TEL AVIV: The Gaza Strip is at critical risk of famine if Israel doesn’t lift its blockade and stop its military campaign, food security experts said in a stark warning on Monday.
Outright famine is the mostly likely scenario unless conditions change, according to findings by the Integrated Food Security Phase Classification, a leading international authority on the severity of hunger crises.
Nearly a half million Palestinians are in “catastrophic” levels of hunger, meaning they face possible starvation, the report said, while another million are at “emergency” levels of hunger.
Israel has banned any food, shelter, medicine or other goods from entering the Palestinian territory for the past 10 weeks, even as it carries out waves of airstrikes and ground operations. Gaza’s population of around 2.3 million people relies almost entirely on outside aid to survive, because Israel’s 19-month-old military campaign has wiped away most capacity to produce food inside the territory.
Desperate scenes as food is running out
Food supplies are emptying out dramatically. Communal kitchens handing out cooked meals are virtually the only remaining source of food for most people in Gaza now, but they too are rapidly shutting down for lack of stocks.
Thousands of Palestinians crowd daily outside the public kitchens, pushing and jostling with their pots to receive lentils or pasta.
“We end up waiting in line for four, five hours, in the sun. It is exhausting,” said Riham Sheikh el-Eid, waiting at a kitchen on Sunday. “At the end, we walk away with nothing. It is not enough for everybody.”
The lack of a famine declaration doesn’t mean people aren’t already starving, and a declaration shouldn’t be a precondition for ending the suffering, said Chris Newton, an analyst for the International Crisis Group focusing on starvation as a weapon of war.
“The Israeli government is starving Gaza as part of its attempt to destroy Hamas and transform the strip,” he said.
Israel demands a new aid system
The office of Israeli prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, did not respond to a request for comment. The army has said that enough assistance entered Gaza during a two-month ceasefire that Israel shattered in mid-March when it relaunched its military campaign.
Israel says the blockade aims to pressure Hamas to release the hostages it still holds. It says it won’t let aid back in until a new system giving it control over distribution is in place, accusing Hamas of siphoning off supplies.
The United Nations denies substantial diversion of aid is taking place. It says the new system Israel envisages is unnecessary, will allow aid to be used as a weapon for political and military goals, and will not meet the massive needs of Palestinians.
The United States says it is working up a new mechanism that will start deliveries soon, but it has given no timeframe. The UN has so far refused to participate, saying the plan does not meet humanitarian standards.
Monday’s report said that any slight gains made during the ceasefire have been reversed. Nearly the entire population of Gaza now faces high levels of hunger, it said, driven by conflict, the collapse of infrastructure, destruction of agriculture, and blockades of aid.
Commenting on the report, the head of the UN Food and Agriculture Organization said any delay in restoring the flow of aid “bringing us closer to famine.”
“If we fail to act, we are failing to uphold the right to food, which is a basic human right,” FAO Director-General QU Dongyu said.
Israel has vowed to destroy Hamas after the group’s Oct. 7, 2023, surprise attack on Israel, in which militants killed some 1,200 people, mostly civilians, and took 251 hostage, most of whom have been released in ceasefire agreements or other deals.
Israel’s offensive has killed over 52,000 Palestinians, more than half of them women and children, according to Gaza’s Health Ministry, whose count does not distinguish between civilians or combatants.
Three criteria for declaring famine
The Integrated Food Security Phase Classification, first set up in 2004 during the famine in Somalia, groups more than a dozen UN agencies, aid groups, governments and other bodies.
It has only declared famine a few times — in Somalia in 2011, and South Sudan in 2017 and 2020, and last year in parts of Sudan’s western Darfur region. Tens of thousands are believed to have died in Somalia and South Sudan.
It rates an area as in famine when at least two of three things occur: 20 percent of households have an extreme lack of food, or are essentially starving; at least 30 percent of children six months to five years suffer from acute malnutrition or wasting, meaning they’re too thin for their height; and at least two people or four children under five per every 10,000 are dying daily due to starvation or the interaction of malnutrition and disease.
The report found that the first threshold was met in Gaza, saying 477,000 people — or 22 percent of the population — are classified as in “catastrophic” hunger for the period from May 11 to the end of September, and another million area at “emergency” levels, meaning they face very large gaps in food and high levels of acute malnutrition.
The malnutrition and deaths thresholds were not met. The data was gathered in April and up to May 6. Food security experts say it takes time for people to start dying from starvation.
