A “worst-case famine scenario” is unfolding in Gaza and urgent intervention is needed to prevent widespread death, a U.N.-backed international food security body has warned.
The Integrated Food Security Phase Classification (IPC) latest update, published on Tuesday, concluded that “mounting evidence shows that widespread starvation, malnutrition, and disease are driving a rise in hunger-related deaths,” and famine thresholds have been met for food consumption across most of Gaza.
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The alert, still short of a formal famine declaration, comes amid dozens of hunger-related deaths in Gaza and international outrage over photos of emaciated children.
The U.N echoed concerns raised in the report, saying that humanitarian access in Gaza remains “severely restricted.” It added that Israel is now allowing “humanitarian pauses” with more than 100 aid trucks allowed to enter Gaza on Sunday.
“This is not a warning. It is a reality unfolding before our eyes,” U.N. secretary-general Antonio Guterres said in a statement, adding that the “trickle of aid must become an ocean.”
A total of 122 Palestinians have died in Gaza from starvation, including 83 children, according to Gaza’s Health Ministry. Last week, the Health Ministry reported that there were 28,000 cases of malnutrition in Gaza, with over 5,000 recorded in July alone.
Read more: Journalists In Gaza Are Documenting Their Own Starvation
The IPC warned that according to its latest analysis, conducted in May, the entire population of Gaza would face high levels of acute food insecurity by September 2025. This included half a million by people in “catastrophe” described by the IPC as “an extreme lack of food, starvation, destitution and death.”
The report added that one in three people are going days at a time without food, calling for action to “allow for unimpeded, large-scale, life-saving humanitarian response. This is the only path to stopping further deaths and catastrophic human suffering,” it said.
“There is no starvation in Gaza, no policy of starvation in Gaza, and I assure you that we have a commitment to achieve our war goals,” said Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Monday, prior to the IPC report.
Famine declaration
An area is classified as in famine when three conditions are met: at least 20% of households face extreme food shortages or near-total starvation; at least 30% of children aged six months to five years suffer from acute malnutrition, or wasting; and at least two adults—or four children under five—per 10,000 people die each day from starvation or the combined effects of malnutrition and disease.
A formal famine declaration is rare and requires reliable data—something largely unavailable in Gaza due to restricted access. The IPC has declared famine only a few times: Somalia in 2011, South Sudan in 2017 and 2020, and parts of Sudan’s Darfur region in 2023.
Trump says starvation crisis in Gaza is ‘real’
The new report comes after President Donald Trump appeared to diverge from Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s assertion that there is no starvation in Gaza, describing images of emaciated children as “real”.
Speaking from his Turnberry resort in Scotland during a meeting with British Prime Minister Keir Starmer, Trump also announced plans for the U.S. to establish “food centers” inside Gaza in an effort that would involve international partners and U.S. funding. “We’re going to spend a little money on some food,” he said. “Other nations are joining us.”
The move marked a notable shift for Trump, who has largely avoided criticizing Israel throughout the 21-month war in Gaza. He acknowledged that Israel bears “a lot of responsibility” for restrictions on humanitarian aid, even as he continued to blame Hamas for the failure of ceasefire talks and the ongoing hostage crisis. “That’s real starvation stuff,” he said. “You can’t fake that. We’re going to be even more involved.”
Aid organizations call for Israel to allow more aid into Gaza
Aid organizations have consistently called for Israel to allow more essential food and medical supplies into Gaza. On July 23, over 100 international organizations urged governments to work towards opening land crossings into Gaza in order to “restore the full flow of food, clean water, medical supplies, shelter items, and fuel through a principled, U.N.-led mechanism,” in a joint statement.
Before the Israel-Hamas war began, an average of 500 trucks were entering the strip daily. That changed on Oct. 7, 2023, when Hamas launched a terror attack on Israel, killing around 1,200 people and taking approximately 250 hostages. In retaliation, Israel imposed a total siege on Gaza, halting the entry of all goods, including humanitarian aid.
Since May 27, Israel has allowed aid to be distributed into Gaza under a new distribution system led by the U.S Gaza Humanitarian Foundation (GHF). Israel has denied that it is deliberately halting aid from entering the strip, accusing Hamas of stealing supplies within Gaza that have been provided by GHF.
On Tuesday, the Israel Defence Forces (IDF) published a video in which it claims that armed Hamas members are looting an aid truck, preventing others from taking any of the supplies.
On July 25, the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) said that it found no evidence of systematic theft of aid by Hamas. The internal government analysis examined 156 incidents between October 2023 and May 2025, finding no reports alleging Hamas of stealing U.S-funded aid.
GHF says that as of Monday, it has delivered 96 million meals in Gaza. IPC’s report on Tuesday says that despite GHF’s claims of high distribution, “most of the food items are not ready-to-eat and require water and fuel to cook, which are largely unavailable.”
It added that GHF has four aid distribution points, primarily in militarized zones in the south of Gaza where roughly a quarter of the total population lives. “Reaching these distribution points requires long, high-risk journeys, with unequal access across governorates,” the report said.
Since GHF operations began in May, the U.N. says that over 1,000 Palestinians have died while seeking aid. 766 of these deaths occurred at or in the vicinity of GHF distribution sites.
“The fastest and most effective way to save lives right now is to open every border crossing,” Tjada D’Oyen McKenna, head of Mercy Corps, the international relief agency, said in a statement Tuesday.
First Israeli human right groups accuses Israel of genocide
Two Israeli human rights groups, B’Tselem and Physicians for Human Rights Israel (PHRI) became the first Israeli groups of their kind to describe Israel’s conduct in Gaza as genocide.
“We never thought we’d write this report, but we also believed this would never be our reality,” B’Tselem Executive Director Yuli Novak said in a report published Monday titled “Our Genocide.”
The report continues to say that there is “no doubt” that Israel is committing genocide in Gaza, citing the Gaza Health Ministry’s figures of 60,000 Palestinians killed, as well as destruction on a “massive scale”, starvation, displacement, and the denial of humanitarian aid, all of which has been conducted “systematically” B’Tselem claim.
In the absence of independent monitoring on the ground, the ministry is the primary source for casualty data. Its figures do not differentiate between civilian and casualty figures and cannot be independently verified by TIME.
PHRI concluded in its report that Israel’s is “killing, inflicting serious bodily and mental harm, and deliberately imposing conditions of life intended to destroy the Palestinian population in Gaza, in whole or in part,” in line with articles under the Genocide Convention.
It added that there is “sufficient evidence” to conclude that these actions have been carried out with the intent required by Article II of the Convention.
The IDF has called the allegations in the reports “completely unfounded,” saying that it is “taking unprecedented measures to prevent harm to civilians,” in a statement to TIME.
“The IDF forcefully rejects the allegation of deliberate starvation of the civilian population. The IDF is allowing the entry of humanitarian aid into the Gaza Strip in line with the Government’s directives, and allows international organizations to carry out its distribution,” the statement read.