Famine officially confirmed in Gaza – what happens now

Famine has been confirmed in Gaza City for the first time, a UN-backed body has said.

The Famine Review Committee (FRC) found that food insecurity in the Gaza Governorate, which includes Gaza City and its surrounding areas, has reached “Phase 5” – the highest and most severe level – and warned that “malnutrition threatens the lives of 132,000 children under five” in the war-torn enclave.

The FRC also found that Deir al-Balah and Khan Yunis in central Gaza had come under Phase 4 in its Integrated Food Security Phase Classification (IPC), meaning they are under a food security “emergency”, with both regions expected to experience a famine in its next reporting period, spanning from 16 August to 30 September 2025.

It warned that if a ceasefire were not implemented immediately to allow aid to reach Gaza’s residents, avoidable deaths would increase exponentially.

The UN Secretary-General, António Guterres, condemned the famine as a “man-made disaster, a moral indictment and a failure of humanity itself”.

Posting on X, he said: “People are starving. Children are dying. And those with the duty to act are failing. As the occupying power, Israel has unequivocal obligations under international law — including the duty of ensuring food and medical supplies of the population. We cannot allow this situation to continue with impunity.”

What does the IPC classify as a famine?

According to the IPC, a famine is a situation in which at least one in five households suffers from “an extreme lack of food and [faces] starvation and destitution, resulting in extremely critical levels of acute malnutrition and death”.

During a famine, the IPC says acute malnutrition in children under five reaches or exceeds 30 percent, while at least two excess deaths occur per 10,000 people on a daily basis.

UN humanitarian chief Tom Fletcher said the situation unfolding in Gaza was a “predictable and a preventable famine”, claiming Israel’s blockade and distribution of aid through the controversial Gaza Humanitarian Foundation (GHF) had led to the catastrophe.

The GHF, a not-for-profit organisation backed by Israel and the US, began operating in Gaza in February, overriding the UN and established humanitarian aid networks that had functioned in the territory for decades when Israel’s two-month blockade on the enclave ended in May.

More than 1,800 Palestinians have been killed while seeking access to aid since May, at least 1,000 of whom were in the vicinity of GHF sites, according to the UN Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights (OCHA).

In a message to Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, Fletcher said: “It is too late for far too many. But not for everyone in Gaza. Enough. For humanity’s sake, let us in.”

The FRC’s report comes just days after Israel began its capture and occupation of Gaza City, which is home to an estimated 800,000 civilians, as part of a planned offensive dubbed “Gideon’s Chariots II”.

Gaza’s health ministry reported that 271 people have died of “famine and malnutrition” since October 2023, including 112 children.

Israel ‘firmly rejects’ a famine is unfolding

While the IPC does not itself formally declare whether a famine is occurring, it provides analysis that allows governments, organisations and agencies to issue statements or declarations about famine.

Only four famines have been confirmed by the IPC since it was established in 2004, most recently in Sudan last year. It is the first famine confirmed by the IPC outside of Africa.

Israel’s Coordination of Government Activities in the Territories (Cogat) – a military body overseeing aid distribution – said it “firmly rejects” the FRC’s report, claiming it followed a “questionable methodology”.

Cogat says the IPC’s famine classification rests on an “unpublished phone survey and questionable assessments by Unrwa, a UN agency known for its workers being an integral part of Hamas, and local NGOs, while speculating wildly about mortality rates that even Hamas’s own Health Ministry does not report”.

Unrwa found last year that nine of its thousands of staff may have been involved in the deadly 7 October attacks against Israel. The workers were fired by Unrwa.

Israeli broadcaster Kan said on Thursday the direct water lines from Israel would be repaired to increase the volume of water in the southern Gaza Strip, where some 800,000 Gazans will be transferred as part of preparations for the occupation of Gaza City.

What happens next?

The FRC’s report predicted that the conflict in Gaza is “likely to persist at the same intensity as July, with alternating periods of escalation and limited
periods of reduced intensity” until the end of September.

“No ceasefire or cessation of hostilities is expected. Intensification of
tensions and civil unrest is likely,” it added.

Meanwhile, it warned humanitarian activities “will remain constrained by looting, attacks on warehouses, evacuation orders and fuel shortages”.

Israel’s military takeover of Gaza City was not taken into account in the FRC’s report, but it said that the “forced relocation of already fragile populations” to the south of the territory as the operation unfolds – as well as the rising number of casualties – would “increase the magnitude and severity of conditions expected in the coming weeks”.

The FRC issued two recommendations to “senior decision-makers and resource partners” in Gaza. The first is to act “without delay to put in place an immediate humanitarian response at a large enough scale to prevent further deepening of suffering and avoidable mortality from this entirely man-made catastrophe”.

It highlighted that “partial and temporary relaxations of restrictions” on aid distribution will not suffice as they have been “repeatedly implemented in response to previous reviews and alerts”, only to be reapplied as “international attention has turned elsewhere”.

The second recommendation was to exert “maximum pressure to achieve a ceasefire”, which the FRC said was “necessary to allow for restoration of essential, lifesaving services at the scale required to revert famine
conditions”.

Oxfam Policy Lead Helen Stawski told The i Paper the UK government’s failure to “put any meaningful pressure on Israel, standing idly by as people – including babies – starve to death, is as bewildering as it is reprehensible”.

She added: “This has to stop – the UK must use every diplomatic, legal and economic tool; including demanding the full, unhindered access of aid at scale, halting all arms sales, working for an immediate and permanent ceasefire and the release of all hostages and unlawful Palestinian detainees.”

Reacting to the FRC’s report, Stawski said: “The famine in Gaza is entirely driven by Israel’s near-total blockade on food and vital aid, the horrifying consequence of Israel’s violence, and its use of starvation as a weapon of war.”

She said that “Israel has continued to deprive Palestinians of food” despite warnings that famine was imminent spanning back to July.

The FRC warned in July that a “famine scenario” was unfolding in parts of Gaza but had until now stopped short of making a formal declaration, citing a lack of hard evidence.

The UK Foreign Office has been contacted for a comment.