UN officials and aid agencies warn famine in Gaza is now a reality, with children dying of hunger as Israel’s siege blocks essential life-saving aid.
Officials said starvation and widespread hunger in the besieged enclave are "engineered" and "man-made" disasters in a scathing speech to the UN Security Council on Wednesday.
Famine has been proven in the north-central Gaza governorate, which is home to Gaza City, and is predicted to spread to the southern cities of Deir el-Balah and Khan Younis by the end of September, Joyce Msuya, the UN's deputy humanitarian chief, informed the council.
“Over half a million people currently face starvation, destitution and death,”
Msuya said.
“By the end of September, that number could exceed 640,000. Virtually no one in Gaza is untouched by hunger.”
At least 132,000 children under five are at risk of acute malnutrition, she continued, and over 43,000 of them are anticipated to develop life-threatening illnesses in the upcoming months.
“This famine is not a product of drought or some form of natural disaster,”
Msuya said.
“It is a created catastrophe – the result of a conflict that has caused massive civilian death, injury, destruction and forced displacement.”
Two youngsters were among the ten more deaths "due to famine and malnutrition" that Gaza's Health Ministry reported earlier on Wednesday.
119 children have been among the 313 people who have died in Gaza as a result of starvation during the conflict.
Israel, for its part, demanded Wednesday that the Integrated Food Security Phase Classification (IPC) system, a famine monitoring tool backed by UN agencies and non-profits, revoke its conclusions about Gaza.
The study, which described the hunger in Gaza City and the surrounding area, was described as "deeply flawed, unprofessional, and gravely missing the standards expected from an international body entrusted with such a serious responsibility" by Eden Bar Tal, director general of the Israeli Foreign Ministry.
Meanwhile, in her own searing address to the council, Save the Children chief Inger Ashing accused world powers of complicity through inaction.
“The Gaza famine is here. An engineered famine. A man-made famine,” she said. “Children in Gaza are systematically being starved to death. This is starvation as a method of war in its starkest terms.”
Ashing described clinics “packed with malnourished children” who have now fallen silent.
“Children do not have the strength to speak or even cry out in agony. They lie there emaciated, quite literally wasting away.”
Medical personnel said that at least 12 people were killed Wednesday by Israeli strikes near aid delivery locations operated by the contentious GHF, which is supported by the US and Israel. While waiting for scant food supplies, four of the victims perished in the northern part of Gaza.
According to health sources, 51 Palestinians have been murdered by Israeli soldiers since Wednesday morning.
Israel's war on Gaza has resulted in the deaths of at least 62,895 Palestinians. During the October 7, 2023, Hamas-led strikes in Israel, 1,139 people were killed and almost 200 were captured.
Israeli military spokesman Avichay Adraee reiterated a general order for forced relocation in a post on X on Wednesday, informing citizens that "evacuation of Gaza City is inevitable."
How is famine officially defined in the IPC assessment framework?
At least 20% of households experience extreme food insecurity (e.g., starvation and destitution). At least 30% of children have acute malnutrition.
The crude death rate is greater than two deaths per 10,000 people per day (or greater than four children per 10,000 per day) as a consequence of outright starvation or the interaction of malnutrition and disease.
The combination of these factors indicate starvation, death, and extremely critical acute malnutrition in the affected population.
IPC makes the distinction of famine vs. Catastrophe, and Catastrophe (also IPC Phase 5) can be assigned at the household level even if the overall area does not meet the population level thresholds for famine. Famine at the area level means a large contingent of the population is suffering under these extreme conditions.