Publication of IPC Report

On 22 August 2025 the Famine Review Committee (FRC) of the Integrated Food Security Phase Classification (IPC) issued a report which announced, among other things, 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.

The video below shows remarks by Tom Fletcher, Under-Secretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs and Emergency Relief Coordinator at the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA).

Below the video we include a transcript of his remarks and comments by Israel and the United States.

Tom Fletcher’s remarks at a press briefing

Geneva, 22 August 2025

Please read the IPC report, cover to cover. Read it in sorrow and in anger. Not as words and numbers but as names and lives. Be in no doubt that this is irrefutable testimony.

It is a famine. The Gaza Famine.

It is a famine that we could have prevented, if we had been allowed. Yet food stacks up at borders because of systematic obstruction by Israel.

It is a famine within a few hundred metres of food, in a fertile land.

It is a famine that hits the most vulnerable first. Each with a name, each with a story. That strips people of dignity before it strips them of life. That forces a parent to choose which child to feed. That forces people to risk their lives to seek food.

It is a famine that we repeatedly warned of. But that the international media has not been allowed in to cover. To bear witness.

It is a famine in 2025. A 21st century famine watched over by drones and the most advanced military technology in history.

It is a famine openly promoted by some Israeli leaders as a weapon of war.

It is a famine on all of our watch. Everyone owns this. The Gaza Famine is the world’s famine. It is a famine that asks ‘but what did you do?’ A famine that will and must haunt us all.

It is a predictable and a preventable famine. A famine caused by cruelty, justified by revenge, enabled by indifference and sustained by complicity.

It is a famine that must spur the world to more urgent action. That must shame the world to do better. It is a famine that therefore also asks ‘… and what now will you do?’

My ask, my plea, my demand to Prime Minister Netanyahu and anyone who can reach him:

Enough. Ceasefire. Open the crossings, north and south, all of them. Let us get food and other supplies in, unimpeded and at the massive scale required. End the retribution. It is too late for far too many. But not for everyone in Gaza. Enough. For humanity’s sake, let us in.

Israel’s Response

The Times of Israel reported that:

Israel vehemently denied the reports as “lies” and “modern blood libel,” and the United States appeared to dismiss the declaration as part of a “false narrative of deliberate mass starvation” from Hamas.

Israel swiftly denied the report, saying that the IPC relies on Hamas sources and accused the system of having “twisted its own rules” in declaring a famine.

In a statement … the Prime Minister’s Office called the IPC famine declaration an “outright lie” and “modern blood libel.”

“Israel does not have a policy of starvation. Israel has a policy of preventing starvation,” the PMO said.

The statement said the report by the IPC ignored Israel’s humanitarian efforts and failed to mention a drop in the prices of oil, sugar, salt, flour, yeast and chickpeas in Gaza that the PMO attributed to the entry of aid into the Strip. The source of the information on the prices is unclear.

Foreign Ministry accused the IPC of releasing a “fabricated report to fit Hamas’s fake campaign,” after global hunger monitor declared famine in large parts of the Gaza Strip.

The Foreign Ministry asserted that the IPC report in its entirety “is based on Hamas lies laundered through organizations with vested interests,” and added that the report “will be thrown into the despicable trash bin of political documents.”

United States Response

The Times of Israel also reported the following. We have been unable to find any other sources that report these statements.

US State Department said that it was “looking into credible reports that the IPC recently changed its definition for what constitutes a famine.”

The US also appeared to reject the approach and the conclusions reached in the report, with the State Department spokesperson saying that the “challenging issues of getting aid to Gazans means honestly addressing problems for the sake of Gazans, who deserve better, not engaging in semantics.”

“Hamas is systematically promoting a false narrative of deliberate mass starvation to put political pressure on Israel,” the spokesperson asserted.

The US statement pointed out UN figures that show the vast majority of its trucks coming into Gaza over the past two months have been looted, arguing that food is going into the Strip but is not reaching those who need it most. Notably, the figures cited are from May 19, when Israel lifted its aid blockade over Gaza after 78 days.