Famine is likely imminent in northern Gaza, hunger experts say
UNITED NATIONS — There is a high risk of famine in parts of northern Gaza where Israeli forces are waging a major offensive, hunger experts warned on Friday.
An alert issued by the four experts cited the humanitarian situation around the world war-torn Gaza Strip “extremely severe and rapidly deteriorating” and worst in the north.
The Famine Review Committee warned that “famine thresholds may already have been breached or may do so in the near future.”
The committee’s four independent experts are part of the Integrated Food Security Phase Classification (IPC), which consists of a network of fifteen UN and other organizations that monitor global hunger and food security.
The experts said all actors in the war in Gaza must do this immediate action “within days, not weeks …to avert and alleviate this catastrophic situation.”
They said this does not just include fighters – Israel, Hamas and other militant groups those who influence it.
Cindy McCain, executive director of the UN World Food Program, tweeted after the alert was issued: “The unacceptable has been confirmed: famine is likely in northern Gaza.”
“Immediate steps MUST be taken to enable a safe and swift situation & unhindered flow of humanitarian aid & commercial supplies to prevent total catastrophe. NOW,” she said.
The warning follows an October 17 report from an IPC analysis team that said Palestinians throughout the territory face acute food insecurity. That is the emergency level, phase 4, of the five-level hunger classification system. It says 133,000 people are classified as facing catastrophic food insecurity, which along with famine is Stage 5.
That IPC team conducted a risk assessment and concluded that in a reasonable worst-case scenario, all of Gaza was at risk of famine between November and April 2025, the experts said.
Since their report, the committee said, a number of significant developments have taken place: largely the Israeli offensive to close off northern Gaza for a month, a a lower level of aid shipments last month than at any time since the war began in October 2023, and access to food reached “critical levels and deteriorated.”
The Israeli military body that handles aid to Gaza, COGAT, said it is preparing to open a new border crossing into Gaza A US deadline approaches next week for Israel to increase humanitarian supplies into the territory or risk military aid being curtailed.
But COGAT did not say when the crossing would open or whether aid would be delivered to northern Gaza.
The US says Israel should allow at least 350 trucks a day carrying food and other supplies. According to COGAT figures, an average of 57 trucks entered Gaza per day in October, and 81 per day in the first week of November. The UN estimates the number to be lower, at 37 trucks per day since early October.
Before the war, that averaged 500 trucks a day, says Jean-Martin Bauer, WFP’s director of food safety and nutrition analysis.
“The supply of basic needs in Gaza has really shrunk, and the result is very high food insecurity and the threat of famine in northern Gaza,” Bauer told The Associated Press. “The message is: act now to get aid in and let aid programs and humanitarian workers do what they need to do to help the population.”
The Famine Review Committee cited people fleeing and being trapped in the north, causing food prices to skyrocket accelerating attacks on health and nutrition facilities and other civilian infrastructure in recent weeks, including the arrest of medical personnel by Israeli forces.
It called for a new IPC analysis, saying “it is already abundantly clear that the worst-case scenario developed by the analysis team is now playing out in areas of the northern Gaza Strip.”
“Therefore, it can be assumed that famine, malnutrition and excess mortality due to malnutrition and disease are increasing rapidly in these areas,” the report said. “The famine thresholds may have already been crossed, but they will be in the near future.”
Famine is the result of extreme lack of food, hunger, poverty, extremely critical acute malnutrition, affecting at least 30% of children, and deaths.
The committee called for immediate action to end the siege in northern Gaza, allow unhindered flow of food, water, medical and nutritional supplies throughout the Gaza Strip, the restoration of health and sanitation facilities, and the release of health care workers.
The experts warned that the lack of response in the coming days will lead to a further deterioration of the humanitarian situation and additional, unavoidable deaths.
“If effective action is not taken by influential stakeholders, the scale of this looming catastrophe is likely to dwarf anything we have seen to date in the Gaza Strip since October 7, 2023,” the committee warned.