Famine declared in Gaza City - and projected to expand to two other areas in the next month

A famine has been declared in Gaza City and the surrounding neighbourhoods.

The Integrated Food Security Phase Classification (IPC) - a globally recognised system for classifying the severity of food insecurity and malnutrition - has confirmed just four famines since it was established in 2004.

These were in Somalia in 2011, and in Sudan in 2017, 2020, and 2024.

The confirmation of famine in Gaza City is the IPC's first outside of Africa.

"After 22 months of relentless conflict, over half a million people in the Gaza Strip are facing catastrophic conditions characterised by starvation, destitution and death," the report said, adding that more than a million other people face a severe level of food insecurity.

Over the next month, conditions are also expected to worsen, with the famine projected to expand to Deir al-Balah and Khan Younis, the report said.

Nearly a third of the population (641,000 people) are expected to face catastrophic conditions, while acute malnutrition is projected to continue getting worse rapidly.

The report said at least 132,000 children will suffer from acute malnutrition over the next year - double the organisation's estimates from May 2024.

The IPC said the situation could be even worse further north in Gaza, but limited data prevented any precise classification.

Israel says no famine in Gaza

Volker Turk, the UN Human Rights chief, said the famine is the direct result of actions taken by the Israeli government.

"It is a war crime to use starvation as a method of warfare, and the resulting deaths may also amount to the war crime of wilful killing," he said.

COGAT, the Israeli military agency that coordinates aid, has rejected the findings.

Israel's foreign ministry said there is no famine in Gaza: "Over 100,000 trucks of aid have entered Gaza since the start of the war, and in recent weeks a massive influx of aid has flooded the Strip with staple foods and caused a sharp decline in food prices, which have plummeted in the markets."

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said the report was an "outright lie", adding that Israel "does not have a policy of starvation".

"Israel has a policy of preventing starvation. Since the beginning of the war Israel has enabled 2 million tons of aid to enter the Gaza Strip, over one ton of aid per person," he said in a statement.

Ceasefire pleas to stop famine

British Foreign Secretary David Lammy called the IPC report "utterly horrifying and wholly preventable", and demanded that Israel immediately allow unhindered supplies of food, medicines and fuel into Gaza.

"We desperately need an immediate ceasefire, to enable aid delivery at maximum speed and at the scale required. This includes halting the military operation in Gaza City which is the epicentre of the famine," Mr Lammy said in a statement.

Tom Fletcher, UN under-secretary general for humanitarian affairs, echoed Mr Lammy's comments as he made a desperate plea to Mr Netanyahu to declare a ceasefire in the wake of the famine announcement.

"My ask, my plea, my demand to Prime Minister Netanyahu and anyone who can reach him. Enough. Ceasefire. Open the crossings, north and south, all of them," he said.

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UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said the Gaza famine was a "man-made disaster, a moral indictment, and a failure of humanity itself".

The IPC had previously warned famine was imminent in parts of Gaza, but had stopped short of a formal declaration.

The latest report on Gaza from the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) says there were almost 13,000 new admissions of children for acute malnutrition recorded in July.

The latest numbers from the Gaza health ministry are 251 dead as a result of famine and malnutrition, including 108 children.

But Israel has previously accused Hamas of inflating these figures, saying that most of the children who died had pre-existing health conditions.

(c) Sky News 2025: Famine declared in Gaza City - and projected to expand to two other areas in the next month