Gaza City officially declared in famine, with hunger needs expected to rise over 600k in September

Gaza City and surrounding areas are officially suffering from famine, and it will likely spread, a global hunger monitor has determined, an assessment that will escalate pressure on Israel to allow more aid into the Palestinian territory.

The Integrated Food Security Phase Classification (IPC) system on Friday said 514,000 people - close to a quarter of Palestinians in Gaza - are experiencing famine, with the number due to rise to 641,000 by the end of September.

Some 280,000 of those people are in a northern region covering Gaza City - known as Gaza governorate - which the IPC said was in famine following nearly two years of war between Israel and Palestinian militants Hamas.

It was the first time the IPC has recorded famine outside of Africa, and the global group predicted that famine conditions would spread to the central and southern areas of Deir al-Balah and Khan Younis by the end of September.

“It is a famine that we could have prevented had we been allowed,” UN humanitarian chief Tom Fletcher said.

“Yet food stacks up at borders because of systematic obstruction by Israel.”

Israel dismissed the findings as false and biased, saying the IPC had based its survey on partial data largely provided by Hamas, which did not take into account a recent influx of food.

The report was an “outright lie”, said Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.

“Israel does not have a policy of starvation,” he said in a statement.

“Israel has a policy of preventing starvation. Since the beginning of the war Israel has enabled two million tons of aid to enter the Gaza Strip, over one ton of aid per person.”

For a region to be classified as in famine at least 20 per cent of people must be suffering extreme food shortages, with one in three children acutely malnourished and two people out of every 10,000 dying daily from starvation or malnutrition and disease.

Israel controls all access to Gaza. COGAT, the arm of the Israeli military that oversees aid flows, said the IPC report ignored Israeli data on aid deliveries and was part of an international campaign aimed at denigrating Israel.

“The IPC report is not only biased but also serves Hamas’ propaganda campaign,” the agency said.

Israel has long counted on the United States, its most powerful ally, for military aid and diplomatic support. A Reuters/Ipsos poll released this week found that 65 per cent of Americans believe the US should help those starving in Gaza.

An erosion of US public support would be a worrisome sign for Israel as it faces not only Hamas militants in Gaza but unresolved conflict with Iran, its regional arch-foe.

US President Donald Trump in July said many people there were starving, putting him at odds with Netanyahu, who has repeatedly said there was no starvation.

The IPC said its analysis only covered people living in Gaza, Deir al-Balah and Khan Younis governorates. It was unable to classify North Gaza governorate due to access restrictions and a lack of data and it excluded any remaining population in the southern Rafah region as it is largely uninhabited.

The Gaza war was triggered on October 7, 2023, when Hamas killed 1200 people in southern Israel and took some 250 hostages, according to Israeli tallies. Since then, Israel’s military campaign has killed more than 62,000 Palestinians, according to Gaza health authorities.

The United States, Qatar and Egypt have been trying to broker an end to the conflict.