New York [US], July 30: UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said Gaza faces the grave risk of famine as food consumption and nutrition indicators have reached their worst levels since the beginning of the conflict.
Gaza faces the grave risk of famine as food consumption and nutrition indicators have reached their worst levels since the conflict began, according to data shared in the latest Integrated Food Security Phase Classification (IPC) Alert.
''The latest Integrated Food Security Phase Classification Alert confirms what we have feared: Gaza is on the brink of famine.
The facts are in - and they are undeniable. Palestinians in Gaza are enduring a humanitarian catastrophe of epic proportions. This is not a warning. It is a reality unfolding before our eyes,'' said the Secretary-General in response to the findings of the latest Integrated Food Security Phase Classification Alert.
''This nightmare must end,'' he added.
The IPC Alert highlights that two out of the three famine thresholds have now been breached in parts of the territory, with the Food and Agriculture Organisation of the United Nations (FAO), the United Nations World Food Programme (WFP) and UNICEF warning that time is running out to mount a full-scale humanitarian response.
Relentless conflict, the collapse of essential services, and severe limitations on the delivery and distribution of humanitarian assistance imposed on the UN have led to catastrophic food security conditions for hundreds of thousands of people across the Gaza Strip.
Food consumption - the first core famine indicator - has plummeted in Gaza since the last IPC Update in May 2025. Data shows that more than one in three people (39%) are now going days at a time without eating. More than 500,000 people - nearly a quarter of Gaza's population - are enduring famine-like conditions, while the remaining population is facing emergency levels of hunger.
Acute malnutrition - the second core famine indicator - inside Gaza has risen at an unprecedented rate. In Gaza City, malnutrition levels among children under five have quadrupled in two months, reaching 16.5%. This signals a critical deterioration in nutritional status and a sharp rise in the risk of death from hunger and malnutrition.
Gaza is now on the brink of a full-scale famine. People are starving not because food is unavailable, but because access is blocked, local agrifood systems have collapsed, and families can no longer sustain even the most basic livelihoods," said FAO Director-General QU Dongyu. "We urgently need safe and sustained humanitarian access and immediate support to restore local food production and livelihoods - this is the only way to prevent further loss of life. The right to food is a basic human right."
"The unbearable suffering of the people of Gaza is already clear for the world to see. Waiting for official confirmation of famine to provide life-saving food aid they desperately need is unconscionable," said Cindy McCain, WFP Executive Director. "We need to flood Gaza with large-scale food aid, immediately and without obstruction, and keep it flowing each and every day to prevent mass starvation. People are already dying of malnutrition and the longer we wait to act, the higher the death toll will rise."
According to the UN Women, one million women and girls in Gaza are facing mass starvation, violence and abuse. Malnutrition is soaring and essential services have long collapsed, forcing women and girls to adopt increasingly dangerous survival strategies.
"Women and girls in Gaza are facing the impossible choice of starving to death at their shelters, or venturing out in search of food and water at the extreme risk of being killed. Their children are starving to death before their eyes. This is horrific, unconscionable and unacceptable. It is inhumane," said UN Women Executive Director Sima Bahous. "This suffering must end immediately. We need unhindered humanitarian access at scale and a permanent ceasefire leading to sustainable peace."
Source: Emirates News Agency
