Gaza is on the brink of famine.. A UN report warns of a food security catastrophe

Gaza is on the verge of famine.. A UN report warns of a food security catastrophe

At a time when the world is preoccupied with its political conflicts and narrow interests, an unprecedented humanitarian catastrophe is emerging from the Gaza Strip, where indicators offood securityand malnutrition have exceeded the thresholds set for officially declaring famine, according to the latest alerts of the integratedFood Securitystage classification (IPC).

UN data confirms that two out of three main famine indicators have already been exceeded, which means that famine is imminent in parts of the besieged sector, and this collapse represents a direct threat to the pillars of sustainable development, especially goals (1) and (2) related to the eradication of poverty and hunger, and reveals the fragility of food systems in the absence of a safe political and economic environment.

Warning issued by three UN organizations

The new warning issued by the three United Nations organizations: the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO), the World Food Program and UNICEF, reflects a bleak picture that requires urgent action. Time is running out for a comprehensive humanitarian response, the population’s ability to withstand is eroding, and the fragile food and economic fabric is disintegrating, amid a stifling siege and tragic living conditions.

Since May 2025, food consumption conditions – the first indicators of famine – have seriously deteriorated, with data indicating that more than 39% of Gaza’s population have nothing to eat for days on end, and more than half a million people – almost a quarter of the population – are living in famine-like conditions, while the rest suffer from emergency levels of hunger.

Famine is knocking on Gaza’s doors

Children – as always – are the most vulnerable and most affected victims; Acute malnutrition rates among children under the age of five have quadrupled in Gaza in just two months. To reach 16.5%, according to estimates issued by UNICEF, an alarming number that indicates a complete collapse of the diet and a sharp rise in the risk of death due to hunger.

Children’s deaths due to hunger are no longer exceptional cases, but rather have become a phenomenon that is expanding day after day, while the process of monitoring accurate numbers remains almost impossible with the major collapse of the health sector after three years of continuous conflict. Hospitals are operating at a minimum, medical personnel are struggling to survive, and medical and food stocks are almost completely exhausted.

Statements by responsible international bodies

FAO Director-General Ko Dongyu sounded a warning note, saying: “People are dying not because there is no food, but because access to it is denied.” These words sum up the disaster, which is that hunger there is a direct result of starvation and blockade policies, the collapse of the agricultural system and local markets, and the inability of families to provide food.

At a time when the world is witnessing this collapse, UNICEF reminds us that “Gaza’s children are dying from malnutrition,” and that solutions exist, but they are hidden behind crossings and procedures. What is required is the provision of aid convoys, water and medicine, and most importantly: an immediate halt to the aggression.

Malnutrition threatens children

Gaza is also facing a stifling crisis represented by a severe shortage of fuel and water, which makes any effort to contain the famine almost futile. More than 320,000 children under the age of five are at risk of acute malnutrition, while thousands of them have already entered dangerous stages of severe malnutrition, which is the most dangerous and deadly form of this disaster.

Last June alone, medical facilities received 6,500 children for treatment for malnutrition, the highest number since the beginning of the conflict. The first two weeks of July saw the admission of an additional 5,000 children, a warning of a silent wave of deaths hitting the most vulnerable groups. The inability to provide milk, clean water and basic medicines increases the risk of disaster. Saving children from the specter of starvation has become almost impossible, with more than 85% of therapeutic feeding facilities out of service.

Urgent appeal to save lives

United Nations agencies issued a decisive warning for an immediate ceasefire, as it is the first step to saving civilians, in addition to the necessity of ensuring the flow of humanitarian aid in a sustainable and unhindered manner through all crossings, while providing full protection for the population and relief personnel and rehabilitating the health, water and agricultural infrastructure.

She also stressed that the resumption of commercial activity in Gaza represents an indispensable pillar; The restoration of supply chains can provide the population with basic nutritional needs such as vegetables, fruits, and proteins, which are essential components of any balanced diet. Humanitarian aid alone is not enough, but must be coupled with support for the local economy.

One of the top priorities is restarting bakeries, markets, and small farms, as they are pivotal steps for building sustainable food security. Confronting the specter of famine is not only achieved through powdered milk and cereals, but also through empowering communities locally and creating food systems capable of withstanding crises.

For all of this, the famine in Gaza exposes international silence, that silence that follows a systematic starvation policy that excludes people from their most basic rights, and turns life into a question suspended between siege and neglect. Hence, theThe Earth Guards Foundation believes that what is happening is not reduced to a shortage of food or medicine, but rather a deliberate interruption of the arteries of survival, and an international betrayal that goes beyond the failure of relief to a crisis of global conscience; Because humanitarian systems are not measured by the eloquence of covenants, but rather by their ability to triumph for the weak in the moment of human testing. If besieging children and starving them is not enough to stimulate this ability, then when do we acknowledge that the global system itself is in need of a radical reconsideration that restores the meaning of principles and human dignity?!