UN Issues Fresh Warning of Widespread Starvation in Gaza
500,000 in the ‘Worst Possible Situation,’ 160,000 More Could Follow
August 30, 2025
Amid renewed Israeli military operations in Gaza City on Aug. 29, UN aid agencies repeated their warning that the territory is heading toward large-scale famine. A top UN humanitarian official said at least half a million people are already facing the worst levels of food insecurity, and 160,000 more could soon fall into the same category, as hunger and disease rise across the devastated enclave.
“They all need food,” Jens Laerke, spokesperson for the UN aid coordination office, OCHA, told journalists in Geneva. “The entire Gaza Strip needs food. There would not have been declared famine had there been sufficient amounts of food.”
On Aug. 22, 2025, the IPC (Integrated Food Security Phase Classification) had formally declared that parts of Gaza, specifically the Gaza Governorate, including Gaza City, were experiencing famine, saying “over half a million people in the Gaza Strip are facing catastrophic conditions characterized by starvation, destitution and death.”
It’s the first time the IPC has made such a declaration in the Middle East or West Asia. The IPC classifies food insecurity on a five-point scale, with “catastrophe” the most severe. A famine declaration requires evidence that at least two of three thresholds, which are acute food insecurity, child malnutrition and mortality, have been crossed.
In Gaza, the IPC found that more than 20 percent of households face extreme food shortages, malnutrition in children under five exceeds 30 percent, and deaths linked to hunger surpass two per 10,000 people per day.
The UN warned on Aug. 29 that Israel’s expanded offensive in Gaza City, now labelled a “dangerous combat zone,” could severely worsen conditions for civilians. Spokesperson Stéphane Dujarric said the halt of daily tactical pauses by Israel endangers lives and hampers aid efforts.
UN teams noted that airstrikes continued even during declared pauses, and OCHA urged that humanitarian operations be protected, not restricted.
Tom Fletcher, the UN aid chief, earlier described the situation as entirely preventable and accused Israel of systematically blocking food from entering Gaza, according to The Associated Press.
In its Aug. 22, 2025, analysis, the UN‑backed IPC confirmed famine in Gaza Governorate and projected it would spread to Deir al‑Balah and Khan Younis governorates within the coming weeks if hostilities persist and humanitarian access remains restricted.
IPC projections suggest that by June 2026, about 132,000 children aged five to six are expected to suffer from acute malnutrition, along with 55,000 pregnant and breastfeeding women and 25,000 infants in urgent need of nutritional support.
The humanitarian crisis is rooted in the war that began on Oct. 7, 2023, when Hamas fighters launched an attack on Israel, killing about 1,200 people and taking more than 250 hostages. In response, Israel launched a large-scale offensive in Gaza, killing more than 62,000 Palestinians so far.
A joint investigation by The Guardian, +972 Magazine and Local Call, using classified Israeli military data, found that five out of six Palestinians killed in Gaza were civilians, meaning roughly 83 % of casualties were non-combatants.
In October 2024, Francesca Albanese, Special Rapporteur on the Situation of Human Rights in the Palestinian Territory Occupied Since 1967, had described Israel’s actions in Gaza as genocide.
The famine in Gaza has been described by UN-backed analysts as a man-made crisis driven by conflict, mass displacement, restricted access and the collapse of the food system, as reported by Reuters.
According to the UN’s Food and Agriculture Organization, 98.5 percent of Gaza’s cropland is now damaged or inaccessible, leaving only a fraction available for cultivation. The fishing sector has also been crippled due to tight maritime restrictions. Since the war began, about 1.9 million people, roughly 85 percent of Gaza’s population, have been displaced, many of them multiple times.
In early March 2025, Israel imposed a total blockade on Gaza, halting the entry of food, water, medicine and fuel. While the restrictions were later partially eased, tight controls on imports remain in place. Fatalities in Gaza rose significantly by late July, with daily death tolls climbing toward 119 in early August, which was nearly double the average recorded the previous month, according to Relief Web.
The famine has raised serious questions about Western complicity and the silence of neighboring Arab states. The United States is Israel’s largest arms supplier, providing between 66% and 69% of its major conventional weapons imports, while Germany supplies roughly 30–33%. Critics say such support has helped fuel the humanitarian crisis in Gaza and enabled actions many describe as genocidal.
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