The UN-backed Integrated Food Security Phase Classification (IPC) has officially declared famine in Gaza City for the first time, confirming the catastrophic humanitarian crisis gripping the Palestinian enclave as Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu ordered preparations for a new military offensive.
The IPC announcement on Friday marks only the fifth famine declaration by the international hunger monitoring body since its establishment in 2004, with the organisation warning that “catastrophic conditions” are projected to expand to Deir al-Balah and Khan Younis by the end of September.
“The worst-case scenario of famine is rapidly unfolding in the Gaza Strip amid relentless conflict, displacements, and extremely limited humanitarian access,” the IPC stated in its official declaration.
The famine threshold has been reached after acute malnutrition rates in Gaza City soared from 4.4 per cent in May to 16.5 per cent in early July, whilst 81 per cent of households in northern Gaza reported poor food consumption.
Netanyahu’s security cabinet approved plans early Friday morning for a phased military takeover of Gaza City, home to approximately 500,000 Palestinians, with residents given until 7 October to evacuate to southern areas.
The IDF will prepare for the takeover of Gaza City while ensuring the provision of humanitarian aid to the civilian population outside the combat zones,” the Prime Minister’s Office announced following a contentious 10-hour cabinet meeting.
The planned operation has sparked fierce opposition from Israel’s own military leadership, with IDF Chief of Staff Lieutenant General Eyal Zamir warning the security cabinet that the offensive would endanger remaining hostages and worsen the humanitarian catastrophe.
The lives of the hostages will be in danger if we go ahead with this plan to occupy Gaza. There is no way to guarantee that we will not harm them,” Zamir reportedly told ministers during Thursday’s heated session.
To meet IPC criteria for declaring famine, at least 20 per cent of households must experience extreme food scarcity, 30 per cent of children must suffer from acute malnutrition, and a minimum of two people per 10,000 must die daily from starvation.
Gaza’s Health Ministry reports that 271 individuals have already died from starvation since the conflict began, including 112 children, with mounting evidence of widespread hunger-related deaths driving the crisis.
The IPC’s technical experts found that one in three Gazans is now going without food for days at a time, whilst nearly nine out of 10 households resort to extremely severe coping mechanisms, including scavenging from rubbish.
UN Secretary-General António Guterres responded to the declaration saying the alert “confirms what we have feared: Gaza is on the brink of famine. This nightmare must end.”
The military operation, requiring mobilisation of 60,000 reserve troops, would force approximately one million Palestinians from Gaza City and surrounding areas into evacuation zones in southern Gaza over a five-month period.
Israeli officials revealed the plan includes establishing compounds to house displaced Palestinians and expanding aid distribution sites operated by the controversial Gaza Humanitarian Foundation from four to 16 locations.
Netanyahu defended the operation during a Fox News interview, stating: “We intend to take control of all Gaza in order to assure our security, remove Hamas there, enable the population to be free.
However, the Prime Minister insisted Israel does not intend to maintain civilian control, saying: “We don’t want to keep it. We want to have a security perimeter.”
The announcement has triggered international condemnation, with Germany suspending military equipment exports that could be used in Gaza and British Prime Minister Keir Starmer calling the decision “wrong.
Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas condemned the plan as “a complete crime that represents a continuation of the policy of genocide, systematic killing, starvation and siege.
Hostage families staged fiery protests in Tel Aviv, fearing the expanded military operation would seal the fate of approximately 20 remaining living captives held by Hamas since October 2023.
“I think this decision is a death sentence for the hostages,” said Zohar Sal, an Israeli reservist who recently completed deployment. The government talked about two missions: to return the hostages and defeat Hamas. Now there’s only one goal.”
The famine declaration comes as the IPC warns that catastrophic food insecurity will likely expand beyond Gaza City, with projections showing the entire Gaza Strip population of 2.1 million facing crisis levels or worse by September’s end.
Access to food has become increasingly lethal, with Gaza’s Health Ministry reporting over 1,760 Palestinians killed whilst seeking aid since late May, including 325 shot dead in one week attempting to reach flour trucks.
Medical facilities are overwhelmed, operating at over 200 per cent capacity, with the World Health Organisation confirming 28 children die daily from a combination of malnutrition and untreated illnesses.
Two-fifths of pregnant and breastfeeding women are acutely malnourished, whilst hospitals have treated more than 20,000 children for acute malnutrition since April, with at least 16 under-fives dying from hunger-related causes since mid-July.
The IPC emphasised that “mounting evidence shows that widespread starvation, malnutrition, and disease are driving a rise in hunger-related deaths” across the territory.
Netanyahu claimed intensified military operations represented the fastest route to ending Israel’s longest war, despite his February 2024 promise that fighting would conclude within weeks rather than months.
The conflict has killed at least 62,192 Palestinians according to Gaza’s Health Ministry, including over 18,800 children, whilst destroying 70 per cent of the enclave’s infrastructure since October 2023.
Israeli forces already control 75 per cent of Gaza, with the latest operation marking the first attempt to hold and maintain control of the territory’s largest city throughout the 22-month conflict.
Far-right ministers Itamar Ben Gvir and Bezalel Smotrich voted against the plan, with Ben Gvir opposing aid provisions for evacuating Palestinians whilst Smotrich rejected Netanyahu’s willingness to halt operations if Hamas met conditions.
The operation faces significant military challenges, with surveys indicating 40 per cent of Israeli soldiers report reduced motivation to serve and concerns about troop exhaustion after nearly two years of continuous warfare.
Former Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert warned the expanded operation “is not going to save the hostages, which is going to cost the lives of many soldiers, and which is going to cause the lives of many non-involved Palestinians.
Hamas responded that Netanyahu’s takeover “will cost it a heavy price and not be a walk in the park,” adding: “Our people and their resistance are resilient to defeat or surrender.”
The IPC called for an immediate ceasefire, unimpeded humanitarian access, and restoration of essential services, warning that “widespread death is imminent without urgent intervention.
As darkness falls over Gaza City, residents face an impossible choice between remaining in their devastated homes or joining the masses of displaced Palestinians in overcrowded southern camps where famine conditions are expected to spread.
“Where does Netanyahu want to send us? We won’t leave. Let them just kill us and the story will be over,” said Ali al-Hanafi Abu Hassan, a 51-year-old whose house was destroyed and two children killed. “There is no safe place in the Gaza Strip.”
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