Famine is not a word used lightly. When the world’s hunger-monitoring system makes that declaration, the signal is clear: people are not just hungry, they are also dying from starvation and malnutrition. This month, the Famine Review Committee confirmed famine in Gaza under the Integrated Food Security Phase Classification (IPC), the first time such a designation has ever been issued in the Middle East.
What are the origins of the IPC?
For much of history, famines were seen as natural calamities: the result of drought, failed harvests, or floods. But famines can also be human-caused and politically driven. In 1932-33, millions of Ukrainians died in the Holodomor, a famine caused by Josef Stalin’s policies. In China, from 1959 to 1961, the Great Leap Forward’s collectivization campaign, combined with repression, produced the deadliest famine on record.
Why We Wrote This
The IPC is an international standard meant to measure the threat of starvation without bias. Many hope that Friday’s IPC report, which determined Gaza is experiencing famine, will spur an international aid response.
By the early 2000s, humanitarian agencies recognized that warnings about hunger were inconsistent and politically charged. Aid groups used different terms – “severe hunger,” “catastrophe,” “famine-like” – leaving donors uncertain and slowing response.
In 2008, the United Nations’ Food and Agriculture Organization and the World Food Programme, as well as nongovernmental organizations such as Oxfam and CARE, created the IPC standard to provide a common, evidence-based framework. Real-world incidents of hunger are analyzed using the IPC by an independent body of experts, supported by various international entities including the U.N., the World Health Organization, anti-hunger NGOs, and intergovernmental organizations.
How does the IPC define famine – and does Gaza meet this?
The IPC ranks food insecurity on a five-phase scale: minimal, stressed, crisis, emergency, and famine/catastrophe. The famine label is reserved for the most extreme conditions, when hunger, acute malnutrition, and mortality all cross catastrophic thresholds.
For a famine to be found under IPC designations, three conditions must occur simultaneously. At least 1 in 5 households must face extreme food shortages, acute malnutrition among children under age 5 must exceed 30%, and the daily death rate must be above two adults – or four children – per 10,000 people.
The IPC Famine Review Committee has only determined a famine existed in a few instances: Somalia in 2011, South Sudan in 2017 and 2020, and Sudan in 2024. And this month, it concluded Gaza has crossed all three thresholds as well.
At present, according to the IPC report, most of Gaza’s food production capacity has been destroyed. No food trucks entered Gaza between March 2 and May 18. What food has entered Gaza since May has still fallen short of the estimated 62,000 metric tons required monthly to meet the basic caloric needs of Palestinians in the enclave. And it is unclear how much of that food needs to be cooked before it is edible; no cooking gas has entered Gaza since February, leaving few safe alternatives for preparing meals.
On the ground, families have no coping strategies left. Markets have collapsed, aid is blocked, and children are dying daily from preventable hunger. Convoys and warehouses have been subjected to raids by Hamas, bandits, armed gangs, and desperate civilians. According to IPC estimates, more than a half-million people in Gaza governorate (one of five administrative regions in Gaza) are already in famine, with it projected to spread to Deir al-Balah and Khan Younis governorates unless humanitarian agencies are granted unhindered access.
Why does the declaration matter, and what comes next?
Famine declarations are intended to be the loudest possible alarm in the humanitarian system.
History shows that sounding the alarm can jolt action. In Somalia in 2011, aid surged only after famine was confirmed, despite earlier warnings.
But history also shows the price of delays. By the time famine thresholds are met and famine declared, thousands might already have died. The IPC classification aims to cut through politics with evidence. Whether it saves lives depends on political will and the ability to deliver humanitarian relief.
“As this famine is entirely man-made, it can be halted and reversed,” the IPC report stated. “The time for debate and hesitation has passed, starvation is present and is rapidly spreading. … Any further delay – even by days – will result in a totally unacceptable escalation of famine-related mortality.”
While the IPC has no legal authority, its findings carry political and moral weight. International law prohibits the use of starvation as a weapon of war. If famine results from the deliberate obstruction of aid, it can constitute a war crime. Once famine is declared, governments and donors cannot claim ignorance.
“It is a man-made disaster, a moral indictment, and a failure of humanity itself,” said U.N. Secretary-General António Guterres. “Famine is not only about food; it is the deliberate collapse of the systems needed for human survival. People are starving. Children are dying. And those with the duty to act are failing.”
Israeli officials have rejected the IPC report. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s office called the declaration an “outright lie” and a “modern blood libel,” insisting that Israel does not pursue a starving policy and continues to allow humanitarian aid into Gaza.
