Palestinians struggle to get donated food at a community kitchen in Gaza City, northern Gaza Strip, July 14, 2025. (AP Photo/Jehad Alshrafi, File)2025-08-22T09:03:29Z The Gaza Strips largest city is gripped by famine, according to the worlds leading authority on food crises.The Integrated Food Security Phase Classification, or IPC, said Friday that famine was occurring in Gaza City, and is likely to spread to the southern cities of Khan Younis and Deir al-Balah without a ceasefire and an end to restrictions on humanitarian aid.Aid groups and food security experts have warned for months that Gaza was on the brink of famine, but this is the first official confirmation.The Israeli military agency in charge of transferring aid to the territory rejected the report Friday, calling it false and biased. The agency, known as COGAT, rejected the claim that there was famine in Gaza and said that significant steps had been taken to expand the amount of aid entering the strip in recent weeks. Famine now grips Gazas largest cityIt threatens to spread across the territory without a ceasefire and an end to restrictions on humanitarian aid.This is the first time the IPC has confirmed a famine in the Middle East, and it comes after months of warnings by aid groups that Israels restrictions of food and other aid into Gaza, and its military offensive, were causing high levels of starvation among Palestinian civilians, particularly children.More than half a million people in Gaza about a quarter of the population face catastrophic levels of hunger, and many are at risk of dying from malnutrition-related causes, according to a report by the worlds leading authority on food crises. Heres why:The situation has vastly deteriorated in GazaThe IPC report said that from early July until mid-August it has seen the most severe deterioration since it began analyzing food insecurity and malnutrition in Gaza. And despite the unprecedented pace over that time frame, the IPC expects the situation to get worse.One third of Gazas population is expected to experience catastrophic levels of hunger by the end of next month, the IPC said. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has denied there is hunger in Gaza, calling reports of starvation lies promoted by Hamas. Palestinians rush to collect humanitarian aid airdropped into Zawaida in central Gaza Strip, July 31, 2025. (AP Photo/Abdel Kareem Hana, File) Palestinians rush to collect humanitarian aid airdropped into Zawaida in central Gaza Strip, July 31, 2025. (AP Photo/Abdel Kareem Hana, File) Share Share Facebook Copy Link copied Print Email X LinkedIn Bluesky Flipboard Pinterest Reddit Read More Famine occurs when these conditions are metThe IPC was first set up in 2004 during the famine in Somalia. It includes more than a dozen U.N. agencies, aid groups, governments and other bodies.Famine can appear in pockets, sometimes small ones, and so a formal classification requires caution.The IPC has only confirmed famine a few times in Somalia in 2011, and South Sudan in 2017 and 2020, and last year in parts of Sudans western Darfur region. This is the first confirmed famine in the Middle East. It rates an area as in famine when all three of these conditions are confirmed: 20% of households have an extreme lack of food, or are essentially starving. At least 30% of children 6 months to 5 years old suffer from acute malnutrition, based on a weight-to-height measurement; or 15% of that age group suffer from acute malnutrition based on the circumference of their upper arm. At least two people, or four children under 5, per 10,000 are dying daily due to starvation or the interaction of malnutrition and disease.Gazas been a major challenge Gaza has posed a major challenge for experts because Israel severely limits access to the territory, making it difficult to gather data.In a separate report Friday, the Famine Review Committee, or FRC, said it, too, had concluded there was famine in part of Gaza. The FRC is a group of independent international food security experts regularly consulted by the IPC.The group acts as an added layer of verification when the data shows there could be famine. The data analyzed between July 1 and Aug. 15 showed clear evidence that thresholds for starvation and acute malnutrition have been reached. Gathering data for mortality has been harder, but the IPC said it is reasonable to conclude from the evidence that the necessary threshold has likely been reached. Its not always clear that hunger is the cause of deathMost cases of severe malnutrition in children arise through a combination of lack of nutrients along with an infection, leading to diarrhea and other symptoms that cause dehydration, said Alex de Waal, author of Mass Starvation: The History and Future of Famine and executive director of the World Peace Foundation.There are no standard guidelines for physicians to classify cause of death as malnutrition as opposed to infection, he said.When famine occurs, there are often relatively few deaths from hunger alone. Far more people die from a combination of malnutrition, disease and other forms of deprivation. All of these count as excess deaths separate from violence that can be attributed to a food crisis or famine, he said. SAM MEDNICK Mednick is an AP correspondent for Israel and the Palestinian Territories. She focuses on conflict, humanitarian crises and human rights abuses. Mednick formerly covered West & Central Africa and South Sudan. twitter