July 29, 2025
Anadolu Agency
Seven-month-old Salim Mahmoud Awad suffers significant weight loss due to the lack of baby formula and food after being displaced to Gaza City, Gaza with his family, on July 26, 2025. [Ahmed Jihad Ibrahim Al-arini – Anadolu Agency]
The United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees (UNRWA) called Monday for the opening of all border crossings into the Israel- besieged Gaza Strip and to flood the enclave with humanitarian aid as the only way to avoid further deepening famine among the population.
UNRWA posted on Facebook that at least 500 to 600 trucks of essential supplies are needed every day, welcoming the new data on humanitarian aid flows and the announcements of easing restrictions on the delivery of humanitarian aid to Gaza.
“We hope that UNRWA will finally be allowed to bring in thousands of trucks loaded with food, medicines, and hygiene supplies. They are currently in Jordan and Egypt awaiting the green light;” it said.
“According to our latest data, one in five children in Gaza City is malnourished. Reports indicate that more children have died from hunger, bringing the death toll from hunger to more than 100” it said, stressing that its teams including more than 10,000 staff in Gaza, are ready to help bring in and distribute aid.
“When aid enters, it will be delivered directly, with dignity and safety, to the communities we serve. We have the access, the network, the expertise, and the trust of those communities;” it added.
UNRWA reiterated its call for a long-term ceasefire as part of an agreement that would save the starving Palestinians, demanding “the uninterrupted flow of essential supplies, as well as the release of all hostages”.
Seven-month-old Salim Mahmoud Awad suffers significant weight loss due to the lack of baby formula and food after being displaced to Gaza City, Gaza with his family, on July 26, 2025. [Ahmed Jihad Ibrahim Al-arini – Anadolu Agency]
The United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees (UNRWA) called Monday for the opening of all border crossings into the Israel- besieged Gaza Strip and to flood the enclave with humanitarian aid as the only way to avoid further deepening famine among the population.
UNRWA posted on Facebook that at least 500 to 600 trucks of essential supplies are needed every day, welcoming the new data on humanitarian aid flows and the announcements of easing restrictions on the delivery of humanitarian aid to Gaza.
“We hope that UNRWA will finally be allowed to bring in thousands of trucks loaded with food, medicines, and hygiene supplies. They are currently in Jordan and Egypt awaiting the green light;” it said.
“According to our latest data, one in five children in Gaza City is malnourished. Reports indicate that more children have died from hunger, bringing the death toll from hunger to more than 100” it said, stressing that its teams including more than 10,000 staff in Gaza, are ready to help bring in and distribute aid.
“When aid enters, it will be delivered directly, with dignity and safety, to the communities we serve. We have the access, the network, the expertise, and the trust of those communities;” it added.
UNRWA reiterated its call for a long-term ceasefire as part of an agreement that would save the starving Palestinians, demanding “the uninterrupted flow of essential supplies, as well as the release of all hostages”.
Global hunger body says 'worst case' famine scenario emerging in Gaza
By Paul Godfrey
UPI
July 29, 2025
Thousands of Palestinians on the move in northern Gaza on Sunday in search of increasingly scarce food as supplies of humanitarian assistance entering the Palestinian territory dwindled to what the United Nations and aid agencies have described as a trickle. Photo by Mahmoud Issa/UPI | License Photo
July 29 (UPI) -- The humanitarian crisis unfolding in Gaza is "the worst-case scenario of famine," amid widespread starvation, malnutrition and disease driving a surge in hunger-related deaths, a global hunger monitoring group said Tuesday.
The Integrated Food Security Phase Classification said in a bulletin that the latest food consumption data indicated famine thresholds had been reached in most of Gaza and for acute malnutrition in Gaza City -- but stopped short of issuing a formal famine notice.
"The worst-case scenario of famine is currently playing out in the Gaza Strip. Conflict and displacement have intensified, and access to food and other essential items and services has plummeted to unprecedented levels," said IPC, which is backed by the United Nations, European Commission, World Health Organization and global NGO's.
The IPC said that since its last analysis in May, access to food across Gaza was now "alarmingly erratic and extremely perilous" due to a "devastating" intensification of bombing and ground operations that had displaced an additional 325,000 people, killed 6,700 people and razed critical infrastructure.
The group's Famine Review Committee said that despite the negative impact on the data caused by severely restricted humanitarian access, the evidence clearly showed a sharp jump in the rate of increase in "starvation, malnutrition and mortality."
"Many nutritional programs have run out of nutrition supplies and the number of sites able to provide health and nutrition services has greatly decreased. Shipments of medical supplies are also severely constrained, leading to increased human suffering and elevated morbidity. Deprivation of adequate, clean drinkable water is causing extreme suffering and has greatly increased the risk of morbidity and mortality," it said.
Between April and the middle of July, more than 20,000 children were hospitalized with acute malnutrition, 3,000 of them severely malnourished, with hospitals reporting a sharp rise in hunger-related illness among under-fives.
The committee expressed horror at the deteriorating situation, in particular killings of civilians attempting to access aid, and reiterated its call for the resumption of humanitarian assistance at scale and a cease-fire, warning that failure to act made famine a certainty.
