Famine confirmed in northern Gaza, says U.N.-backed agency
NPR ^ | 08/22/25 | Ruth Sherlock , Jackie Northam
Posted on 08/22/2025 1:00:56 PM PDT by SeekAndFind
The world's leading authority on food insecurity has confirmed a famine in Gaza.
In a report published Friday, the United Nations-backed group of experts finds that over half a million people parts of north Gaza are at risk of dying from starvation, and hundreds of thousands more people face catastrophic shortages as the famine spreads to other areas.
"As this Famine is entirely man-made, it can be halted and reversed. The time for debate and hesitation has passed, starvation is present and is rapidly spreading," the Integrated Food Security Phase Classification, or IPC, report says.
The images of skeletal children in Gaza have already caused widespread protests around the world against the Israeli offensive there and prompted some of Israel's most important Western allies to say they will recognize a Palestinian state. The IPC report brings the facts behind those photographs of starvation into stark relief.
It says famine, the most extreme classification of hunger, is occurring in Gaza Governorate and projected to expand to Deir al-Balah and Khan Younis governorates by the end of September.
Describing the situation as a "race against time," the report says at least 132,000 children under the age of 5 could die from acute malnutrition in the coming months.
This estimate has doubled since an IPC report in May, showing just how drastically the conditions have worsened in Gaza in recent weeks.
Nearly 55,500 malnourished pregnant and breastfeeding women will require an urgent nutrition response.
The Ministry of Health in Gaza said Thursday 271 people have so far died in the famine, including 112 children.
This is the first time famine has been confirmed in the Middle East. And it's happened in a 25-mile-long strip of land, where trucks piled with thousands of tons of food are parked at border crossings.
The people in Gaza now dying of starvation are never more than a few miles from warehouses filled with food aid that they have no way to reach.
"This is the direct result of months of deliberate restrictions on aid, the destruction of Gaza's food, health, and water systems, and relentless bombardment," Tjada D'Oyen McKenna, the CEO of Mercy Corps, said in response to the statement. "This is a man-made catastrophe, entirely preventable and entirely unconscionable."
Israel was quick to respond to the report. Israel's Foreign Ministry accused the IPC of publishing "a tailor-made report to fit Hamas's fake campaign." It claims "there is no famine in Gaza." The Coordination of Government Activities in the Territories (COGAT), the Israeli military body in charge of Palestinian civilian affairs, said the report is based "partial and unreliable sources, many of them affiliated with Hamas." The office of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu posted point-by-point arguments against the report, including allegations that it "ignores Israel's humanitarian efforts and Hamas's systematic theft."
The Israeli government has repeatedly said its restrictions on aid are to pressure Hamas and prevent its fighters from benefiting from it.
But the result has been a breakdown in the aid system for Gaza's population living under Israeli blockade, even before this war.
Earlier this month, more than 100 international humanitarian organizations, including Caritas, Save the Children and Doctors Without Borders, accused Israel of "weaponizing" aid to help achieve its aims in Gaza. The statement from Aug. 13 said, "Despite claims by Israeli authorities that there is no limit on humanitarian aid entering Gaza, most major international NGOs have been unable to deliver a single truck of lifesaving supplies since 2 March."
They said their operations are hampered by new, more restrictive Israeli regulations for international aid groups, which they say have resulted in Israeli authorities denying dozens of permissions for groups to bring their aid into Gaza. "This obstruction has left millions of dollars' worth of food, medicine, water, and shelter items stranded in warehouses across Jordan and Egypt, while Palestinians are being starved," the statement said.
On July 29, an IPC alert warned that the "worst-case scenario of famine" was playing out in the Gaza Strip. It underscored the devastating living situation for Gaza's some 2 million citizens, almost two years since the Hamas attacks on southern Israel on Oct. 7, 2023, prompted a full-scale Israeli military invasion of Gaza.
After Israel tightened restrictions on supplies entering Gaza in mid-March, food dried up. In the weeks that followed, adults prioritized feeding their children over themselves as a coping strategy, which, according to the IPC alert, initially mitigated a rise in acute child malnutrition.
However, by April, supplies had become so scarce that parents could no longer protect their children this way. The IPC alert said that between April and mid-July, over 20,000 children had to be treated for acute malnutrition.
What little sustenance could be found in markets skyrocketed in price. In June, wheat flour prices increased between 1,400% and 5,600% compared to late February. By July, the IPC alert stated nearly 9 out of 10 households had to resort to taking "significant safety risks" to find food and scavenge from garbage.
The U.N. Secretary-General António Guterres posted his response to the report on social media. "Just when it seems there are no words left to describe the living hell in Gaza, a new one has been added: 'famine'," the U.N. chief said. "This is not a mystery — it is a man-made disaster, a moral indictment and a failure of humanity itself."
