Immediate and sustained ceasefire and unhindered humanitarian access are critical to avert imminent Famine Gaza faces the grave risk of famine as food consumption and nutrition indicators have reached their…

Immediate and sustained ceasefire and unhindered humanitarian access are critical to avert imminent Famine

Gaza faces the grave risk of famine as food consumption and nutrition indicators have reached their worst levels since the conflict began, according to data shared in the latest Integrated Food Security Phase Classification (IPC) Alert.

The IPC Alert highlights that two out of the three famine thresholds have now been breached in parts of the territory, with the Food and Agriculture Organisation of the United Nations (FAO), the United Nations World Food Programme (WFP) and UNICEF warning that time is running out to mount a full-scale humanitarian response. 

Relentless conflict, the collapse of essential services, and severe limitations on the delivery and distribution of humanitarian assistance imposed on the UN have led to catastrophic food security conditions for hundreds of thousands of people across the Gaza Strip. 

Food consumption – the first core famine indicator – has plummeted in Gaza since the last IPC Update in May 2025. Data shows that more than one in three people (39 per cent) are now going days at a time without eating. More than 500,000 people – nearly a quarter of Gaza’s population – are enduring famine-like conditions, while the remaining population is facing emergency levels of hunger. 

Acute malnutrition – the second core famine indicator – inside Gaza has risen at an unprecedented rate. In Gaza City, malnutrition levels among children under five have quadrupled in two months, reaching 16.5 per cent. This signals a critical deterioration in nutritional status and a sharp rise in the risk of death from hunger and malnutrition. 

Acute malnutrition and reports of starvation-related deaths – the third core famine indicator – are increasingly common, but collecting robust data under current circumstances in Gaza remains very difficult as health systems, already decimated by nearly three years of conflict, are collapsing.