The Famine Review Committee (FRC) of the Integrated Food Security Phase Classification (IPC) has confirmed for the first time today that famine is present in Gaza, specifically in Gaza City and affecting approximately 500,000 Palestinians. The FRC also finds “the severity of conditions in North Gaza is similar or worse than in Gaza Governorate“, but “due to limited evidence on the population status in this area the FRC recommends not to classify North Gaza Governorate“. Furthermore, the FRC “projects Famine (IPC Phase 5) thresholds to be crossed in Deir al-Balah and Khan Younis Governorates in the coming weeks.”
LPHR urgently asks whether today’s catastrophic update confirming famine in Gaza for the first time – and that it will exponentially spread without action – will finally compel the international community to respond with all necessary and lawful measures to end the government of Israel’s obvious policies of annihilation of the Palestinian civilian population of Gaza?
LPHR has clearly stated since 13 October 2023 that starvation is being systematically pursued by Israel’s government against Gaza’s entire Palestinian civilian population.
On 20 May 2024, the ICC Prosecutor’s Office applied to the ICC Pre-Trial Chamber for arrest warrants against Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Israel’s Defence Minister Yoav Gallant after finding reasonable grounds to believe that they bear criminal responsibility for the war crime of starvation as a method of warfare, and the directly-related crimes against humanity of murder, persecution, of other inhumane acts, and extermination.
The ICC Prosecutor’s application relating to the crime against humanity of persecution aligned fully with the careful findings of a comprehensive independent legal opinion made by an eminent team of experts commissioned by LPHR, which we submitted to the ICC Prosecutor’s Office in January 2024.
On 21 November 2024, the ICC Pre-Trial Chamber issued arrest warrants against Mr Netanyahu and Mr Gallant in relation to all the above crimes, except for the crime against humanity of extermination. They are both therefore ICC suspects-at-large.
Despite this very significant ICC development, Israel’s political and military leadership has maintained its systematic policy of starvation. It intensified on 2 March 2025 with the imposition of an 80-day total closure on humanitarian aid from entering Gaza. Its latest iteration is the ‘engineered scarcity‘ provided by the lethally perilous ‘Gaza Humanitarian Foundation’. This Israel and U.S. backed private organisation began operating in Gaza on 27 May 2025, and has led to at least 1,889 starving Palestinians being killed by Israeli forces whilst attempting to access its food.
Just over three weeks ago, the Integrated Food Security Phase Classification (IPC) – the international standard for classifying food insecurity and malnutrition – published an alert confirming what had been horrifically foreseen for months: “the worst case scenario of Famine is unfolding in the Gaza Strip“.
Today, this catastrophic scenario which has long been apparent is now confirmed by the IPC’s Famine Review Committee: famine is devastatingly present and rife in Gaza.
UN OCHA reported yesterday that according to the Ministry of Health in Gaza, 269 malnutrition-related deaths, including 112 children, have been documented since October 2023. This includes 204 deaths since 1 July 2025, of whom 51 were children, and three people who died in the past 24 hours.
As the fact that Palestinian civilians, including children, are suffering and dying from starvation with famine now being formally confirmed in Gaza, it is glaring that time has definitively run out for the international community to maintain its position of effective inaction.
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Executive Summary of the Famine Review Committee report on the Gaza Strip:
• The Famine Review Committee (FRC) has determined that Famine (IPC Phase 5) is currently occurring in Gaza Governorate. Furthermore, the FRC projects Famine (IPC Phase 5) thresholds to be crossed in Deir al-Balah and Khan Younis Governorates in the coming weeks.
• As this Famine is entirely man-made, it can be halted and reversed. The time for debate and hesitation has passed, starvation is present and is rapidly spreading. There should be no doubt in anyone’s mind that an immediate, at-scale response is needed. Any further delay—even by days—will result in a totally unacceptable escalation of Famine-related mortality.
• If a ceasefire is not implemented to allow humanitarian aid to reach everyone in the Gaza Strip, and if essential food supplies, and basic health, nutrition, and WASH services are not restored immediately, avoidable deaths will increase exponentially.
“This report marks the fifth time the Famine Review Committee (FRC) has been called to review an analysis on the acute food security and nutrition situation in the Gaza Strip. Never before has the Committee had to return so many times to the same crisis, a stark reflection of how suffering has not only persisted but intensified and spread until famine has begun to emerge.
“Following the previous IPC analysis in May 2025, which projected nearly 500,000 individuals, 22% of the total population, in IPC Phase 5 (Catastrophe), an IPC Alert was issued on 29 July, highlighting the continued deterioration of food security, nutrition, and health in populations across the Gaza Strip. A new analysis was conducted by a multi-agency analysis team between 30 July and 4 August 2025 which identified the possible existence of Famine conditions and therefore required a review by the FRC. The main conclusions of the FRC review are summarised in Table 1.
“The FRC finds the analysis team’s classifications plausible for the period (1 July – 15 August 2025), indicating Famine (IPC Phase 5) for Gaza Governorate and IPC Phase 4 (Emergency) for Deir al-Balah and Khan Younis.
“The FRC finds the severity of conditions in North Gaza similar or worse than in Gaza Governorate. However, due to limited evidence on the population status in this area the FRC recommends not to classify North Gaza Governorate. Urgent steps should be taken to allow for a full humanitarian assessment in this governorate.
“The FRC also considers the analysis team’s classifications for the projection period (16 August – 30 September 2025) of Famine (IPC Phase 5), to be plausible for Gaza, Deir al-Balah, and Khan Younis governorates.
“The FRC also notes with grave concern the continued and large-scale killing of civilians while trying to access food deliveries and the inadequate planning, implementation, and monitoring of the privatized food distributions conducted by the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation (GHF). The FRC notes that food distributions conducted by the GHF do not meet the criteria to be classified as humanitarian assistance by the IPC. However, the shipments made by the GHF have been taken into full account during the review and classification process.
“Based on these conclusions the FRC again calls for urgent, comprehensive, and sustained action to end the swiftly deteriorating and ever-expanding humanitarian catastrophe in the Gaza Strip. Constant cycles of increased humanitarian access followed by severe restrictions, together with stark disparities among vulnerable populations, have left many at heightened risk of a rapid collapse in health and nutrition status. The international community can no longer afford to be diverted by short-term, marginal improvements; the scale of the crisis demands a sustained, large-scale response.
“Widespread human suffering is present across the Gaza Strip and the killing of civilians seeking food continues. Increasing reports of malnutrition-related deaths indicate that the most vulnerable in society are beginning to succumb. This trend is expected to increase amongst vulnerable groups such as children, the elderly, and those with chronic diseases, before spreading to the wider population.”