The "worst-case scenario of famine" is unfolding in the Gaza Strip under Israel’s assault, the world's leading body on hunger said Tuesday, as the total number of Palestinians killed since Israel launched its offensive passed 60,000, according to the health ministry in the enclave.
"Mounting evidence shows that widespread starvation, malnutrition, and disease are driving a rise in hunger-related deaths," the Integrated Food Security Phase Classification, or IPC, said in its alert. The IPC emphasized that its warning constituted an alert and was not a formal “famine classification.”
The alert comes as deaths from starvation in the enclave continue to rise amid a spiraling hunger crisis spurred by Israel’s military offensive and crippling aid restrictions.
President Donald Trump on Monday echoed mounting global alarm at the conditions in Gaza, which he said amounted to “real starvation” — a break with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.
With international fury reaching a crescendo, the Israeli military began limited pauses in fighting over the weekend to allow more supplies into the enclave — but aid organizations warned the trickle allowed in was not enough to stave off famine. Israel had allowed only a basic amount of aid into the territory for weeks after lifting a crippling blockade in May that barred the entry of food and other vital supplies.
'Extreme hunger'
While the IPC considers itself the “primary mechanism” used by the international community to conclude whether a famine is happening or projected, it typically doesn’t make such a designation itself.
But it said Tuesday that with new information made available, a new IPC analysis was to be conducted “without delay.”
The report was the body's most dire warning yet.
“Immediate action must be taken to end the hostilities and allow for unimpeded, large-scale, life-saving humanitarian response,” the IPC said. “This is the only path to stopping further deaths and catastrophic human suffering.”
Netanyahu's office said in a statement Tuesday that Israel would "continue to work with international agencies as well as the U.S. and European nations to ensure that large amounts of humanitarian aid flows into the Gaza Strip," noting the measures implemented over the weekend.
It said the situation in Gaza was "difficult" but claimed Hamas had benefited from "attempting to fuel the perception of a humanitarian crisis."
The IPC said that from May to July, the proportion of households experiencing extreme hunger in Gaza has doubled, with the food consumption threshold for famine already passed in most areas.
"Malnutrition has been rising rapidly in the first half of July and has reached the famine threshold in Gaza City," it added. The IPC said that over 20,000 children had been admitted for treatment for acute malnutrition from April to mid-July alone, with more than 3,000 severely malnourished, while hospitals had reported a "rapid increase in hunger-related deaths of children under five."
"This is not a surprise," Beckie Ryan, response director in Gaza for CARE, a humanitarian agency working to address global hunger that participates in the IPC, said in a phone interview. "This is what we've been seeing for quite some time," she said, adding that even the organization's staff were "getting thinner and thinner before our eyes."
Death toll rises
The health ministry in Gaza said Tuesday that the total number of people killed since the war began had reached 60,034. A day earlier it said that nearly 150 people had died from malnutrition since the war began, including at least 88 children.
Israel launched its offensive in Gaza following the Hamas-led Oct. 7, 2023, attacks in which 1,200 people were killed and around 250 taken hostage, marking a major escalation in a decadeslong conflict.
Since then, Israel has faced mounting allegations of genocide, including in an ongoing case brought by South Africa before the International Court of Justice. On Monday, two prominent Israeli rights groups, B’Tselem and Physicians for Human Rights-Israel, echoed the allegation, concluding that their country was committing genocide.
Israel and the U.S. have consistently denied this.
Israel has regularly defended its aid restrictions and the introduction of a widely condemned new distribution system by arguing that Hamas has been diverting aid from civilians in the enclave throughout the war.
But an internal U.S. government analysis has found no evidence of systematic theft of aid supplies by Hamas, according to a report presented to State Department officials and later seen by NBC News. The IDF dismissed the report as “biased.”
How famine is assessed
The IPC has only declared famine in a handful of cases, including in Somalia in 2011, South Sudan in 2017 and in 2020, as well as parts of Sudan's western Darfur region last year.
It is typically U.N. officials or governments that will make a formal statement, often based on the IPC's analysis.
The IPC, which brings together experts from organizations around the world, uses a five-phase index measuring food insecurity, with Phase 5 marking a catastrophe or famine.
That includes: when at least 20% of households have an extreme lack of food; when 30% of children are suffering from acute malnutrition; and when two adults or four children per every 10,000 people are dying on a daily basis of hunger or its complications.
Assessing whether Gaza meets those qualifications is particularly difficult with Israel severely limiting access to the enclave, making data hard to gather and assess.
In its latest report, the IPC said Gaza was “still confronted with a critical risk of Famine.”
The whole territory, it said, was classified in the “Emergency” stage of Phase 4, while at least 22% of the population was considered to be in Phase 5.
