Gaza Strip famine

Gaza strip famine is an ongoing famine in the Gaza Strip amid Israel-Hamas War, resulting from Israeli airstrikes and the ongoing blockade of the Gaza Strip by Israel, which includes restrictions on humanitarian aid. Airstrikes have destroyed food infrastructure, such as bakeries, mills, and food stores, and there is a widespread scarcity of essential supplies due to the blockade of aid. This has caused starvation for more than half a million Gazans and is part of a broader humanitarian crisis in the Strip. It is the “highest number of people facing catastrophic hunger” ever recorded on the IPC scale, and is widely expected to be the most intense man-made famine since the Second World War.

According to the latest projections, valid from mid-March through July of 2024, the entire population in the Gaza Strip is classified in Integrated Food Security Phase Classification (IPC) Phase 3 - Crisis, or above. 38% of the population is in IPC Phase 4 - Emergency, and 50% is in IPC Phase 5 - Catastrophe, with the risk of famine imminent. According to Oxfam, the levels of starvation in Gaza are the "highest ever recorded on the IPC scale, both in terms of number of people and percentage of the population". As of early-March 2024, Gaza met at least two of the three conditions for an IPC-designated famine. Due to the lack of media and humanitarian access to the Gaza Strip, particularly the northern region, the IPC Analysis Team was not able to determine whether the final threshold - a crude death rate above 2 per 10,000 per day - had been met, but it projects that it will be met between mid-March and May 2024. As of April 2024, US officials and agencies have confirmed that a famine has begun in the Gaza Strip, The State Department has said that a famine likely began in late March, and USAID Administrator Samantha Power called the assessment that a famine is ongoing "credible" during a congressional hearing on 10 April.

On 19 March, Volker Türk, the UN high commissioner for human rights, stated that Israel's restrictions on the entry of aid may constitute starvation as a method of warfare, which would be a war crime. In March 2024, experts, such as the United Nations Special Rapporteur on the Right to Food, warned that Gaza might already be experiencing famine; while Jeremy Konyndyk, the president of Refugees International, stated that "large-scale famine mortality" would soon begin. Epidemiological forecasts project future deaths in Gaza from all causes, including epidemics, as ranging from 48,210 to 193,180 by August 2024.

The Israeli government has denied it is using starvation as a weapon of war and said that arguments that its actions regarding the famine violate the Genocide Convention are "wholly unfounded". COGAT, the Israeli agency responsible for allowing aid into Gaza, has stated Israel was not putting limits into the amount of aid entering Gaza. COGAT's claim has been challenged by multiple entities, including the European Union, United Nations, Oxfam, and United Kingdom. Israel has accused Gaza's government of "aid theft"; however, US officials said they do not have evidence to support Israel's claims.