The report warned of “imminent” famine in northern Gaza in March 2024, but the following month, Israel allowed an influx of aid under US pressure after an Israeli strike killed seven aid workers.
Malnutrition is rising
Aid groups now say the situation is the most dire of the entire war. The UN humanitarian office, known as OCHA, said on Friday that the number of children seeking treatment at clinics for malnutrition has doubled since February, even as supplies to treat them are quickly running out.
Aid groups have shut down food distribution for lack of stocks. Many foods have disappeared from the markets and what’s left has spiraled in price and is unaffordable to most. Farmland is mostly destroyed or inaccessible. Water distribution is grinding to a halt, largely because of lack of fuel.
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Food security experts warn Gaza is at critical risk of famine if Israel doesn’t end its blockade
https://arab.news/v2m53
Food security experts warn Gaza is at critical risk of famine if Israel doesn’t end its blockade
- It says nearly a half million Palestinians are in “catastrophic” levels of hunger, meaning they face possible starvation
- Israel has banned any food, shelter, medicine or other goods from entering the Palestinian territory for the past 10 weeks
Egypt’s foreign minister discusses Iran nuclear negotiations, Gaza with US envoy
- Badr Abdelatty says US-Iran negotiations are an important opportunity to achieve calm in the region
- Oman to host sixth round of negotiations between Iran and the US on Sunday
LONDON: Badr Abdelatty, Egypt’s minister of foreign affairs, emphasized the need to persist in negotiations between the US and Iran over Tehran’s nuclear program during a phone call with Middle East envoy Steve Witkoff.
Abdelatty said the negotiations are an important opportunity to achieve calm, avoid escalation, and prevent the region from sliding into greater instability, WAM, the Emirates News Agency, reported.
Oman will host the sixth round of negotiations between Iran and the US on Sunday, Oman’s foreign minister said on Thursday.
Abdelatty and Witkoff, the US president’s special envoy for the Middle East, on Thursday addressed Egyptian and US efforts to reach a ceasefire agreement in the Gaza Strip. They discussed the release of Israeli hostages and Palestinian prisoners, as well as the flow of humanitarian aid into the Palestinian coastal enclave, according to WAM.
The Egyptian foreign minister highlighted the need for a lasting resolution to the Palestinian-Israeli conflict that meets the region’s aspirations for peace and stability.
France’s Macron praises Palestinian president’s ‘genuine willingness’ for peace
- Mahmoud Abbas’ commitment to elections and reforms welcomed
- Comments come ahead of 2-state conference in New York next week
LONDON: France’s President Emmanuel Macron on Thursday praised Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas’ “concrete and unprecedented commitments” after receiving a letter from the latter ahead of the UN-backed Saudi-French conference on a two-state solution in Palestine.
In his letter on Monday, which was addressed to Macron and Saudi Arabia’s Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, Abbas outlined the main steps to be taken to end the war on Gaza.
He called for the demilitarization of Hamas, the release of hostages, a ceasefire in Gaza and deployment of international forces to protect “the Palestinian people,” while reaffirming his commitment to reforms and elections.
Abbas also demanded an end to “the occupation and conflict once and for all” and halting settler activities.
In a post on X, Macron described the letter as “a decisive moment, praising the Palestinian leader for charting “a course toward a horizon of peace.”
I received a letter of hope, courage, and clarity.
— Emmanuel Macron (@EmmanuelMacron) June 12, 2025
The President of the Palestinian Authority, Mahmoud Abbas, charts a course toward a horizon of peace.
A condemnation of terrorism, the release of hostages, the demilitarization of Hamas, an end to the war in Gaza,… pic.twitter.com/zQ2ZgEOQ5k
“Concrete and unprecedented commitments that demonstrate a genuine willingness to move forward,” said Macron.
France and Saudi Arabia will co-chair the high-level International Conference for the Peaceful Settlement of the Palestinian Question and the Implementation of the Two-State Solution in New York next week.
The conference at the UN’s headquarters aims to achieve concrete steps toward the two-state solution.
In his letter, Abbas stressed the Palestinian Authority’s commitment to presidential and general elections within a year across the Occupied Territories — including East Jerusalem — under international supervision.
“The Palestinian people are entitled to live in freedom and dignity in their homeland. Palestine and Israel are entitled to exist as states, in peace and security, in conformity with international law,” Abbas wrote in his letter.
