Famine Declared in Gaza: A Man-Made Crisis

Strategic Insights -

Gaza is facing its most severe crisis in over a decade, with the Famine Review Committee confirming a famine under the Integrated Food Security Phase Classification (IPC). This designation is reserved for the most extreme conditions, where hunger, acute malnutrition, and mortality have crossed catastrophic thresholds. The crisis is rooted in the deliberate obstruction of aid, leaving families with no coping strategies and children dying daily from preventable hunger. The International Community is now being called upon to act, as experts warn that any further delay will result in a totally unacceptable escalation of famine-related mortality.

Key Takeaways:

  • The IPC is an international standard to measure the threat of starvation without bias, developed by the UN's Food and Agriculture Organization, the World Food Programme, and NGOs such as Oxfam and CARE in 2008.
  • The IPC defines famine as a situation where at least 1 in 5 households face extreme food shortages, acute malnutrition among children under 5 exceeds 30%, and the daily death rate is above two adults or four children per 10,000 people.
  • The IPC Famine Review Committee has only determined a famine existed in a few instances: Somalia in 2011, South Sudan in 2017 and 2020, Sudan in 2024, and now Gaza.
  • Over half a million people in Gaza governorate are already in famine, with it projected to spread to Deir al-Balah and Khan Younis governorates unless humanitarian agencies are granted unhindered access.
  • The declaration of famine in Gaza is intended to be the loudest possible alarm in the humanitarian system, and history shows that sounding the alarm can jolt action.
  • The IPC classification aims to cut through politics with evidence, but its findings carry no legal authority.
  • International law prohibits the use of starvation as a weapon of war, and famine resulting from deliberate obstruction of aid can constitute a war crime.

Statistics:

  • Over 520,000 people in Gaza governorate are already in famine (IPC estimates)
  • Gaza requires 62,000 metric tons of food per month to meet basic caloric needs (IPC estimates)
  • No food trucks entered Gaza between March 2 and May 18 (IPC report)
  • No cooking gas has entered Gaza since February (IPC report)
  • The daily death rate in Gaza exceeds two adults or four children per 10,000 people (IPC criteria for famine)
  • The Israeli blockade has destroyed most of Gaza's food production capacity (IPC report)

Sources:

  • IPC report
  • UN's Food and Agriculture Organization
  • World Food Programme
  • Oxfam
  • CARE
  • U.N. Secretary-General António Guterres
  • Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's office