British Foreign Secretary David Lammy said it was "utterly horrifying" and held Israel responsible. "The Israeli government's refusal to allow sufficient aid into Gaza has caused this man-made catastrophe. This is a moral outrage," Lammy said in a statement.
Hundreds of civilians have been reported shot dead as they cross dangerous militarized zones to receive supplies from the aid distribution sites of the U.S. and Israeli-backed Gaza Humanitarian Foundation. The foundation disputes that the killings occur near its centers and says it has distributed 132 million meals.
But aid experts say that much of what the group gives out is not ready-to-eat and requires water and fuel for cooking — resources that are hard to come by in Gaza, where Israeli bombardment has devastated critical infrastructure.
Moreover, experts say the distribution sites are located primarily in militarized zones along the Khan Younis–Rafah border, where less than a quarter of Gaza's population lives.
Finding food and resources for cooking has been made all the more difficult by the frequent and often repeated forced displacements of families across the Gaza Strip. The IPC report said some 800,000 people have had to leave their homes in waves of displacement that have forced people to abandon any remaining resources, further disrupted access to essential health services and compounded humanitarian needs.
The confirmation of famine comes as Israel's security cabinet approved plans for Israeli soldiers and 60,000 reservists to move into Gaza City.
The U.N. says that already nearly 90% of Gaza is under military control or off-limits to Palestinians. Gaza City is home to tens of thousands of Gazans displaced from other parts of the strip and has several of the territory's last partially functioning hospitals. The Israeli military has started calling doctors and international organizations in the city, telling them to leave.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Thursday that Israel will now resume negotiations for the release of all hostages held in Gaza and an end to the nearly 2-year-old war, but on terms acceptable to Israel. It comes in response to a temporary ceasefire proposal put forward by Egypt and Qatar that Hamas accepted on Monday.
Israel will dispatch negotiators to talks once a location is set, an Israeli official said. Netanyahu, however, also said he remained set on approving plans for capturing Gaza City.
The talks could offer a moment's hope to Palestinians desperate for a ceasefire that the experts behind the IPC report say is so desperately needed as a first step to address the famine in Gaza.
But for now, the situation in the enclave remains desperate. The United Nations' World Food Programme said in a recent report that "public order has broken down" and that "after 22 months of fighting, the social fabric of Gaza is collapsing as the fear of starvation intensifies."
Almost all the trucks carrying WFP food aid inside Gaza have been stopped before reaching their destination by civilians desperate to find the sustenance they need for themselves and their families to survive.
TOPICS: Foreign Affairs; Gaza; Hamas; Hezbollah; Iran; Israel; News/Current Events; War on Terror; Yemen
KEYWORDS: 0001bsarticle; 20231007; 202508; axisofevil; davidlammy; family; feedthefuture; gaza; gwot; hamas; hezbollah; hostages; houthis; hungermemes; ipcreport; iran; israel; lammy; letmypeoplego; mercycorps; portland; portlandcell; tjadadoyenmckenna; tjadamckenna; un; usaid; waronterror; yemen
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1 posted on 08/22/2025 1:00:56 PM PDT by SeekAndFind
To: SeekAndFind
2 posted on 08/22/2025 1:03:27 PM PDT by Frank Drebin (And don't ever let me catch you guys in America!)
To: SeekAndFind
3 posted on 08/22/2025 1:05:53 PM PDT by dfwgator (Endut! Hoch Hech!)
To: SeekAndFind
“The world’s leading authority on food insecurity has confirmed a famine in Gaza.”
Yeah!! Says NPR with glee!
4 posted on 08/22/2025 1:06:12 PM PDT by aquila48 (Do not let them make you "care" ! Guilting you is how they. control you. )
To: SeekAndFind
Phuq*^ the UnitedNazis and all their lies.
Israel has facilitated the transfer of more than 101,000 aid trucks carrying two million tons of humanitarian supplies into Gaza since October 7—amounting to more than one ton of aid for every resident of Gaza.
5 posted on 08/22/2025 1:06:54 PM PDT by faithhopecharity ("Politicians aren't born, they're excreted." Marcus Tullius Cicero (106 to 43 BCE))
To: faithhopecharity
Yeah, I’m going to believe an organization that had a real Nazi as Secretary-General.
6 posted on 08/22/2025 1:08:03 PM PDT by dfwgator (Endut! Hoch Hech!)
To: SeekAndFind
The world's leading authority on food insecurity...
The world's leading producer of food insecurity...
There. Fixed it.
7 posted on 08/22/2025 1:10:16 PM PDT by Texas Eagle ("Throw me to the wolves and I'll return leading the pack"- Donald J. Trump)
To: SeekAndFind
Could, would, should, might....... Thanks to ham-ass.
8 posted on 08/22/2025 1:17:54 PM PDT by rktman (Destroy America from within? On hold! Enlisted USN 1967 proudly. ??! ???! Winning currently!)
