{"id":310526,"date":"2025-08-22T10:09:43","date_gmt":"2025-08-22T14:09:43","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.un.org\/unispal\/?post_type=document&p=310526"},"modified":"2025-08-22T12:38:17","modified_gmt":"2025-08-22T16:38:17","slug":"ocha-ohchr-wfp-who-press-briefing-22aug25","status":"publish","type":"document","link":"https:\/\/www.un.org\/unispal\/document\/ocha-ohchr-wfp-who-press-briefing-22aug25\/","title":{"rendered":"Gaza: Famine \u201cirrefutably\u201d confirmed, UN humanitarians unite in plea for aid access – OCHA, OHCHR, WFP and WHO"},"content":{"rendered":"

 <\/p>\n

22 August 2025<\/p>\n

Famine has been confirmed in Gaza Governorate by the world\u2019s top authority on food security and will spread further within the Strip unless fighting stops and much more aid is allowed in, UN humanitarians said on Friday.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis is irrefutable testimony\u2026 It is a famine, the Gaza famine,\u201d UN relief chief<\/strong> Tom Fletcher told reporters in Geneva<\/a> just as the report by the Integrated Food Security Phase Classification, or IPC, a 21-agency partnership which includes UN entities and non-governmental organizations, was released.<\/p>\n

More than half a million people in the Gaza Strip are facing catastrophic hunger conditions while more than a million more are in a food emergency phase, the report states.<\/p>\n

This man-made catastrophic famine could have been prevented by a steady flow of humanitarian aid into the enclave, Mr. Fletcher pointed out.<\/p>\n

\u201cYet food stacks up at borders because of systematic obstruction by Israel,\u201d he said. \u201cIt is a famine within a few 100 meters of food in a fertile land.\u201d<\/p>\n

The UN’s top aid official underscored that the famine in Gaza is \u201ccaused by cruelty, justified by revenge, enabled by indifference and sustained by complicity\u201d.<\/p>\n

The situation \u201cmust spur the world to more urgent action, must shame the world to do better,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Mr. Fletcher joined a chorus of voices reacting to the IPC report<\/a>, including that of UN chief Ant\u00f3nio Guterres, who in a statement on Friday called for urgent measures in response to \u201ca man-made disaster\u201d, including \u201can immediate ceasefire, the immediate release of all hostages and full, unfettered humanitarian access\u201d.<\/p>\n

Jean-Martin Bauer, Director of Food Security and Nutrition Analysis for the UN World Food Programme (WFP<\/strong>), stressed that this was the first time that a famine has been confirmed in the Middle East.<\/p>\n

Speaking from Rome, Mr. Bauer explained that the IPC classification of famine \u201conly happens when three thresholds are met: extreme food deprivation, acute malnutrition and starvation related deaths\u201d.<\/p>\n

\u201cAll three have now been breached in Gaza City,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

The WFP official added that these conditions are forecast to spread to Deir Al-Balah and Khan Younis by the end of September, unless aid can be brought in quickly at great scale.<\/p>\n

In response to Israeli criticism aimed at undermining the report\u2019s methodology, Mr. Bauer said that the IPC is the \u201cgold standard in food security analysis worldwide\u201d, and clarified that the same indicators have been used, and been widely accepted, in the IPC\u2019s past determinations of famine in Somalia, South Sudan and Sudan.<\/p>\n

He also stressed that for the first time since the creation of the IPC twenty years ago, two famines are taking place at the same time: Sudan (since 2024) and now Gaza.<\/p>\n

Both Mr. Bauer and Dr. Rik Peeperkorn, the WHO<\/strong> representative in the occupied Palestinian territory, underscored the disastrous health consequences of the current crisis, and notably an \u201cexponential\u201d increase in child malnutrition and acute malnutrition.<\/p>\n

Dr. Peeperkorn said that 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.<\/p>\n

In 2025 alone, 206 people have died due to the effects of malnutrition, as verified by WHO, he said.<\/p>\n

\u201cTeams, including myself, witnessed people starving,\u201d he said, describing five-year-old children who looked like two-year-olds, and health workers \u201cweak and exhausted\u201d.<\/p>\n

The WHO official pointed out malnutrition\u2019s detrimental impact on the immune system, increasing the body\u2019s vulnerability to infectious and other diseases, and making it harder to recover from trauma injuries extremely prevalent in the war-torn Strip.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis is the human face of a collapsing health, nutrition, water and sanitation system,\u201d he stressed.<\/p>\n

\u201cHunger and malnutrition are not only about empty stomachs,\u201d he said. \u201cIt weakens bodies, fuels, disease, cripples health systems and robs children of their future.\u201d<\/p>\n

With the declaration of famine in Gaza Governorate, a \u201cnightmare scenario\u201d has become reality, said a spokesperson for UN Human Rights (OHCHR)<\/strong>, Jeremy Laurence.<\/p>\n

The famine is the \u201cdirect result of actions taken by the Israeli Government,\u201d he said. The Israeli military have \u201cdestroyed critical civilian infrastructure, almost all agricultural land, banned fishing and forcibly displaced the population – all drivers of this famine,\u201d he said, in addition to restricting and blocking aid.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt is a war crime to use starvation as a method of warfare, and the resulting deaths may also amount to the war crime of willful killing,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

All the speakers insisted that urgent steps must be taken to reverse the escalating hunger crisis.<\/p>\n

Humanitarian chief Tom Fletcher reiterated his call for a ceasefire to Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu \u201cand anyone who can reach him\u201d.<\/p>\n

\u201cOpen the [border] crossings north and south, all of them,\u201d he said, pleading for humanitarian access to the Strip. \u201cLet us get food and other supplies in unimpeded and at the massive scale required. End the retribution.\u201d<\/p>\n

The UN official said that it was \u201ctoo late for far too many, but not for everyone\u201d in the war-torn enclave.<\/p>\n

\u201cFor humanity’s sake, let us in,\u201d he implored.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Read more about this topic:<\/em><\/p>\n