"This is not a surprise. This is what we've been seeing for quite some time," CARE Gaza response director Beckie Ryan told NBC News.
The IPC alert came as the Hamas-run Health Ministry said the number of Palestinians killed since Israel began its offensive on Gaza in response to the Hamas-led attacks of Oct. 7, 2023, breached the 60,000 mark.
Amid mounting international condemnation of the unfolding hunger crisis in Gaza -- and a determination to do something about it -- Israel has instituted a series of "tactical pauses" in military activity to allow aid to be distributed, and on Monday vowed to work with international partners.
"Israel will continue to work with international agencies as well as the United States and European nations to ensure that large amounts of humanitarian aid flows into the Gaza Strip," Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said.
As recently as Sunday, Netanyahu continued to insist there was no hunger crisis in Gaza.
"Israel is presented as though we are applying a campaign of starvation in Gaza. What a bold-faced lie. There is no policy of starvation in Gaza, and there is no starvation in Gaza," he said.
In a break that presaged the opening of a gap with Washington, U.S. President Donald Trump said he wasn't convinced by Netanyahu's denials, saying the TV images that he had seen looked like "real starvation," and that the scenes couldn't be "faked."
Israel acknowledges it has imposed aid restrictions and replaced much of a decades-old system run by the United Nations and international aid charities with its Gaza Humanitarian Foundation, but says it was necessary to prevent Hamas from stealing aid and reselling it to fund military operations.
Thousands of Palestinians on the move in northern Gaza on Sunday in search of increasingly scarce food as supplies of humanitarian assistance entering the Palestinian territory dwindled to what the United Nations and aid agencies have described as a trickle. Photo by Mahmoud Issa/UPI | License Photo
July 29 (UPI) -- The humanitarian crisis unfolding in Gaza is "the worst-case scenario of famine," amid widespread starvation, malnutrition and disease driving a surge in hunger-related deaths, a global hunger monitoring group said Tuesday.
The Integrated Food Security Phase Classification said in a bulletin that the latest food consumption data indicated famine thresholds had been reached in most of Gaza and for acute malnutrition in Gaza City -- but stopped short of issuing a formal famine notice.
"The worst-case scenario of famine is currently playing out in the Gaza Strip. Conflict and displacement have intensified, and access to food and other essential items and services has plummeted to unprecedented levels," said IPC, which is backed by the United Nations, European Commission, World Health Organization and global NGO's.
The IPC said that since its last analysis in May, access to food across Gaza was now "alarmingly erratic and extremely perilous" due to a "devastating" intensification of bombing and ground operations that had displaced an additional 325,000 people, killed 6,700 people and razed critical infrastructure.
The group's Famine Review Committee said that despite the negative impact on the data caused by severely restricted humanitarian access, the evidence clearly showed a sharp jump in the rate of increase in "starvation, malnutrition and mortality."
"Many nutritional programs have run out of nutrition supplies and the number of sites able to provide health and nutrition services has greatly decreased. Shipments of medical supplies are also severely constrained, leading to increased human suffering and elevated morbidity. Deprivation of adequate, clean drinkable water is causing extreme suffering and has greatly increased the risk of morbidity and mortality," it said.
Between April and the middle of July, more than 20,000 children were hospitalized with acute malnutrition, 3,000 of them severely malnourished, with hospitals reporting a sharp rise in hunger-related illness among under-fives.
The committee expressed horror at the deteriorating situation, in particular killings of civilians attempting to access aid, and reiterated its call for the resumption of humanitarian assistance at scale and a cease-fire, warning that failure to act made famine a certainty.
"This is not a surprise. This is what we've been seeing for quite some time," CARE Gaza response director Beckie Ryan told NBC News.
The IPC alert came as the Hamas-run Health Ministry said the number of Palestinians killed since Israel began its offensive on Gaza in response to the Hamas-led attacks of Oct. 7, 2023, breached the 60,000 mark.
Amid mounting international condemnation of the unfolding hunger crisis in Gaza -- and a determination to do something about it -- Israel has instituted a series of "tactical pauses" in military activity to allow aid to be distributed, and on Monday vowed to work with international partners.
"Israel will continue to work with international agencies as well as the United States and European nations to ensure that large amounts of humanitarian aid flows into the Gaza Strip," Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said.
As recently as Sunday, Netanyahu continued to insist there was no hunger crisis in Gaza.
"Israel is presented as though we are applying a campaign of starvation in Gaza. What a bold-faced lie. There is no policy of starvation in Gaza, and there is no starvation in Gaza," he said.
In a break that presaged the opening of a gap with Washington, U.S. President Donald Trump said he wasn't convinced by Netanyahu's denials, saying the TV images that he had seen looked like "real starvation," and that the scenes couldn't be "faked."
Israel acknowledges it has imposed aid restrictions and replaced much of a decades-old system run by the United Nations and international aid charities with its Gaza Humanitarian Foundation, but says it was necessary to prevent Hamas from stealing aid and reselling it to fund military operations.
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