Overview

• Gaza remains at IPC Phase 4 “Emergency,” yet experts warn that extreme food scarcity and acute malnutrition—two of the three Phase 5 famine criteria—are already present in parts of the territory.
• A formal famine declaration requires IPC analysis, validation by the independent Famine Review Committee and authorization by governments or UN representatives, a process delayed by restricted access to comprehensive nutrition and mortality data.
• After international criticism, Israel resumed larger land and air humanitarian deliveries in late July, but months of restrictive aid policies since March have worsened food shortages and mortality rates.
• Recent IPC data show 39 percent of Gaza’s population endures days without a single meal and nearly one in four residents faces famine-like conditions.
• Israel’s COGAT authority rejects famine warnings as misleading, denying any policy of starvation and disputing allegations that hunger is being used as a weapon.