The United Nations has officially declared famine in Gaza for the first time, with more than half a million people trapped in conditions of widespread starvation, destitution, and preventable deaths.
The warning came, in a statement issued on Friday from the World Food Programme (WFP), citing the latest Integrated Food Security Phase Classification (IPC) analysis.
According to the report, famine conditions in Gaza City are projected to spread in the coming weeks to Deir Al Balah and Khan Younis governorates.
By the end of September, over 640,000 people will face catastrophic food insecurity — the highest level, IPC Phase 5. Another 1.14 million people are classified in Emergency (IPC Phase 4), while 396,000 are in Crisis (IPC Phase 3).
The Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO), UNICEF, WFP, and the World Health Organization (WHO) jointly raised the alarm, stressing that famine must be stopped at all costs.
They called for an immediate ceasefire to allow large-scale humanitarian access, warning that any escalation of military operations in Gaza would have devastating consequences, particularly for children, the elderly, and people with disabilities who cannot evacuate.
The analysis confirms that famine thresholds of extreme food deprivation, acute malnutrition, and starvation-related deaths have been breached.
Meanwhile, the situation has been driven by almost two years of conflict, repeated displacement, the collapse of health and market systems, and severe restrictions on humanitarian access to food, water, and medical aid.
Food insecurity has worsened dramatically since May. In July, the number of households reporting extreme hunger more than doubled across Gaza, and more than tripled in Gaza City.
Nearly 40 percent of the population reported going days without food, with many parents skipping meals to feed their children.
Children are bearing the brunt of the crisis. More than 12,000 children were identified as acutely malnourished in July alone — the highest monthly figure ever recorded and a six-fold increase since the start of the year. However, nearly one in four are suffering from severe acute malnutrition, the deadliest form of hunger. The number of children at risk of death from malnutrition is projected to triple to 43,400 by mid-2026.
Pregnant and breastfeeding women are also severely affected, with 55,000 expected to face life-threatening malnutrition within the same period.
The statement read, "The new assessment reports the most severe deterioration since the IPC began analyzing acute food insecurity and acute malnutrition in the Gaza Strip, and it marks the first time a famine has been officially confirmed in the Middle East region.
"Since July, food and aid supplies entering Gaza increased slightly but remained vastly insufficient, inconsistent and inaccessible compared to the need.
"Meanwhile, approximately 98 percent of cropland in the territory is damaged or inaccessible – decimating the agriculture sector and local food production – and nine of ten people have been serially displaced from homes. Cash is critically scarce, aid operations remain severely disrupted, with most UN trucks looted amid growing desperation. Food prices are extremely high and there is not enough fuel and water to cook and medicines and medical supplies."
According to the world organisation Gaza’s health system has severely deteriorated, access to safe drinking water and sanitation services has been drastically reduced, while multi-drug resistant infections are surging and levels of morbidity – including diarrhea, fever, acute respiratory and skin infections – are alarmingly high among children.
To enable lifesaving humanitarian operations, the U.N. agencies emphasised the importance of an immediate and sustained ceasefire to stop the killing, allow for the safe release of hostages and permit unimpeded access for a mass influx of assistance to reach people across Gaza.
They stressed the urgent need for greater amounts of food aid, along with dramatically improved delivery, distribution and accessibility, as well as shelter, fuel, cooking gas and food production inputs.
They emphasised that it is critical to support the rehabilitation of the health system, maintain and revive essential health services, including primary health care, and ensure sustained delivery of health supplies into and across Gaza.
However, the restoration of commercial flows at scale, market systems, essential services, and local food production is also vital if the worst outcomes of the famine are to be avoided.
According to FAO Director-General QU Dongyu, “People in Gaza have exhausted every possible means of survival. Hunger and malnutrition are claiming lives every day, and the destruction of cropland, livestock, greenhouses, fishery and food production systems has made the situation even more dire.
“Our priority must now be safe and sustained access for large-scale food assistance. Access to food is not a privilege – it is a basic human right.”
“Famine warnings have been clear for months,” said Cindy McCain, WFP Executive Director. “What’s urgently needed now is a surge of aid, safer conditions, and proven distribution systems to reach those most in need - wherever they are. Full humanitarian access and a ceasefire now are critical to save lives.”
“Famine is now a grim reality for children in Gaza Governorate, and a looming threat in Deir al-Balah and Khan Younis,” said UNICEF Executive Director Catherine Russell.
“As we have repeatedly warned, the signs were unmistakable: children with wasted bodies, too weak to cry or eat; babies dying from hunger and preventable disease; parents arriving at clinics with nothing left to feed their children. There is no time to lose. Without an immediate ceasefire and full humanitarian access, famine will spread, and more children will die. Children on the brink of starvation need the special therapeutic feeding that UNICEF provides.”
“A ceasefire is an absolute and moral imperative now,” said WHO Director-General, Dr Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus.
“The world has waited too long, watching tragic and unnecessary deaths mount from this man-made famine. Widespread malnutrition means that even common and usually mild diseases like diarrhea are becoming fatal, especially for children. The health system, run by hungry and exhausted health workers, cannot cope. Gaza must be urgently supplied with food and medicines to save lives and begin the process of reversing malnutrition.
"Hospitals must be protected so that they can continue treating patients. Aid blockages must end, and peace must be restored, so that healing can begin.”
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