Famine has been officially declared in Gaza City for the first time, according to the UN-backed Integrated Food Security Phase Classification (IPC), which monitors global hunger crises.
The IPC has raised its rating for the area to Phase 5, the most severe level on its acute food insecurity scale.
In a new report, the Famine Review Committee (FRC) confirmed famine conditions in Gaza Governorate and warned that thresholds are likely to be crossed in Deir al-Balah and Khan Younis in the coming weeks.
“This Famine is entirely human-made, it can be halted and reversed,” the committee said. “The time for debate and hesitation has passed, starvation is present and is rapidly spreading. There should be no doubt in anyone’s mind that an immediate, at-scale response is needed. Any further delay — even by days — will result in a totally unacceptable escalation of Famine-related mortality.”
The report stressed that without a ceasefire to allow humanitarian aid into the Gaza Strip, and without the immediate restoration of food supplies and basic health, nutrition and water services, preventable deaths will rise sharply.
Speaking on the crisis, the UK parliamentary under-secretary of state at the Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office (FCDO), Hamish Falconer, said the humanitarian situation in Gaza had “reached new depths”, Sky News reported.
“Israel must immediately and permanently lift all barriers preventing aid reaching the people of Gaza to prevent the horrifying starvation in the Strip continuing,” he said.
“The humanitarian situation in Gaza has reached new depths and that is why we are doing all we can to end the current suffering and change the situation on the ground.
“We continue to support efforts to bring about an immediate ceasefire. We also need a comprehensive plan to end this misery and get to a long-term settlement that provides peace and security for Palestinians and Israelis.”
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