No famine in Gaza, previous assumptions were wrong, though risk remains, key report by UN-linked group finds

There is currently no famine in Gaza, a new report by the key Integrated Food Security Phase Classification (IPC) organization has found, despite predicting in March that a full-blown famine would break out in the territory between March and July 2024.

The new study says that assumptions about the amount of food that would enter the territory turned out to be wrong, and that the supply of food to Gaza increased instead of decreasing during recent months.

“In this context, the available evidence does not indicate that famine is currently occurring,” the report finds.

The IPC — which is connected to the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations — is seen as a neutral and highly credible organization for evaluating where famines might be occurring around the globe.

Its new study says that the food insecurity situation in Gaza remains catastrophic, however, with “a high and sustained risk of Famine across the whole Gaza Strip,” and said that the “probable improvement in nutrition status,” which took place in April and May, “should not allow room for complacency about the risk of Famine in the coming weeks and months.” The study adds that “extreme human suffering is without a doubt currently ongoing in the Gaza Strip.”

Accusations of severe food insecurity, malnutrition and famine have formed an integral part of the allegations against Israel of genocide against the Palestinians in the International Court of Justice and of crimes against humanity and war crimes in the International Criminal Court.

ICC prosecutor Karim Khan accused Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Defense Minister Yoav Gallant in May of using starvation as a weapon of war against the Palestinians, seeking to “exterminate” the Palestinian population through starvation.

The IPC’s March study reporting imminent famine was cited by the ICJ in its March orders instructing Israel to increase humanitarian aid to Gaza.