Famine Declared in Gaza Governorate: Al Mezan Calls for Immediate Action to End Israel’s Genocide and Restore UN-Led Humanitarian Aid System

Gaza, 22 August 2025 – Today, and for the first time, the Integrated Food Security Phase Classification (IPC)’s Famine Review Committee has officially determined that famine is occurring in the Gaza Governorate. The area, which includes Gaza City, three surrounding towns, and several refugee camps, currently has about half a million Palestinian residents. Al Mezan stresses that this declaration is especially alarming within the context of Israel’s active preparation to take full control of Gaza City and forcibly displace its population, providing further evidence that starvation is being used as a means of permanently altering Gaza’s demographic composition.

According to the Famine Review Committee, all three criteria for declaring famine have been met: at least 20 percent of households face extreme lack of food; at least 30 percent of children suffer from acute malnutrition; and at least two out of every 10,000 people die daily from starvation. The Committee also warned that famine is expected to spread to the Deir al-Balah and Khan Younis Governorates in the coming weeks. In the North Gaza Governorate, conditions are considered as severe or worse than in the Gaza Governorate. However, due to limited access preventing a full humanitarian assessment, the Committee decided not to formally classify the area. Al Mezan urges that such an assessment be conducted immediately, as famine is undoubtedly occurring in North Gaza.

This official declaration by the IPC comes after months in which Palestinians in Gaza and Palestinian NGOs, including Al Mezan, have described the situation on the ground as famine and repeatedly condemned Israel’s use of starvation as both a weapon of war and a tool of genocide. Notably, IPC’s Famine Review Committee stresses that “[a]s this Famine is entirely man-made, it can be halted and reversed.” It further added: “The time for debate and hesitation has passed, starvation is present and is rapidly spreading. There should be no doubt in anyone’s mind that an immediate, at-scale response is needed.”

Al Mezan emphasizes that Israel has deliberately engineered the starvation of more than two million Palestinians over the past 22 months by obstructing humanitarian aid, deliberately targeting humanitarian facilities, convoys, warehouses, distribution centers, and killing hundreds of humanitarian workers. Israel has further dismantled the UN-led humanitarian aid system in Gaza and, since May 2025, it has effectively militarized aid distribution through the so-called “Gaza Humanitarian Foundation”, weaponizing aid to forcibly displace, dehumanize, and kill Palestinians in Gaza.

The current state of starvation and famine was driven by the consistent destruction of food sources, including farmland, agricultural production sites, and the fishing industry, as well as water sources and infrastructure. The latest assessment conducted by the UN’s Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) and the UN Satellite Centre (UNOSAT) confirmed that 98.5 percent of Gaza’s original cropland is either damaged, inaccessible, or both. This means that 1.5% of cropland remains usable and accessible for cultivation, while the rest has suffered extensive damage due to Israeli military operations.

While this declaration by the IPC is significant and welcomed, Al Mezan stresses that it must be followed by concrete action from the international community to end famine, starvation, and every other genocidal act that is being carried out by Israel against the Palestinian people in Gaza. Famine has long been rampant in Gaza, and today’s declaration only confirms what Al Mezan has long warned of.

Al Mezan further notes that the IPC’s famine declaration comes just over a month after the EU’s High Representative for Foreign Affairs, Kaja Kallas, announced a so-called ‘humanitarian agreement’ with Israel to significantly increase aid to starving Palestinians. It is now apparent that said agreement was meaningless and destined to fail. Empty diplomatic gestures toward an apartheid regime that is illegally occupying the Palestinian territory, committing genocide in Gaza, and de facto and de jure annexing the West Bank are no longer acceptable. Statements of concern and condemnation will not feed the hungry. It is time for meaningful sanctions and genuine accountability, at both the state and individual level, including the immediate suspension of the EU-Israel association agreement.

According to the Palestinian Ministry of Health, as of today, 273 Palestinians, including 112 children, have already died from starvation and malnutrition, with the toll rising every day. Concrete measures are essential to compel Israel, which is deliberately starving more than two million Palestinians, to immediately end its genocide and policy of starvation. This includes dismantling the dehumanizing aid distribution mechanism run by the ‘Gaza Humanitarian Foundation’, returning to aid coordination and delivery to UN agencies, especially UNRWA, and lifting the siege and blockade on Gaza.

Al Mezan expects that this formal UN declaration of famine, further reinforced by a joint statement by the World Health Organization (WHO), the World Food Programme (WFP), the FAO, and UNICEF, as well as the firm words of the UN Under-Secretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs and Emergency Relief Coordinator Tom Fletcher, will serve as a moment that leaves the international community with no excuse not to act with urgency and effectiveness.