To: SeekAndFind
The Gazans haven't surrendered to Israel after attacking, killing, raping, and kidnapping 1K Israeli citizens.
Evidently not enough Gazans have starved for them to learn the lesson to never attack Israel again.
9 posted on 08/22/2025 1:17:56 PM PDT by Tell It Right (1 Thessalonians 5:21 -- Put everything to the test, hold fast to that which is true.)
To: SeekAndFind
“says UN agency” - room for automatic skepticism there
10 posted on 08/22/2025 1:17:57 PM PDT by Wuli (uire)
To: SeekAndFind
Three Facts:
1. You can’t stop the starvation until you get rid of Hamas. They take 88% of the supplies delivered.
2. You can’t stop Hamas because the people support them, voted for them, and cheered them on to start this conflict.
3. You can’t deliver supplies because the United Nations helped Hamas start the war, and they are in charge of delivering the supplies that don’t make it. They are obviously compromised.
Ergo. Unless you remove all of Hamas and its supporters, and get the UN out, you can’t stop this famine.
To those who never supported this conflict, never voted for Hamas, and did everything they could to prevent Oct. 7th and have born witness against terrorism, you are ‘ innocent’ and have been wronged. To the rest, my strong advice is to relocate to a place where your hate and racism doesn’t result in your kinfolk starving. Unfortunately, I have doubts about significant numbers claiming to be in the ‘ innocent group’. Remember what the Democrats said when Obama and Joe Biden were ‘elected’, “elections have consequences”. Starvation after you start wars is one of them.
11 posted on 08/22/2025 1:18:25 PM PDT by Pete Dovgan
To: SeekAndFind
Don’t they have to go through the stages to get to famine? That would require a stage of “food desert”, which could be cured by Mamdani opening Soviet-style government grocery stores.
12 posted on 08/22/2025 1:18:27 PM PDT by Bernard (Issue an annual budget. And Issue a federal government balance sheet. Let's see what we got.)
To: SeekAndFind
After noticing the UN and NPR involved in this “reporting” I read no further.
Life is too short.
13 posted on 08/22/2025 1:19:28 PM PDT by Ronaldus Magnus III (Do, or do not, there is no try )
To: SeekAndFind
--- "This is the direct result of months of deliberate restrictions on aid, the destruction of Gaza's food, health, and water systems, and relentless bombardment," Tjada D'Oyen McKenna, the CEO of Mercy Corps, said in response to the statement. "This is a man-made catastrophe, entirely preventable and entirely unconscionable."
A small reflection on USAID, the Gates Foundation and that resonant name, "Obama."
"Tjada spent more than a decade working to end world hunger in roles with the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation and the U.S. government. During the Obama administration, Tjada served as the Deputy Coordinator of Development for Feed the Future, the U.S. government’s global hunger and food security initiative, and the Assistant to the Administrator of the U.S. Agency for International Development’s Bureau for Food Security in Washington, D.C."Source: Source: Tjada D’Oyen McKenna
Poor Tjada D'Oyen McKenna was paid a mere $527,768 and an additional $22,535 in FY 2023
Source: Mercy Corps Full text of "Full Filing" for fiscal year ending June 2024, line 7
Some hefty change for a fat cat among many fat cats....
To: SeekAndFind
"Famine confirmed in northern Gaza"
Maybe they should try surrendering unconditionally. No? Let them die.
15 posted on 08/22/2025 1:20:04 PM PDT by 10mm
To: dfwgator
got it, yes.
anyone who still had hopes for the UnitedNazis organization can now see how unrealistic that was
i can understand idealism
but we live in a very very very real world
and the UN has proven itself conter-productive (this being a very tactful way of putting it, in actual fact the UnitedNazis have become part of the Problem)
16 posted on 08/22/2025 1:24:07 PM PDT by faithhopecharity ("Politicians aren't born, they're excreted." Marcus Tullius Cicero (106 to 43 BCE))
To: SeekAndFind
the United Nations-backed group of experts finds that over half a million people parts of north Gaza are at risk of dying from starvation, and hundreds of thousands more people face catastrophic shortages as the famine spreads to other areas.
Good. Let them all die. Fault of the U.N., who transported only 630 trucks of food out of several thousands of trucks to Gaza civilians, the rest looted by Hamas.
17 posted on 08/22/2025 1:24:33 PM PDT by roadcat ( )
To: aquila48
Just move to the south side. Sheesh! Where’s my no belle peas prize
18 posted on 08/22/2025 1:31:22 PM PDT by rktman (Destroy America from within? On hold! Enlisted USN 1967 proudly. ??! ???! Winning currently!)
To: SeekAndFind
Caused by Hamas and the UN.
19 posted on 08/22/2025 1:38:09 PM PDT by SkyDancer ( ~ Am Yisrael Chai ~)
To: SeekAndFind
Sitting on your ass waiting for room service is a piss poor survival tactic.
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