GENEVA

The Integrated Food Security Phase Classification (IPC), a global hunger monitoring system, warned on Tuesday that "the worst-case scenario of famine" is currently unfolding in Gaza amid intensified conflict, displacement, and plummeted access to food.

"Mounting evidence shows that widespread starvation, malnutrition, and disease are driving a rise in hunger-related deaths," the IPC said in a new report. "Latest data indicates that famine thresholds have been reached for food consumption in most of the Gaza Strip and for acute malnutrition in Gaza City."

Stressing that malnutrition has been rising rapidly in the first half of July, the report found that over 20,000 children have been admitted for treatment for acute malnutrition between April and mid-July, with more than 3,000 severely malnourished.

Hospitals have reported a rapid increase in hunger-related deaths of children aged under 5, with at least 16 reported deaths since July 17, it added.

"Immediate action must be taken to end the hostilities and allow for unimpeded, large-scale, life-saving humanitarian response," the IPC urged. "This is the only path to stopping further deaths and catastrophic human suffering."

The report said people’s access to food across Gaza is “now alarmingly erratic and extremely perilous,” as since May 27, over 1,000 people have been killed while trying to access food.

Regarding the claims of the Israeli aid mechanism, Gaza Humanitarian Foundation (GHF), on distributing 89 million meals from four sites, the IPC report argued that those aid sites are stationed in militarized zones along the Khan Younis–Rafah border, where less than a quarter of the population is located.

It added that most of the food items that are being distributed are "not ready-to-eat and require water and fuel to cook, which are largely unavailable." Meanwhile, reaching these distribution points requires "long, high-risk journeys, with unequal access across governorates," it noted.

"Operating on a first-come, first-served basis, the most vulnerable groups are largely unable to access this food," the report underlined.

1 in 3 people goes without food for days

The food consumption has "sharply deteriorated, with one in three individuals going without food for days at a time," the IPC report warned. Between May and July, the proportion of households experiencing extreme hunger has "doubled."

It also drew attention to the shrinking safe space for Gazans, saying 88% of Gaza is under militarized zones or displacement orders, leaving less than 12% of the territory as a safe space.

"With virtually no means to grow, harvest, or catch their own food, humanitarian assistance has been a lifeline for Gazans, but what makes it in and reaches people is highly insufficient," it said, reiterating the urgent need for humanitarian access and allowance of sufficient volume of aid into the besieged strip.

As a result, food diversity has collapsed to its "worst level since the start of the conflict," triggering both acute and long-term consequences. While some households are not eating anything for an entire day, those who are eating are often surviving on only basic foods like bread, the IPC report said.

Food consumption across the Gaza Strip, according to the report, has also reached its "lowest level since the onset of the conflict." The situation has worsened dramatically, with 81% of households reporting poor food consumption -- up from 33% in April -- with the most severe deterioration observed in northern Gaza.

Between May and July, "acute malnutrition rates doubled in Khan Younis and increased by 70% in Deir al-Balah."

Moreover, two-fifths of pregnant and breastfeeding women were acutely malnourished in June, the report said.

Israel has imposed a blockade on Gaza for 18 years and, since March 2, has shut down all crossings, blocking the entry of aid convoys and ignoring international calls to reopen them.

According to Gaza’s Health Ministry, at least 147 people have died of starvation since October 2023, including 88 children.

Rejecting international calls for a ceasefire, the Israeli army has pursued a brutal offensive on Gaza since Oct. 7, 2023, killing nearly 60,000 Palestinians, most of them women and children.