UN-backed experts declare "man-made" famine in Gaza City

A famine has been formally confirmed in Gaza for the first time by UN-backed food security experts.

The Integrated Food Security Phase Classification (IPC), the global standard tool for measuring food security, announced this morning that a famine is taking place in Gaza City, the surrounding towns and several nearby refugee camps. The region has a population of between 500,000 and 800,000 people.

In a full report published today, the IPC said the famine is "entirely man-made" which means it "can be halted and reversed."

"The time for debate and hesitation has passed, starvation is present and is rapidly spreading," the report reads.

"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."

This marks the first time a famine has been officially declared in the Middle East and the fifth time globally since the IPC was founded in 2004.

"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," the report reads.

"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."

President Michael D. Higgins released a statement in response, in which he said the announcement, "will sadly not surprise all of us who have been warning of this for some time."

"Without urgent change, it is difficult to see how the international community can emerge without a loss of credibility and moral authority," President Higgins wrote.

"What is at stake now is the status of international law, the granting of impunity in conditions of indiscriminate destruction, and misrepresentation of the right to food itself by an occupying power."

Taoiseach Micheál Martin also issued a statement, writing Israel has "an absolute obligation to allow the people there unfettered and urgent access to humanitarian aid, medical and food supplies."

"Famine in Gaza was both entirely Predictable and preventable," Martin wrote.

"The withholding of food and water from civilians is collective punishment of the people of Gaza, and a war crime."

On Monday, Amnesty International issued a report saying Israel is carrying out a "deliberate campaign of starvation" that is "systematically destroying the health, well-being and social fabric of Palestinian life."

Similar assertions were recently made by World Health Organisation Director General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, who named the crisis a "man-made famine," and UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres, who called it a "man-made disaster."

Last month, the IPC warned that a "famine scenario" was beginning in parts of Gaza but had withheld from making an official declaration due to insufficient data.

According to their latest data, all three IPC requirements to declare a famine have been met:  at least 20% of households face extreme food shortages, at least 30% of children suffer from acute malnutrition and at least two per every 10,000 people die each day from starvation.

The report also declared that towns in the centre and south of the Gaza Strip are likely to experience famine "in coming weeks."