'Worst-case scenario famine' unfolding in Gaza: UN-backed experts
Iran Press TV
Tuesday, 29 July 2025 3:19 PM
A "worst-case scenario of famine" is now unfolding in Gaza, United Nations hunger experts have warned, as months of siege and bombardment by Israel have caused mass starvation among Palestinians in the territory.
A new report by the Integrated Food Security Phase Classification (IPC) released on Tuesday said food consumption in Gaza has sharply declined, with one in three individuals going without food for days at a time.
"Latest data indicates that famine thresholds have been reached for food consumption in most of the Gaza Strip and for acute malnutrition in Gaza City," the global hunger monitoring system stated in the report.
The IPC said that the number of households experiencing extreme hunger has doubled since May 2025.
"Malnutrition has been rising rapidly in the first half of July and has reached the famine threshold in Gaza City. Over 20,000 children have been admitted for treatment for acute malnutrition between April and mid-July, with more than 3,000 severely malnourished," the report said.
Hospitals have been reporting a rapid increase in hunger-related deaths of children under five years of age, with at least 16 reported deaths since July 17, the IPC document stated.
Israel's genocidal war on Gaza and humanitarian blockade have plunged the besieged territory into an increasingly dire malnutrition crisis as at least 147 people, including 88 children, have died from malnutrition since the start of Israel's war on the strip.
"Immediate action must be taken to alleviate the catastrophic suffering of people in Gaza. This includes scaling up the flow of goods, restoring basic services, and ensuring safe, unimpeded access to sufficient life-saving assistance. None of this is possible unless there is a ceasefire," the IPC emphasized.
A formal famine declaration, which is rare, requires the kind of data that the Israeli blockade and lack of access to Gaza have largely denied to international organizations.
The IPC has only declared famine a few times; in Somalia in 2011, South Sudan in 2017 and 2020, and parts of Sudan's western Darfur region last year.
The international pressure forced Israel over the weekend to announce measures, including daily "humanitarian pauses" in fighting in parts of Gaza and to implement the so-called "aid airdrops."
The United Nations (UN) and people of Gaza say little has changed, as desperate crowds continue to overwhelm and unload the few delivery trucks that enter the besieged strip, often before they can reach their intended destinations.
Meanwhile, the Israeli regime claims there is no famine in Gaza and that the Israel-US-backed Gaza Humanitarian Foundation (GHF) has been distributing enough food for the entire population of the enclave.
The UN and other aid groups have accused the GHF of politicizing and "weaponizing aid," and delivering it in a way that is extremely dangerous for the Palestinian people.
The UN and over 170 charities and NGOs, including Save the Children and Oxfam, have said that the GHF is regularly violating humanitarian norms by forcing two million Palestinians into overcrowded and militarized zones and subjecting aid-seekers to almost daily attacks.
The OHCHR has attributed the attacks at GHF distribution centers to Israeli forces, the terrorist gangs armed and supported by the Israeli regime, and GHF's so-called security forces.
Gaza's Health Ministry says since May 26, 2025, when GHF began its operation, 1,100 aid seekers have been killed, with more than 70% of them being murdered near GHF distribution centers.
Since the Israeli regime began its genocidal campaign in Gaza on October 7, 2023, it has murdered more than 60,034 Palestinians and wounded 145,870, the majority of whom are children and women.
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