SRINAGAR: Famine has been officially declared in Gaza City for the first time, with United Nations agencies warning of catastrophic levels of hunger and starvation.
The Integrated Food Security Phase Classification (IPC), a UN-backed partnership of 21 agencies, as per The Guardian report, confirmed on Friday that more than half a million people in Gaza are now trapped in famine conditions. The crisis is expected to spread from Gaza Governorate into Deir al-Balah and Khan Younis in the coming weeks.
“This is irrefutable testimony… It is a famine, the Gaza famine,” UN relief chief Tom Fletcher told reporters in Geneva as the IPC report was released.
According to the findings, at least 132,000 children under the age of five are at risk of dying from acute malnutrition in the coming months—a figure that has doubled since May. The report also highlighted the plight of nearly 55,500 malnourished pregnant and breastfeeding women who require urgent nutritional support.
The Gaza Health Ministry as per Aljazeera reported that famine has already claimed 271 lives, including 112 children.
The UN’s Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO), UNICEF, the World Food Programme (WFP) and the World Health Organization (WHO) jointly reiterated their call for an immediate ceasefire and unhindered humanitarian access to prevent further deaths.
UN Secretary-General António Guterres described the situation as “a man-made disaster” and “a moral indictment.” “Just when it seems there are no words left to describe the living hell in Gaza, a new one has been added: famine,” Guterres wrote on social media.
Israel, however, rejected the findings. Its Foreign Ministry accused the IPC of producing “a tailor-made report to fit Hamas’s fake campaign,” insisting “there is no famine in Gaza.”
Despite the denial, humanitarian officials warn that the crisis is deepening rapidly, turning Gaza into what aid agencies describe as a race against time to save lives.