Reaffirming his commitment to the two-state solution, he said: “We are ready to conclude within a clear and binding timeline, and with international support, supervision and guarantees, a peace agreement that ends the Israeli occupation and resolves all outstanding and final status issues.”
Iraq reports 19 Congo fever deaths already this year
- Congo fever is a viral disease which is transmitted to people either by tick bites or through contact with infected animal blood or tissues during or immediately after slaughter
Baghdad: Iraq said Thursday it has recorded 19 deaths from Crimean-Congo haemorrhagic fever already this year and urged farmers and abattoir workers to step up precautions when handling livestock.
A total of 123 cases have been recorded nationwide, health ministry spokesman Saif Al-Badr said in a statement, adding that 36 of them were reported in the poor southern province of Dhi Qar, which is heavily dependent on livestock farming.
Congo fever is a viral disease which is transmitted to people either by tick bites or through contact with infected animal blood or tissues during or immediately after slaughter, according to the World Health Organization.
It has a fatality rate of between 10 and 40 percent, and most cases have been reported in the livestock industry.
A previous surge in infections in Iraq in 2022 saw at least 27 deaths, compared with just six cases for the two decades from 1989 to 2009.
The WHO attributed that flare-up to a rise in the tick population resulting from the failure to carry out pesticide spraying campaigns in 2020 and 2021.
Hamas says it killed 12 Israeli-backed fighters. Israeli-supported group says they were aid workers
- Last week, Israel acknowledged it is supporting armed groups of Palestinians in what it says is a move to counter Hamas
- UN and major aid groups have rejected Israeli and US-backed GHF initiative
CAIRO: A unit of Gaza’s Hamas-run police force said it killed 12 members of an Israeli-backed militia after detaining them early Thursday. Hours earlier, an Israel-supported aid group said Hamas attacked a bus carrying its Palestinian workers, killing at least five of them.
The militia, led by Yasser Abu Shabab, said its fighters had attacked Hamas and killed five militants but made no mention of its own casualties. It also accused Hamas of detaining and killing aid workers. It was not immediately possible to verify the competing claims or confirm the identities of those killed.
The Israeli military circulated the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation‘s statement on its social media accounts but declined to provide its own account of what happened.
Aid initiative already marred by controversy and violence
The aid group’s operations in Gaza have already been marred by controversy and violence since they began last month, with scores of people killed in near-daily shootings as crowds headed toward the food distribution sites inside Israeli military zones. Witnesses have blamed the Israeli military, which has acknowledged firing only warning shots near people it said approached its forces in a suspicious manner.
Earlier this week, witnesses also said Abu Shabab militiamen had opened fire on people en route to a GHF aid hub, killing and wounding many.
The United Nations and major aid groups have rejected the Israeli and US-backed initiative, accusing them of militarizing humanitarian aid at a time when experts say Gaza is at risk of famine because of Israel’s blockade and renewed military campaign.
Last week, Israel acknowledged it is supporting armed groups of Palestinians in what it says is a move to counter Hamas. Abu Shabab’s militia, which calls itself the Popular Forces, says it is guarding the food distribution points set up by the Israeli- and US-backed Gaza Humanitarian Foundation in southern Gaza. Aid workers say it has a long history of looting UN trucks.
GHF has denied working with the Abu Shabab group.
‘They were aid workers’
In a statement released early Thursday, the foundation said Hamas had attacked a bus carrying more than two dozen “local Palestinians working side-by-side with the US GHF team to deliver critical aid” near the southern city of Khan Younis.
“We condemn this heinous and deliberate attack in the strongest possible terms,” it said. “These were aid workers. Humanitarians. Fathers, brothers, sons, and friends, who were risking their lives everyday to help others.”
It did not identify the men or say whether they were armed at the time.
Rev. Johnnie Moore, a Christian evangelical adviser to US President Donald Trump who was recently appointed head of GHF, called the killings “absolute evil” and lashed out at the UN and Western countries over what he said was their failure to condemn them.
“The principle of impartiality does not mean neutrality. There is good and evil in this world. What we are doing is good and what Hamas did to these Gazans is absolute evil,” he wrote on X.
Israel and the United States say the new system is needed to prevent Hamas from siphoning off aid from the long-standing UN-run system, which is capable of delivering food, fuel and other humanitarian aid to all parts of Gaza. UN officials deny there has been any systematic diversion of aid by Hamas, but say they have struggled to deliver it because of Israeli restrictions and the breakdown of law and order in Gaza.
