Only four famines have been declared by the IPC since it was established in 2004, most recently in Sudan last year.
“This famine is entirely man-made, it can be halted and reversed,” the report says. “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. Any further delay – even by days – will result in a totally unacceptable escalation of famine-related mortality.
“If a ceasefire is not implemented to allow humanitarian aid to reach everyone in the Gaza Strip, and if essential food supplies and basic health, nutrition and [sanitation and water] services are not restored immediately, avoidable deaths will increase exponentially.”
The IPC warned in July that a “famine scenario” was unfolding in parts of Gaza but until now it had stopped short of making a formal declaration, citing a lack of hard data.
In addition to a famine in and around Gaza City, the biggest built-up area of the territory and home to between 500,000 and 800,000 people, the report declares that the towns of Deir al-Balah and Khan Younis in the centre and south of Gaza are likely to experience famine “in coming weeks”.
The experts say the data is insufficient to declare a famine in the north of the territory, though aid officials say the conditions there are thought to be the most severe and have called for urgent steps to allow for a full humanitarian assessment.