An increasing number of Palestinians in Gaza are starving to death as tons of food, clean water and medical supplies sit just outside the territory’s borders, and aid agencies have warned that Gaza is as close to famine as it’s ever been.
For months, the United Nations has said that Palestinians are facing critical levels of acute food insecurity, and on Tuesday the UN-backed Integrated Food Security Phase Classification (IPC) initiative said that “the worst-case scenario of famine is unfolding.”
Of 74 malnutrition-related deaths in 2025, 63 occurred in July – including 24 children under 5, a child over 5, and 38 adults, the World Health Organization (WHO) said this week, noting that the situation was “entirely preventable,” while pointing to Israel’s blockade on aid.
“I don’t know what you would call it other than mass starvation, and it’s man-made, and that’s very clear,” WHO chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said.
Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has denied that Palestinians in Gaza face starvation.
Since Sunday, 14 people have starved to death in Gaza, according to the Palestinian health ministry.
The following criteria need to be met for a famine to be determined, according to the IPC:
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At least 1 in 5 households face an extreme food shortage
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Roughly 1 in 3 or a higher proportion of children are acutely malnourished
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At least 2 in every 10,000 people are dying daily (or at least 4 in every 10,000 children under 5 are dying daily) because of outright starvation or the interaction of malnutrition and disease.
Two of those thresholds have been reached in Gaza already, the IPC said Tuesday, adding that a new analysis is underway. The IPC does not declare a famine but provides an analysis to allow governments and others to do so.
“Many people will have died by the time a famine is declared,” it added.
The IPC has previously classified four places as being in famine: Somalia in 2011, South Sudan in 2017 and 2020, and Sudan in 2024.
