Famine, the highest phase of the IPC Acute Food Insecurity scale, is classified when an area has at least 20% of households facing an extreme lack of food; at least 30% of children suffering from acute malnutrition and at least two people or four children out of every 10,000 people are dying each day from starvation.
But the bar can also be met if 15% of children are considered to be suffering from acute malnutrition based on mid-upper arm circumference with evidence of rapidly worsening underlying drivers, according to the IPC, which cited the latter practice in its report.
Israel has repeatedly denied reports of growing starvation in Gaza, while seeking to blame any hunger in the enclave on humanitarian groups for failing to distribute enough aid.
Israel threatens ‘gates of hell’
Israeli Defense Minister Israel Katz vowed Friday to open the “gates of hell” on Gaza City until Hamas agreed to Israel’s conditions for ending the war, including the release of all hostages and the militant group’s complete disarmament.
Palestinians at a food distribution point in Gaza City on Aug. 2.Omar Al-Qattaa / AFP via Getty Images
If not, he said, the city would “become like Rafah and Beit Hanoun,” areas that have been largely reduced to ruins under Israel’s 22-month offensive.
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said a day earlier that he had authorized the operation to take over Gaza City, while also revealing he had instructed “immediate negotiations” to begin for a deal to end the war in Gaza and secure the release of the hostages who remain held in the enclave.
The video statement followed days of silence after Hamas announced it had accepted a ceasefire proposal put forward by Arab mediators.
The IPC’s declaration comes just over three weeks after it warned that the “worst-case scenario of famine” was already unfolding in the Palestinian enclave under Israel’s deadly offensive and crippling aid restrictions — but it had emphasized the alert was not a formal famine classification.
A Palestinian woman searches in the sand for legumes in Nuseirat, Gaza, during an aid airdrop mission, on Aug. 5.Eyad Baba / AFP via Getty Images
Aid groups have repeatedly warned in recent weeks there is still not enough food entering Gaza to stave off famine.
The Palestinian health ministry in Gaza said on Monday it had recorded three new adult deaths “due to famine and malnutrition” within a 24-hour period, bringing the total death toll from starvation to 266 people, including 112 children.
Israel launched its offensive in Gaza following the Hamas-led Oct. 7, 2023 attacks, in which some 1,200 people were killed and around 250 taken hostage, according to Israeli tallies, marking a major escalation in a decadeslong conflict.
Since then, more than 62,000 people have been killed in Gaza, including thousands of children, according to the local Palestinian health ministry, with much of the territory destroyed.
Among the dead are hundreds of people who have been killed while trying to seek aid following the introduction of a new distribution system led by the Israel and U.S.-backed Gaza Humanitarian Foundation.