Amid the ongoing full-scale war waged by Israeli forces on the Gaza Strip for over 21 months, a new UN report has revealed that every single Palestinian in the enclave is now facing acute levels of food insecurity, marking one of the worst humanitarian crises ever recorded globally.
The report, issued by five UN agencies, including the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO), the World Health Organization (WHO), and the World Food Programme (WFP), confirmed that 100 per cent of Gaza’s population is suffering from severe hunger. It highlighted that nearly 1.106 million people in 2024 experienced Phase 5 (catastrophic) levels on the Integrated Food Security Phase Classification (IPC) scale – the highest figure ever recorded in any region since the scale’s introduction.
For comparison, the number of people at this catastrophic level by the end of 2023 stood at around 576,000, demonstrating a staggering acceleration in food insecurity over just a few months, driven by systematic blockade and relentless attacks that have obstructed aid delivery and turned survival itself into a deadly ordeal.
Since 7 October 2023, Gaza has been subjected to a campaign of extermination involving mass killings, destruction, and starvation. Israeli authorities have sealed all crossings to humanitarian, relief, and medical aid, particularly since 2 March 2024, further strangling the besieged enclave.
This deliberate siege has precipitated a catastrophic famine, claiming dozens of lives, especially among children. According to Gaza’s Health Ministry, starvation and malnutrition have killed 147 people to date, including 88 children, starkly illustrating the most harrowing aspect of this atrocity: children dying silently of hunger while the world watches.
What is unfolding in Gaza is not merely a humanitarian emergency but a calculated campaign of starvation within a broader framework of genocide orchestrated by Israeli forces with direct US political and military backing. Over 205,000 Palestinians have been killed or wounded, the majority women and children, while thousands remain missing, and hundreds of thousands of displaced civilians are trapped in conditions of hunger, bombardment, and despair.
Despite repeated warnings and reports from the highest international bodies, the machinery of war and blockade continues unabated, exposing the total failure of the global system to enforce even the most basic protections or deliver food to starving children.
