UN-backed report confirms famine in Gaza - Israel slams as 'lie'

Famine has been confirmed for the first time in an area of the embattled Gaza Strip, according to the international authority responsible for monitoring food security.

In a report released on Friday, the Integrated Food Security Phase Classification (IPC) said it has "reasonable evidence" that famine has been occurring in Gaza Governorate, an administrative region which includes Gaza City, since August 15.

"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 authority said.

It said a further 70% of the Gaza Strip's 2 million inhabitants are unable to meet their food needs.

Some 132,000 children under the age of 5 are expected to suffer from acute malnutrition by June 2026 - double the IPC estimate from May - with 41,000 of them considered particularly vulnerable.

The World Health Organization noted that Friday's classification marks the first time that famine has been declared in a Middle Eastern country.

Famine expected to spread

The IPC also projected that famine will expand to two other central governorates, Deir al-Balah and Khan Younis, by the end of September.

Conditions in the governorate further north are possibly even worse, but as the area is relatively inaccessible, it cannot be properly assessed.

Famine is formally declared when three criteria are met: At least 20% of households face extreme food shortages, at least 30% of children suffer from acute malnutrition, and at least two adults or four children per 10,000 inhabitants die every day from hunger or from a combination of malnutrition and disease.

The area now facing famine covers around 20% of the embattled Gaza Strip, including the territory's major metropolis Gaza City, which the Israeli military is planning to seize as part of a new offensive against the Palestinian militant group Hamas.

The offensive, approved on Thursday by Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Defence Minister Israel Katz, has sparked fears of further suffering for the civilian population.

Before beginning the campaign, Israel plans to relocate the city's population of around 1 million. However, residents have already reported intense Israeli airstrikes in the vicinity of the city.

Netanyahu calls report an 'outright lie'

Netanyahu has dismissed the report as "an outright lie."

"Israel does not have a policy of starvation. Israel has a policy of preventing starvation," Netanyahu wrote on the X platform on Friday.

"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."

The Israeli Foreign Ministry had previously written on X that there was no famine in Gaza and the government said the report was based on false information from Hamas.

In recent weeks, it said, aid deliveries had "flooded the Gaza Strip with basic foodstuffs."

The Israeli authority responsible for affairs in the Palestinian Territories, COGAT, also categorically rejected the report.

COGAT chief Ghassan Allian, said the report "is based on partial and unreliable sources, many of them affiliated with Hamas." It ignores facts and "extensive humanitarian efforts led by Israel and its partners.

Palestinians demand consequences

The Palestinian Authority called on the international community and the UN Security Council to increase pressure on Israel, the authority was quoted by the Palestinian news agency WAFA as saying.

International courts were called upon to hold those responsible accountable. Furthermore, border crossings must be opened, aid allowed in, and the immediate reconstruction of Gaza must begin, the authority continued.

UN decries Gaza conditions

"Now the nightmare scenario is a reality," said Jeremy Laurence, a spokesman for the UN Human Rights Office in Geneva.

UN Secretary General António Guterres described the conditions in Gaza as "living hell."

He stressed that the situation is "not a mystery," but rather "a man-made disaster, a moral indictment and a failure of humanity itself."

The UN chief said Israel, as the occupying power, has obligations under international law to ensure food and medical supplies, adding: "We cannot allow this situation to continue with impunity."

UN Emergency Relief Coordinator Tom Fletcher also criticized Israel's conduct, saying: "It is a famine that we could have prevented, if we had been allowed. Yet food stacks up at borders because of systematic obstruction by Israel."

"It is a famine openly promoted by some Israeli leaders as a weapon of war," he continued.

Israel consistently rejects such statements and accusations, accusing the United Nations in turn of failing to distribute aid supplies available in the Gaza Strip.

Calls for more aid access

German Development Minister Reem Alabali Radovan said the report clearly shows the catastrophic situation in Gaza and called for significantly more aid to reach the embattled territory.

"More and more people - especially children - are starving to death before our eyes. This cannot go on. The famine is entirely man-made," she said.

British Foreign Secretary David Lammy meanwhile described the announcement as "utterly horrifying" and accused the Israeli government of causing a "man-made catastrophe," in comments reported by the PA news agency.

"The Israeli government's refusal to allow sufficient aid into Gaza has caused this man-made catastrophe. This is a moral outrage," he said.

Lammy called for a halt to Israel's military operation in Gaza City, which he said "will only worsen the already catastrophic humanitarian situation and endanger the lives of the hostages held by Hamas."

Saudi Arabia on Friday said it was extremely worried about the humanitarian situation in the Gaza Strip.

"The worsening humanitarian catastrophe in Gaza is a direct result of the absence of deterrence and accountability mechanisms for the repeated crimes of the Israeli occupation," the Saudi Foreign Ministry said in a statement.

The oil-rich monarchy called "this catastrophe a stigma" for the world community, and called for an immediate international action to reverse the situation.