Women and children attempting to obtain food at aid distribution centers. Credit: UNICEF/Mohammed Nateel
By Maximilian Malawista
NEW YORK, Jul 31 2025 – Amidst the ongoing conflict in Gaza, the risk of famine among rising need of consumption and nutrition have reached their worst levels since the start of the conflict. Without urgent analysis to latest report from the Food Security Classificat “IPC ALERT: Worst-case scenario of Famine unfolding in the Gaza Strip”.
A new analysis from the Integrated Food Security Phase Classification (IPC) has projected that the entire Gaza Strip will endure high levels of acute food insecurity, IPC Phase 3 or above, by September 2025. This includes half a million people in IPC Phase 5 (Catastrophe), which is about one-quarter of the entire population. In North Gaza and Rafah, critical levels at IPC phase 4 are affecting 70,000 children under the age of five, including 17,000 pregnant and breastfeeding women. The data indicated that risk of famine is detected within all areas of the Gaza Strip, as lack of food, starvation, destruction, and death, intrudes on all areas of life.
These catastrophic, critical, and acute levels of famine have forced one in three people (39 percent) to go days at a time without eating a single morsel of food. Among low levels of food consumption comes unprecedented malnutrition rates, with children under the age of five quadrupling in rates only in two months, reaching 16.5 percent. Between April and mid-July, more than 20,000 children have been admitted to hospitals for treatment of acute malnutrition, with more than 3,000 being severely malnourished. In July, 320,000 children under the age of five are at risk of acute malnutrition.
“Emaciated children and babies are dying from malnutrition in Gaza,” adding “We need immediate, safe and unhindered humanitarian access across Gaza to scale up the delivery of life-saving food, nutrition, water and medicine. Without that, mothers and fathers will continue to face a parent’s worst nightmare, powerless to save a starving child from a condition we are able to prevent,” said UNICEF Executive Director Catherine Russell.
These conditions are expected to worsen even further as safe spaces in the Gaza Strip have shrunk to less than 12 percent. Due to this, there has been 762,500 displacements since March 18th, 2025. 88 percent of the Gaza Strip are under militarized zones or displacement orders, and 70 percent of all infrastructure have been damaged or destroyed. In places where people were attempting to get food, 1,000 people have been killed since May 27th, raising the death toll of the entire conflict to 59,500 people with 143,000 injured.
Bakeries and community kitchens remain closed, and humanitarian access remains blocked. What was described as a ‘trickle’ of aid has entered Gaza due to the easing of the blockade on May 19th. Yet the resources were vastly inadequate to meet the scale of current and future needs.
The blockade
Following the 80-day blockade prior to May 19th, aid has been able to partially resume, but at a scale far below needs. An estimated 62,000 metric tons (MT) of staple food is required per month to cover the most basic food needs of Gaza, which does not include fresh foods such as meat and vegetables. According to the Coordinator of Government Activities in the Territories (COGAT), a unit in the Israeli Ministry of defense, only 19,900 MT and 37,800 MT of food overall has entered Gaza between May and June, with zero aid entering between March 2nd and May 18th. This includes supplies from the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation (GHF).
Another hurdle prohibiting aid delivery is the presence of armed actors near convey routes and distribution points. The UN estimates that only 1,300 MT of the 14,900 MT of the official humanitarian aid, consisting of 97 percent food and 3 percent essential non-food items, reached the distribution sites.
All together these conditions have made it virtually impossible for the people of Gaza to receive any form of humanitarian aid. In late June, less than 1.5 percent of the population based in the south, or 25,000 people, were able to receive humanitarian food assistance from UN agencies and humanitarian groups for the first time in weeks. In the north, humanitarian access has been even further restrained by repeated closings of the Zikim Crossing. At this rate, current stocks of lifesaving and preventive nutrition supplies are expected to be completely depleted within next month. Though since then, Karem Shalom and Zikim crossings have been reopened for limited aid deliveries to pass through.
The GHF claimed that they have distributed over 89 million meals from four distribution sites, which are primarily in militarized zones along the Khan Younis-Rafah border, where less than a quarter of the Gaza population is located. The caveat is that most of the food items are not ready to eat, requiring water and fuel to cook which are currently vastly unavailable. The disproportionate access to supply distribution sites requires high-risk journeys and offers food on a first-come first-served basis, leaving the most vulnerable groups still unable to access food.
Within the past three months, aid at its peak in June was 37,843.34 metric tons, only 17 percent of what Gaza was receiving in February this year (216,075 MT), with a projected decrease from June in July.
“The unbearable suffering of the people of Gaza is already clear for the world to see,” said World Food Programme Executive Director Cindy McCain. “Waiting for official confirmation of famine to provide life-saving food aid they desperately need is unconscionable.”
“We need to floor Gaza with large-scale food aid, immediately and without obstruction, and keep it flowing each and every day to prevent mass starvation. People are already dying of malnutrition and the longer we wait to act, the higher the death toll will rise.”
In light of the ongoing crisis, UN agencies have reiterated their call for an immediate ceasefire, the release of all hostages and the enablement of uninterrupted humanitarian operations. They have also called for investing in the recovery of local food systems by revitalizing bakeries and markets and rehabilitating local agriculture.
IPS UN Bureau Report
!function(d,s,id){var js,fjs=d.getElementsByTagName(s)[0],p=/^http:/.test(d.location)?’http’:’https’;if(!d.getElementById(id)){js=d.createElement(s);js.id=id;js.src=p+’://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js’;fjs.parentNode.insertBefore(js,fjs);}}(document, ‘script’, ‘twitter-wjs’);
South African Rand Exchange Rate