Copenhagen, 22 August 2025 – The confirmation of a man-made famine in the Gaza Governorate is being compounded by a new Israeli military incursion to seize full control of Gaza City, which is driving new displacements and endangering the lives of already starving families.
The declaration of famine in the Gaza Governorate – announced today by the UN-backed Integrated Food Security Phase Classification (IPC), the world’s leading experts on food insecurity and famine – follows months of warnings over increasing starvation, rising malnutrition rates, and desperation.
“The current Israeli military operation to seize Gaza City is forcing a population in the middle of a declared famine area to move yet again. But they are too weak and exhausted. Starving families need immediate life-saving assistance, including food, water, and medical assistance,” said Giulia Canali, DRC Occupied Palestinian Territory Head of Operations.
In the lead up to famine being declared by the IPC, interviews by DRC with people at displacement sites across the Gaza territory, recorded from May to July 2025, showed alarming signs of a population at breaking point: A staggering 70 per cent of respondents cited extreme weakness caused by starvation as a barrier to accessing aid.
"Today people are here are hungry, exhausted and broken, with no food, no water, no medicine, no safety. Nothing at all,” said a DRC staff member in Gaza following famine being declared.
The ongoing bombardments and military operations to control Gaza City are only worsening the suffering. Hundreds of thousands of people in Gaza City are expected to be ordered to leave for the south.
A DRC survey of people in Gaza City carried out this this week showed that 70 percent did not want to relocate to the south, fearing that nowhere is safe. They also worry about a lack of basic services and shelter in already overpopulated informal settlements in the south, leaving them with a difficult choice between "stay and die” or “move and die," as some Gazans put it. The IPC states that the famine could expand to other parts of Gaza, including Khan Younis in the south.
"The world is witnessing a man-made famine and starvation being used as a weapon of war. The answer is simple: Gaza needs an immediate ceasefire and it needs to be flooded with humanitarian aid delivered by a UN-backed system with the support of international NGOs. We cannot stand by as this catastrophe unfolds and Palestinians die of hunger," said Ms. Canali.
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