(LifeSiteNews) — The UN-supported Integrated Food Security Phase Classification (IPC) declared Friday that the mass starvation of civilians in Gaza has reached famine level.
The August 22 IPC report revealed that widespread malnutrition, starvation, and spread of disease due to relentless fighting, extremely limited access to humanitarian aid, and collapsing healthcare systems have led to a massive increase in hunger-related deaths, reaching the “worst case scenario” famine threshold. The report comes as Israel has faced intense scrutiny over its starvation of Gaza’s civilian population.
“Immediate action must be taken to end the hostilities and allow for unimpeded, large-scale, life-saving humanitarian response,” the report said. “This is the only path to stopping further deaths and catastrophic human suffering.”
Famine declared by IPC in #Gaza Governorate is a direct result of actions by #Israel‘s Government that has unlawfully restricted entry & distribution of humanitarian aid.
It is a war crime to use starvation as a method of warfare, and the resulting deaths may also amount to a… pic.twitter.com/knqnRpe2yH
— UN Human Rights (@UNHumanRights) August 22, 2025
The IPC report highlights that between May and July the proportion of households experiencing extreme hunger has doubled, with one in three people going without any food for days at a time.
Children have particularly suffered, with 20,000 children being admitted for treatment of acute malnutrition between April and mid-July, more than 3,000 children have been severely malnourished, and hospitals have reported at least 16 children dying from hunger since mid-July.
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The report also noted that a major factor in the ongoing famine of Gaza is repeated denials of requests for humanitarian access. The IPC stressed that while the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation (GHF) claimed to have distributed over 89 million meals from four distribution sites, most of the food items still need to be cooked with water and fuel, which are largely unavailable.
In response to the concerning IPC report, the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO), the United Nations World Food Program (WFP), the World Health Organization (WHO), and UNICEF issued a joint statement calling for an immediate ceasefire and unhindered humanitarian access to the region.
“A ceasefire is an absolute and moral imperative now,” WHO Director-General Dr. Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said in the joint statement. “
Ghebreyesys continued:
The world has waited too long, watching tragic and unnecessary deaths mount from this man-made famine. Widespread malnutrition means that even common and usually mild diseases… are becoming fatal, especially for children. The health system, run by hungry and exhausted health workers, cannot cope. Gaza must be urgently supplied with food and medicines to save lives and begin the process of reversing malnutrition. Hospitals must be protected so that they can continue treating patients. Aid blockages must end, and peace must be restored, so that healing can begin.
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Since the October 7, 2023, attack, as reported extensively by LifeSiteNews, Israeli forces have deliberately sought to bring about the destruction of the people of Gaza, including 1 million children, by various means, including the deprivation of food, water, energy, and medical care, amounting to crimes of genocide.
