24/08/25, 13:30 Famine confirmed for first time in Gaza
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Famine confirmed for first
time in Gaza
FAO, UNICEF, WFP and WHO reiterate call
for immediate ceasefire and unhindered
humanitarian access to curb deaths from
hunger and malnutrition
22 August 2025 | Joint News Release | Rome, Geneva, New York |Reading time: 5 min (1330 words)
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More than half a million people in Gaza are trapped in famine, marked by widespread
starvation, destitution and preventable deaths, according to a new Integrated Food Security
Phase Classification (IPC) analysis released today. Famine conditions are projected to
spread from Gaza Governorate to Deir Al Balah and Khan Younis Governorates in the
coming weeks.
The Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO), UNICEF, the United
Nations World Food Programme (WFP) and the World Health Organization (WHO) have
collectively and consistently highlighted the extreme urgency for an immediate and full-
scale humanitarian response given the escalating hunger-related deaths, rapidly worsening
levels of acute malnutrition and plummeting levels of food consumption, with hundreds of
thousands of people going days without anything to eat.
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24/08/25, 13:30 Famine confirmed for first time in Gaza
The agencies reinforced that famine must be stopped at all costs. An immediate ceasefire
and end to the conflict is critical to allow unimpeded, large-scale humanitarian response
that can save lives. The agencies are also gravely concerned about the threat of an
intensified military offensive in Gaza City and any escalation in the conflict, as it would have
further devastating consequences for civilians where famine conditions already exist. Many
people – especially sick and malnourished children, older people and people with
disabilities – may be unable to evacuate.
By the end of September, more than 640 000 people will face Catastrophic levels of food
insecurity – classified as IPC Phase 5 – across the Gaza Strip. An additional 1.14 million
people in the territory will be in Emergency (IPC Phase 4) and a further 396 000 people in
Crisis (IPC Phase 3) conditions. Conditions in North Gaza are estimated to be as severe – or
worse – than in Gaza City. However, limited data prevented an IPC classification,
highlighting the urgent need for access to assess and assist. Rafah was not analyzed given
indications that it is largely depopulated.
Classifying famine means that the most extreme category is triggered when three critical
thresholds – extreme food deprivation, acute malnutrition and starvation-related deaths –
have been breached. The latest analysis now affirms on the basis of reasonable evidence
that these criteria have been met.
Almost two years of conflict, repeated displacement, and severe restrictions on
humanitarian access, compounded by repeated interruptions and impediments to access to
food, water, medical aid, support to agriculture, livestock and fisheries and the collapse of
health, sanitation, and market systems, have pushed people into starvation.
Access to food in Gaza remains severely constrained. In July, the number of households
reporting very severe hunger doubled across the territory compared to May and more than
tripled in Gaza City. More than one in three people (39 percent) indicated they were going
days at a time without eating, and adults regularly skip meals to feed their children.
Malnutrition among children in Gaza is accelerating at a catastrophic pace. In July alone,
more than 12 000 children were identified as acutely malnourished – the highest monthly
figure ever recorded and a six-fold increase since the start of the year. Nearly one in four of
these children were suffering from severe acute malnutrition (SAM), the deadliest form with
both short and long-term impacts.
Since the last IPC Analysis in May, the number of children expected to be at severe risk of
death from malnutrition by the end of June 2026 has tripled from 14 100 to 43 400.
Similarly, for pregnant and breastfeeding women, the number of estimated cases has
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24/08/25, 13:30 Famine confirmed for first time in Gaza
tripled from 17 000 in May to 55 000 women expected to be suffering from perilous levels
of malnutrition by mid-2026. The impact is visible: one in five babies are born prematurely
or underweight.
The new assessment reports the most severe deterioration since the IPC began analyzing
acute food insecurity and acute malnutrition in the Gaza Strip, and it marks the first time a
famine has been officially confirmed in the Middle East region.
Since July, food and aid supplies entering Gaza increased slightly but remained vastly
insufficient, inconsistent and inaccessible compared to the need.
Meanwhile, approximately 98 percent of cropland in the territory is damaged or
inaccessible – decimating the agriculture sector and local food production – and nine of ten
people have been serially displaced from homes. Cash is critically scarce, aid operations
remain severely disrupted, with most UN trucks looted amid growing desperation. Food
prices are extremely high and there are not enough fuel and water to cook and medicines
and medical supplies.
Gaza’s health system has severely deteriorated, access to safe drinking water and sanitation
services has been drastically reduced, while multi-drug resistant infections are surging and
levels of morbidity – including diarrhoea, fever, acute respiratory and skin infections – are
alarmingly high among children.
To enable lifesaving humanitarian operations, the U.N. agencies emphasized the
importance of an immediate and sustained ceasefire to stop the killing, allow for the safe
release of hostages and permit unimpeded access for a mass influx of assistance to reach
people across Gaza. They stressed the urgent need for greater amounts of food aid, along
with dramatically improved delivery, distribution and accessibility, as well as shelter, fuel,
cooking gas and food production inputs. They emphasized that it is critical to support the
rehabilitation of the health system, maintain and revive essential health services, including
primary health care, and ensure sustained delivery of health supplies into and across Gaza.
The restoration of commercial flows at scale, market systems, essential services, and local
food production is also vital if the worst outcomes of the famine are to be avoided.
“People in Gaza have exhausted every possible means of survival. Hunger and malnutrition
are claiming lives every day, and the destruction of cropland, livestock, greenhouses,
fishery and food production systems has made the situation even more dire,” said FAO
Director-General QU Dongyu. “Our priority must now be safe and sustained access for
large-scale food assistance. Access to food is not a privilege – it is a basic human right.”
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24/08/25, 13:30 Famine confirmed for first time in Gaza
“Famine warnings have been clear for months,” said Cindy McCain, WFP Executive Director.
“What’s urgently needed now is a surge of aid, safer conditions, and proven distribution
systems to reach those most in need – wherever they are. Full humanitarian access and a
ceasefire now are critical to save lives.”
“Famine is now a grim reality for children in Gaza Governorate, and a looming threat in Deir
al-Balah and Khan Younis,” said UNICEF Executive Director Catherine Russell. “As we have
repeatedly warned, the signs were unmistakable: children with wasted bodies, too weak to
cry or eat; babies dying from hunger and preventable disease; parents arriving at clinics
with nothing left to feed their children. There is no time to lose. Without an immediate
ceasefire and full humanitarian access, famine will spread, and more children will
die. Children on the brink of starvation need the special therapeutic feeding that UNICEF
provides.”
“A ceasefire is an absolute and moral imperative now,” said WHO Director-General Dr
Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus. “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 like diarrhoea 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.”
Notes for editors
Access the IPC alert here.
The Integrated Food Security Phase Classification (IPC) is an innovative 21-partner initiative
– made up of UN agencies and international NGOs – for improving food security and
nutrition analysis and decision-making. By using the IPC classification and analytical
approach, governments, UN Agencies, NGOs, civil society and other relevant actors, work
together to determine the severity and magnitude of acute and chronic food insecurity, and
acute malnutrition situations in a country, according to internationally-recognized scientific
standards. Find out more here.
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