UN officials say the new system is unable to meet mounting needs, and that it allows Israel to use aid as a weapon by controlling who has access to it and by essentially forcing people to relocate to the aid sites, most of which are in the southernmost city of Rafah, now a mostly uninhabited military zone. Some fear this could be part of an Israeli plan to coerce Palestinians into leaving Gaza.
Hamas says it killed traitors
Hamas has also rejected the new system and threatened to kill any Palestinians who cooperate with the Israeli military. The killings early Wednesday were carried out by the Hamas-run police’s Sahm unit, which Hamas says it established to combat looting.
The unit released video footage showing several dead men lying in the street, saying they were Abu Shabab fighters who had been detained and killed for collaborating with Israel. It was not possible to verify the images or the claims around them.
Mohammed Abu Amin, a Khan Younis resident, said he was at the scene of the killings and that crowds were celebrating them, shouting “God is greatest” and condemning those killed as traitors to the Palestinian cause and agents of Israel.
Ghassan Duhine, who identifies himself as a major in the Palestinian Authority’s security forces and deputy commander of the Abu Shabab group, posted a statement online saying they clashed with Sahm and killed five. He denied that the images shared by Sahm were of Abu Shabab fighters.
The Palestinian Authority, led by rivals of Hamas and based in the Israeli-occupied West Bank, has denied any connection to the Abu Shabab group, but many of the militiamen identify themselves as PA officers.
Mounting lawlessness as Israel steps up military campaign
Israel renewed its offensive in March after ending a ceasefire with Hamas and imposed a complete ban on imports of food, fuel, medicine and other aid before easing the blockade in mid-May.
The ongoing war and mounting desperation have plunged Gaza into chaos, with armed gangs looting aid convoys and selling the stolen food. The Hamas-run police force, which maintained a high degree of public security before the war, has largely gone underground as Israel has repeatedly targeted its forces with airstrikes. The military now controls more than half of the territory.
The war began when Hamas-led militants attacked southern Israel on Oct. 7, 2023, killing some 1,200 people, mostly civilians, and taking 251 hostage. They are still holding 53 captives, less than half of them believed to be alive, after most of the rest were released in ceasefire agreements or other deals.
Israel’s military campaign has killed over 55,000 Palestinians, according to the Gaza Health Ministry, which has said women and children make up more than half of the dead. It does not say how many of those killed were civilians or combatants.
Israel’s offensive has flattened large areas of Gaza and driven around 90 percent of the population of roughly 2 million Palestinians from their homes. The territory is almost completely reliant on humanitarian aid because nearly all of its food production capabilities have been destroyed.
Palestinian Authority says Internet down in Gaza after attack on fiber optic cable
- Maintenance and repair teams unable to safely access the sites where damage occurred to the fiber optic cable
- ‘Israeli occupation continues to prevent technical teams from repairing the cables that were cut yesterday’
RAMALLAH, Palestinian Territories: The Palestinian Authority said Internet and fixed-line communication services were down in Gaza on Thursday following an attack on the territory’s last fiber optic cable it blamed on Israel.
“All Internet and fixed-line communication services in the Gaza Strip have been cut following the targeting of the last remaining main fiber optic line in Gaza,” the PA’s telecommunications ministry said in a statement, accusing Israel of attempting to cut Gaza off from the world.
“The southern and central Gaza Strip have now joined Gaza City and the northern part of the Strip in experiencing complete isolation for the second consecutive day,” the ministry said in a statement.
It added that its maintenance and repair teams had been unable to safely access the sites where damage occurred to the fiber optic cable.
“The Israeli occupation continues to prevent technical teams from repairing the cables that were cut yesterday,” it said, adding that Israeli authorities had prevented repairs to other telecommunication lines in Gaza “for weeks and months.”
The Palestinian Red Crescent said the communication lines were “directly targeted by occupation forces.”
It said the Internet outage was hindering its emergency services by impeding communication with first responder teams in the field.
“The emergency operations room is also struggling to coordinate with other organizations to respond to humanitarian cases.”
Maysa Monayer, spokeswoman for the Palestinian communication ministry, said that “mobile calls are still available with very limited capacity” in Gaza for the time being.
Now in its 21st month, the war in Gaza has caused massive damage to infrastructure across the Palestinian territory, including water mains, power lines and roads.
