Famine stalks Gaza as Israel blocks aid at the border

The entire population of Gaza, or 2.1 million people, is facing severe and prolonged food shortages, with 1 in 5 now on the brink of starvation, as Israel blocks aid from entering the territory. Bakeries are shuttered, garbage bins are picked clean, and families are resorting to baking with rancid, expired flour. The risk of starvation and death is no longer theoretical, experts say — it's imminent. A report released Monday by the Integrated Food Security Phase Classification, or IPC, a global framework for measuring hunger crises, shows a sharp deterioration in Gaza’s food security since October 2024. “Immediate action is essential to prevent further deaths, starvation and acute malnutrition, and a descent into Famine,” the report warned. Under IPC criteria, a famine can be formally declared when three thresholds are met: at least 20% of households face extreme food shortages, at least 30% of children are acutely malnourished, and two or more people per 10,000 die each day from hunger or hunger-related disease. Gaza already meets the first threshold, and humanitarian officials warn it is on the edge of the others. “IPC always errs on the side of caution, empirically speaking. So we know already that it is significantly worse than IPC is able to measure, and people in Gaza are telling us as much,” Michael Fakhri, the United Nations special rapporteur on the right to food, told Devex. “The Gaza situation is catastrophic. We are in the worst phase of this war,” Mahmoud Alsaqqa, Oxfam’s emergency food security and livelihood lead, who is based in Gaza, told Devex. “The situation is becoming unbearable.” According to Fakhri, food insecurity in Gaza is “worse in a way that I don't think we could have imagined a year ago.” But ultimately, he argued, even a formal famine declaration might not make much difference — and that the point of the international aid and diplomacy system is to act before that point is reached. Humanitarians say they have food and medical supplies positioned nearby and ready to distribute. But access remains blocked. “Families in Gaza are starving while the food they need is sitting at the border. We can’t get it to them because of the renewed conflict and the total ban on humanitarian aid imposed in early March,” World Food Programme Executive Director Cindy McCain said in a statement Monday. Israel has blocked the entry of all food and medicine into Gaza since March 2, in what it said is a push to pressure Hamas into releasing hostages. Meanwhile, on May 4, the Israeli Cabinet endorsed new plans to ramp up its military’s offensive in Gaza. At the same time, the U.S. and Israel are backing a proposal to allow some aid into Gaza, which would initially reach up to 60% of civilians — but no ceasefire has been announced, and few details on implementation or funding are publicly available. As one humanitarian source described to Devex, everyone’s hands are tied, even as the IPC warnings grow more terrifying and the damage being inflicted becomes irreversible. Children and mothers bear the brunt The IPC report estimated that nearly 71,000 children under the age of 5 are expected to be acutely malnourished between May 2025 and April 2026. Of these, more than 14,000 cases are expected to be severe. An additional 17,000 pregnant and breastfeeding women will also require treatment for acute malnutrition during this same period. Since the beginning of this year, more than 9,000 children have been admitted for treatment of acute malnutrition, according to UNICEF Executive Director Catherine Russell. “Hundreds more children in desperate need of treatment are not able to access it due to the insecurity and displacement,” she said in a statement earlier this month. Preventive nutrition supplies have run out in UNICEF and WFP warehouses, according to IPC. Collapse of local food systems “We have shortages of everything,” Alsaqqa told Devex from Gaza. “The only lifeline now for the people is the community kitchens. And unfortunately, during just the last two weeks, more than 50% of these community kitchens shut down because of the lack of supplies. And we are expecting that in the coming 10 days, the other 50% will be forced to shut down.” At the end of April, WFP was forced to shutter all 25 of its bakeries as both wheat flour and cooking fuel were depleted. Prices in local markets have skyrocketed. IPC reported that wheat flour is now priced at $235 per 25 kg in Deir al-Balah and up to $520 in Gaza and Khan Younis — a 3,000% increase since February. “We used to have it for $15,” said Alsaqqa. Even before the current conflict, Israeli restrictions on the movement of people and goods left Gaza heavily dependent on food imports and international aid. And now, many months of conflict have devastated its agricultural sector. Most orchards are damaged, nearly all livestock are dead, and wells and greenhouses have been destroyed. Farmers now face even greater risks accessing their land. And where farming is still happening, the lack of inputs has slashed productivity, said Naser Qadous, Palestine agricultural programs manager at the NGO Anera. Fishermen, too, are at risk of attacks. On Monday, the U.N. Food and Agriculture Organization said livestock numbers have dropped dramatically — with poultry down to 1.4% of pre-war numbers. The agency also warned that untreated animals now “pose serious public health risks by becoming vectors for disease.” Aid waiting at the border Despite the blockade, aid is ready just across the border. “More than 116,000 metric tons of food assistance — enough to feed one million people for up to four months — is already positioned in aid corridors, ready to be brought in,” said a joint statement from WFP and UNICEF. “Hundreds of pallets of lifesaving nutrition treatments are also prepositioned for entry.” And even the limited aid proposal remains vague. “And they say that be ready, prepare yourself,” said Qadous. “What does this mean? We don't have any clues or any directions of what or from where things will be. And is it from West Bank? Is it from Israeli market or from outside? Everything is vague, and this is actually affecting our ability to focus or our ability to purchase things and prepare the food aid or the aid in general.” The Israeli-U.S. aid proposal announced on May 5 offers little reassurance, some experts say. The plan for distributing food and non-food items is “estimated to be highly insufficient,” according to IPC. “But now nobody knows what to do. We want to be ready to send something. If they say that tomorrow it's open, we want to send something,” said Qadous. “For example, for vegetables, we can't prepare ourselves at all. How can we? Because those will spoil. They will be rotten, and so we are not able to plan how to do things.” Lifelong consequences Even for those who survive the coming weeks, the toll could last a lifetime. “Without enough nutritious food, clean water, and access to health care, an entire generation will be permanently affected,” the World Health Organization said Monday. Severe malnutrition in early childhood is linked to stunting, cognitive delays, and long-term health issues. “A healthy newborn should weigh around 3 kilograms, but now we often see weights between 2.3 and 2.4 kilograms, sometimes even less. Their lengths have also dropped from an average of 49–53 cm to less than 45 cm,” Dr. Amjad Al-Muzaini, a gynaecologist at a medical point supported by Medical Aid for Palestinians in Gaza City, said in a statement. “These numbers are not just statistics; they indicate a dire nutritional crisis that’s affecting an entire generation before birth.” The IPC report also noted that “access to essential health and nutrition services across the Gaza Strip remains critically constrained, contributing to a surge in noncommunicable diseases and malnutrition, particularly among children, disabled, and elderly populations.” A crisis beyond warnings Fakhri, who last year was among the experts who publicly warned that Gaza faced famine, said the lack of international response is not a failure of awareness — or even international law. “We don’t need any more legal tools. We have them already,” he said. “From our perspective, when we declared a famine last summer, it didn't change anything. So you have multiple points in the international legal system, whether it is special rapporteurs, International Court of Justice, the International Criminal Court, and multiple points in the humanitarian world, whether it's the IPC, the World Food Programme, UNRWA, time and time again saying there is famine, there is risk of famine, there is starvation, there is risk of starvation, there is genocide, there is risk of genocide, and nothing is happening.” “At this point, we don't need any more international legal tools. We don't need any more international law. It’s all there.” The only real option left, he said, is political action to ensure that the food — which is available and close by — actually gets in.