War: famine in Gaza explained – Israel threatens to destroy

Aid organizations have warned for months, now it is official: The IPC initiative recognized worldwide as an authority for nutritional security has declared a famine for the city of Gaza and some neighboring towns. Israel plans to take the city. Defense Minister Israel Katz even threatened to destroy her if the terrorist organization Hamas should not accept Israel’s demands such as the release of all hostages. In front of a major offensive, Israel plans to recover around one million inhabitants in the city in the north of the Gaza Strip.

“The nightmare scenario is now a reality,” said a spokesman for the UN human rights office in Geneva, Jeremy Laurence, to explain famine. The Israeli Ministry of Foreign Affairs rejected the IPC report: “There is no famine in Gaza.”

The affected district comprises around 20 percent of the Palestinian area. According to estimates, around 750,000 people lived there before the war. According to the IPC initiative, the life of 132,000 children under the age of five is threatened due to malnutrition. 41,000 of them would be regarded as particularly threatening cases, twice as many as in the previous assessment in May.

“More than half a million people in the Gaza Strip are faced with catastrophic conditions, characterized by hunger, poverty and death,” says the IPC report. Another over 70 percent of the Gaza Strip inhabitants can no longer cover their food requirements.

The conditions in the Nordgaza district may be worse, but due to the lack of access, the situation could not be properly assessed there. The famine could also extend to further districts by the end of September. According to the World Health Organization (WHO), it is the first time that a famine is called out in a country of the Middle East.

“Could have prevented famine”

“We could have prevented the famine if we were allowed,” said UN Nothilfekoordinator Tom Fletcher. “But due to systematic disabilities by Israel, food is stacked at the limits.” And further: “It is a famine that some Israeli politicians openly used as a weapon of war.”

UN General Secretary António Guterres also spoke of intent in connection with the famine. What happens now is the “intentional breakdown of the systems that are necessary for human survival”. As a occupying power, Israel has clear obligations. Israel always rejects such statements and allegations. The country, in turn, accuses the UN of not distributing aid deliveries available in the Gaza Strip.

Israel’s head of government Benjamin Netanyahu described the reports of a famine as a “smooth lie”. Israel is not pursuing an starvation policy, but of hunger prevention, Netanyahu wrote on Friday on the platform X. Previously, the Israeli Foreign Ministry had already announced that the IPC initiative was based on the wrong information of Hamas.

The Israeli authority Cogat responsible for Palestinian matters said: “The report deliberately ignores data that was presented to the authors in a meeting before its publication and overlooks the efforts to stabilize the humanitarian location in the Gaza Strip in recent weeks.” What information was presented to the authors remained open. Netanyahu stated that Israel has made it possible to deliver two million tons of relief goods in the Gaza Strip since the beginning of the war. However, many trucks were looted.

Germany took part in Luftbrücken in August to drop food above the Gaza Strip. Israel and the United States support a newly founded organization “Gaza Humanitrian Foundation”, which – guarded by armed security forces – distributes food. Dozens of people died in the area of ​​the few issuing points. Survivors predominantly say that Israeli soldiers shot them.

Palestinians are calling for consequences

The Palestinian Authority called on the international community and the UN Security Council to act. They would now have to increase the pressure on Israel, according to the Authority’s request, according to a report from the Palestinian news agency Wafa.

The international courts were called on to hold those responsible. In addition, the border crossings would have to be opened, relief supplies and started with the immediate reconstruction of Gazas, the autonomy authority continued.

How hunger is measured

There are five stages of the nutritional situation in the IPC scale of hunger. The highest and worst is level five: “Disaster/famine”, which has now been proclaimed for the Gaza region. For this, three criteria must be met: at least 20 percent of households are affected by an extreme lack of food, at least 30 percent of children suffer from acute malnutrition and at least two adults or four children per 10,000 inhabitants dail from hunger or due to the interaction of malnutrition and illness. All three councils, Jean-Martin Bauer from the World Food Program (WFP) said in a briefing for journalists in Geneva.

The IPC initiative was founded in 2004. Members are almost two dozen organizations of the United Nations and aid organizations. It is responsible for the assessment of hunger layers all over the world. According to the IPC, four famines have been confirmed in the past 15 years: 2011 in Somalia, 2017 and 2020 in South Sudan and most recently in Sudan in 2024.

Israel’s Minister of Defense threatens to destroy the city of Gaza

Meanwhile, Israel’s Minister of Defense Katz asked Hamas to accept Israel’s conditions for the end of the war. “If you do not agree, Gaza, the capital of Hamas, will become Rafah and Beit Hanun.” Israeli bombings were put in rubble and ashes in large parts of the two cities in question. Israel’s demands include the release of all hostages dragged out of Israel and the disarmament of Hamas. The latter rejects the Islamist organization, negotiating a temporary ceasefire and the return of the kidnapped people until the end.

Top plans for the city of Gaza approved

According to Katz, the plans for the use of the Israeli army against Hamas have now been approved in the largest place in the Gaza Strip. The project also includes the residents’ reconciliation. According to estimates, this affects around one million people. The catastrophic location of the civilian population could worsen even further by the offensive.

The Israeli newspaper “Jediot Ahronoth” wrote that, unlike in places like Beit Hanun, the city of Gaza has many still intact, sometimes 15-story high-rise buildings. According to the report, there is a risk to Israel’s army that the Islamists’ snipers could use the buildings. The sheet therefore expects them to be razed to the ground. For many residents, this means that they will lose their home.

Inhabitants already reported intensive Israeli air strikes in the city’s vicinity. The Palestinian news agency Wafa reported more than 20 deaths in the city in Israeli attacks. The information could initially not be verified independently.