Rome (AFP) - The United Nations on Friday officially declared a famine in Gaza, the first time it has done so in the Middle East, with experts warning 500,000 people face “catastrophic” hunger.

“It is a famine: the Gaza famine,” said Tom Fletcher, the UN’s emergency relief coordinator, as the IPC panel found famine was now present in and around Gaza City.

He blamed Israel, accusing it of “systematic obstruction” of aid deliveries to the war-ravaged Palestinian territory.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu slammed the UN-backed report as “an outright lie”, while the foreign ministry insisted: “There is no famine in Gaza.”

The assessment of famine was made by the Integrated Food Security Phase Classification Initiative (IPC), a coalition of monitors tasked by the UN to warn of impending crises.

It defines famine as occurring when 20 percent of households have an extreme lack of food; 30 percent of children under five are acutely malnourished; and at least two in every 10,000 people die daily from outright starvation or from malnutrition and disease.

UN agencies have long been warning of the deteriorating humanitarian situation in Gaza, particularly as Israel steps up its offensive against Hamas.

The Rome-based IPC said that “as of 15 August 2025, famine (IPC Phase 5) – with reasonable evidence – is confirmed in Gaza governorate”.

The UN estimates that nearly one million people currently live in the Gaza governorate.

“Over half a million people in the Gaza Strip are facing catastrophic conditions characterised by starvation, destitution and death,” the IPC report said.

It projected famine would spread to the Deir el-Balah and Khan Yunis governorates by the end of September, with the number of people starving expected to rise to 641,000.

The IPC said it was “the first time a famine has been officially confirmed in the Middle East region”.

A famine was projected in Yemen in 2018 but never officially confirmed, despite the humanitarian crisis in the country, a spokesman told AFP.

- ‘Haunt us all’ -

The IPC said the famine in Gaza was “entirely man-made”, driven by a sharp escalation of the conflict in July, massive displacement of people since mid-March and restricted access to food.

In early March, Israel completely banned aid supplies from Gaza, before allowing very limited quantities to enter at the end of May, leading to severe shortages of food, medicine and fuel.

Speaking to reporters in Geneva, Fletcher said the famine should “haunt us all”.

“It is a famine that we could have prevented if we had been allowed. Yet food stacks up at borders because of systematic obstruction by Israel,” he said.

UN rights chief Volker Turk said “it is a war crime to use starvation as a method of warfare”.

UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres renewed calls for an immediate ceasefire and full humanitarian access to Gaza, adding: “We cannot allow this situation to continue with impunity.”

The International Red Cross described the declaration of famine as “devastating and entirely foreseeable”.

“Under international humanitarian law, Israel, as the occupying power, must ensure that the basic needs of the civilian population in Gaza are met,” it said in a statement.

- ‘Too weak to cry’ -

In July alone, more than 12,000 children were identified as acutely malnourished – a six-fold increase since January, according to UN agencies.

“The signs were unmistakable: children with wasted bodies, too weak to cry or eat, babies dying from hunger and preventable disease,” said UNICEF Executive Director Catherine Russell.

The local food system has collapsed, with an estimated 98 percent of cropland in the Gaza Strip either damaged, inaccessible or both, the IPC said. Livestock is decimated and fishing is banned.

Gathering information is extremely difficult in Gaza.

The IPC said conditions in the North Gaza Governorate, north of Gaza City, may well be worse, but said it did not have enough data.

Israel’s foreign ministry asserted that a “massive influx of aid” had entered the Gaza Strip in recent weeks, while Israeli defence body COGAT accused the authors of relying on partial data.

However, Jean-Martin Bauer, director of the UN World Food Programme’s food security analysis, said the IPC was the “gold standard” for these kind of assessments.

burs-ar/jj