{"id":310672,"date":"2025-08-25T11:46:31","date_gmt":"2025-08-25T15:46:31","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.un.org\/unispal\/?post_type=document&p=310672"},"modified":"2025-08-26T11:47:50","modified_gmt":"2025-08-26T15:47:50","slug":"unfpa-press-release-25aug25","status":"publish","type":"document","link":"https:\/\/www.un.org\/unispal\/document\/unfpa-press-release-25aug25\/","title":{"rendered":"UNFPA: Famine confirmed in Gaza \u2013 pregnant women and newborns at acute risk"},"content":{"rendered":"

 <\/p>\n

25 August 2025<\/p>\n

\u201cWhere is the world watching what\u2019s happening to us, and to our children? All families in the world have children,\u201d said Inas, who lives in a displacement camp with her three children in Gaza city \u2013 where\u00a0famine has been confirmed<\/a><\/em>\u00a0for the first time.<\/p>\n

\u201cWould they accept their children waking up hungry?\u201d<\/p>\n

More than half a million people in Gaza are at risk of starvation, according to\u00a0a new Integrated Food Security Phase Classification (IPC) analysis<\/a><\/em>\u00a0released by the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO), the United Nations agency for children (UNICEF), the World Health Organization (WHO) and the World Food Programme (WFP).<\/p>\n

After two years of war, repeated displacement and severe restrictions on the delivery of humanitarian aid, famine has been declared in the Gaza Governorate, with the catastrophic conditions projected to spread to Deir Al Balah and Khan Younis Governorates in the coming weeks. Famine (IPC Phase 5) is triggered when three critical thresholds have been breached: extreme food deprivation, acute malnutrition and starvation-related deaths.<\/p>\n

\u201cFor mothers in Gaza, it means being forced to give birth while malnourished, exhausted and at heightened risk of death,\u201d\u00a0said UNFPA<\/a><\/em>\u00a0in a statement. \u201cIt means their babies are born too small, too weak or too early to survive. It means mothers unable to breastfeed because they, too, are starving.\u201d<\/p>\n

People are already dying of malnutrition in Gaza. By the end of September,\u00a0over 640,000<\/a><\/em>\u00a0are likely to face famine across the Gaza Strip, with a further 1.14 million people \u2013 more than 50 per cent of the population of Gaza \u2013 expected to face emergency (IPC Phase 4) conditions.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Women and girls hit hardest<\/strong><\/h3>\n
\n

\"Inas

Inas, a mother of three, plays with her newborn outside her tent in western Gaza City. \u00a9 UNFPA Palestine\/Hardy Skills.<\/p><\/div>

<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Inas\u2019 youngest child is just a few months old.\u00a0 She tries her best to create a home for her family despite the lack of basic supplies, cleaning the area around her tent with her bare hands and often using sand to wash the cookware.<\/p>\n

\u201cI am now living in a tent […] the situation was extremely difficult as a pregnant woman,\u201d she told UNFPA, the United Nations sexual and reproductive health agency.<\/p>\n

\u201cMy children and I are also suffering from food shortages, especially my newborn. Sometimes I give my share of the food to my children so they won\u2019t feel hungry, which affects both my health and that of my baby. I often feel like I\u2019m going to faint.\u201d<\/p>\n

In times of food insecurity,\u00a0mothers<\/a><\/em>\u00a0all too often eat\u00a0last\u00a0<\/a><\/em>and\u00a0least<\/a><\/em>. Since the fragile ceasefire collapsed in March 2025, Israel has severely limited distributions of food and other aid; and with most aid distribution sites located in Rafah and central Gaza and controlled by Israel, undernourished and displaced Palestinians are forced to undertake a gruelling six-hour roundtrip to feed their families.<\/p>\n

Many don\u2019t make it back with anything,\u00a0including their lives<\/a><\/em>.<\/p>\n

At least\u00a01,880 people\u00a0<\/a><\/em>have been killed and more than 4,000 injured while seeking food. Airdrops of supplies are also inadequate and dangerous, with aid failing to reach the most vulnerable and often leading to injury or even death as desperate people try to locate and access it.<\/p>\n

\u201cEvery day we see people going to the aid distribution points, walking straight to death, just to bring bread back for their children,\u201d said Inas. \u201cWe see pictures of young men carrying flour bags stained with blood.\u201d<\/p>\n

Many women, children and other vulnerable people, including the elderly, are forced to rely on family members to try and bring back rations, putting them at increased risk of malnutrition and starvation. An estimated\u00a055,000<\/a><\/em>\u00a0pregnant and breastfeeding women in Gaza are expected to be at severe risk of death from malnutrition by mid-2026 \u2013 three times the already alarming 17,000 in May 2025 \u2013 and\u00a0one in five<\/a><\/em>\u00a0babies is now born prematurely or underweight.<\/p>\n

<\/h3>\n

An avoidable crisis<\/strong><\/h3>\n
\n

\"A

A girl stands at the entrance of her family\u2019s tent in a displacement camp in western Gaza city. \u00a9 UNFPA Palestine\/Hardy Skills.<\/p><\/div>

<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

More than\u00a062,000 people,<\/a><\/em>\u00a0including an estimated\u00a028,000 women and girls<\/a>, have reportedly been killed in Gaza since October 2023. On Friday,\u00a0UN agencies<\/em><\/a>\u00a0called for an immediate ceasefire and unhindered access to humanitarian aid to prevent further deaths, emphasizing that famine must be stopped at all costs. The IPC analysis notes: \u201cAny further delay \u2013 even by days \u2013 will result in a totally unacceptable escalation of famine-related mortality.\u201d<\/p>\n

Between\u00a02 March and 19 May 2025<\/a><\/em>, Israel denied all food from entering the Gaza Strip; between May and July, the amount of food entering was insufficient to feed Gaza\u2019s population of over 2 million. Destruction of homes and infrastructure, repeated displacement and prolonged food insecurity have left most households with barely any means of coping or recovering.<\/p>\n

Inas explained how she and her family found the will to survive. \u201cEvery day we wake up with hope that maybe tomorrow there will be a solution. That things will get better,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

\u201cBut sadly, things are only getting worse. We know we\u2019re in a war. But is it the fault of our children? The most basic right is the right to food.\u201d<\/p>\n

Since July, UNFPA\u00a0has delivered essential medicines and supplies<\/em><\/a>\u00a0during the ceasefire, and prepared them for distribution to health facilities that remain operational across Gaza, although at a scale that falls far short of needs.<\/p>\n

The UN Under-Secretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs and Emergency Relief Coordinator, Tom Fletcher,\u00a0said<\/a>,<\/em> \u201c[This] is a famine that we could have prevented, if we had been allowed [\u2026] It is a famine that hits the most vulnerable first. Each with a name, each with a story. That strips people of dignity before it strips them of life. That forces a parent to choose which child to feed.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cNo woman should be forced to give birth in famine conditions. No child should begin life starving,\u201d UNFPA\u2019s statement says. \u201cEvery day of inaction condemns more mothers and newborns to suffering. The suffering, the starving, must end now.\u201d<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

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