Gaza war latest: UN-backed body declares famine in Gaza for first time as Israel threatens to ‘open gates of hell’ – UK Times

Gaza City’s Shifa Hospital said at least 17 Palestinians were killed Friday as Israel escalates its activity in the area in the lead-up to its broader planned offensive.

An Israeli airstrike hit a school in Sheikh Radwan, a Gaza City neighborhood where tens of Palestinians shelter in makeshift tents in the schoolyard. It killed at least seven people, according to an eyewitness and hospital records.

Israel’s military said they weren’t aware of a strike in the area.

The strike is part of Israel’s ongoing push in Gaza City, where the military says it is operating and witnesses have reported intense bombardment in the days since Israel approved its plans to take the city.

Amal Aboul Aas, who is now sheltering in Gaza City after being displaced four times, said the explosions were so intense he couldn’t sleep, yet he couldn’t leave either.

“We do not have the money, the resources, or the energy to evacuate again. I just wish for a quick death right where I am here because I am not going anywhere. Eventually one of these missiles will hit me,” he told AP.

Formal famine determinations are rare. The IPC has previously determined famines in Somalia in 2011, South Sudan in 2017 and 2020, and parts of Sudan’s western Darfur region last year.

The IPC says a famine exists in an area when all three of the following conditions are confirmed:

At least 20% of households have an extreme lack of food, or are essentially starving. At least 30% of children 6 months to 5 years old suffer from acute malnutrition or wasting, meaning they’re too thin for their height. And at least two people, or four children under 5, per 10,000 are dying daily due to starvation or the interaction of malnutrition and disease.

Israel’s offensive and its restrictions on access to Gaza have made collecting data difficult.

The data analyzed between July 1 and Aug. 15 showed clear evidence that thresholds for starvation and acute malnutrition have been reached. Gathering data for mortality has been harder, but the IPC said it is reasonable to conclude from the evidence that the necessary threshold has likely been reached.

The IPC warned that a third of Gaza’s population could face catastrophic levels of hunger by the end of September, and that this is probably an undercount.

The UN human rights chief said that the emergence of famine in northern Gaza is the “direct result of actions taken by the Israeli government” and said that deaths from starvation might amount to a war crime.

“The famine declared today in Gaza Governorate by the Integrated Food Security Phase Classification (IPC) is the direct result of actions taken by the Israeli government,” Volker Turk said in a statement to reporters, referring to a report by a global hunger monitor.

“It is a war crime to use starvation as a method of warfare, and the resulting deaths may also amount to the war crime of willful killing,” he added.

COGAT, the Israeli military agency that coordinates aid, accused Hamas of a “false starvation campaign” and said the U.N. and others were spreading unfounded claims about hunger in Gaza.

UN secretary general Antonio Guterres has said that the famine is Gaza is a man-made disater.

In a post on X, he said: “Just when it seems there are no words left to describe the living hell in Gaza, a new one has been added: ‘famine’.”

“This is not a mystery — it is a man-made disaster, a moral indictment and a failure of humanity itself.

“Famine is not only about food; it is the deliberate collapse of the systems needed for human survival. People are starving. Children are dying. And those with the duty to act are failing.

“As the occupying power, Israel has unequivocal obligations under international law — including the duty of ensuring food and medical supplies of the population. We cannot allow this situation to continue with impunity.

“No more excuses. The time for action is not tomorrow — it is now. We need an immediate ceasefire, the immediate release of all hostages and full, unfettered humanitarian access.”

Israel’s foreign ministry said there is no famine in Gaza, responding to a report from a global hunger monitor that said famine had struck an area of Gaza and would likely spread over the next month.

“Over 100,000 trucks of aid have entered Gaza since the start of the war, and in recent weeks a massive influx of aid has flooded the Strip with staple foods and caused a sharp decline in food prices, which have plummeted in the markets,” the Israeli ministry said in a statement.

The United Nations aid chief said that the famine that has struck part of Gaza was preventable, blaming the “systematic obstruction” of aid by Israel and demanding that Benjamin Netanyahu let supplies in on a massive scale.

“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,” UN Emergency Coordinator Tom Fletcher told reporters in Geneva.

“Let us get food and other supplies in unimpeded and at the massive scale required. End the retribution,” he added in comments directed at Netanyahu.

Famine has struck an area of Gaza and will likely spread over the next month, a global hunger monitor determined on Friday, an assessment that will escalate pressure on Israel to allow more humanitarian aid into the war-torn Palestinian enclave.

The Integrated Food Security Phase Classification system said 514,000 people – nearly a quarter of Palestinians in Gaza – are experiencing famine and that was due to rise to 641,000 by the end of September.

Some 280,000 of those people are in a northern region covering Gaza City – known as Gaza governorate – which the IPC said was in famine, its first such determination in the enclave. The rest are in Deir al-Balah and Khan Younis – central and southern areas that the IPC projected would be in famine by the end of next month.

For a region to be classified as in famine at least 20% of people must be suffering extreme food shortages, with one in three children acutely malnourished and two people out of every 10,000 dying daily from starvation or malnutrition and disease.

Even if a region has not yet been classified as in famine because those thresholds have not been met, the IPC can determine that households there are suffering famine conditions, which it describes as starvation, destitution and death.

Aid groups have reacted with fury to reports that famine has been confirmed in Gaza.

The Integrated Food Security Phase Classification (IPC), the UN-backed global hunger monitor, is expected to release a report on Friday confirming famine in the Gaza Governorate.

Aahra Ghazi, co-CEO of ActionAid UK, said the catastrophe was “an entirely engineered famine and the direct result of the Israeli authorities’ deliberate blocking of food, water and other humanitarian aid into Gaza.”

“It is utterly shameful that, for so many months, the Israeli authorities have used starvation as a weapon of war with impunity: now we are seeing the calamitous consequences play out,” she said.

Ms Ghazi warned that the assault on Gaza City would “forcibly displace hundreds of thousands of people and severely disrupt humanitarian operations at a time when they are needed more than ever.”

Doctors on the ground also warned of catastrophic risks for infants. Dr Ra’ed Al-Baba, who works at Al Awda Hospital, said mothers were using legume water and herbs as substitutes for baby formula, with cases of gastroenteritis, food poisoning and severe anaemia now appearing.

“This is not survival,” he said. “This is slow death.”

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has said Israel will immediately resume negotiations for the release of all hostages held in Gaza, while pressing ahead with plans to capture Gaza City.

Speaking to soldiers near the border, he confirmed Israel would send negotiators once a location is set but insisted any deal must be “on terms acceptable to Israel.”

His comments came in response to a temporary ceasefire proposal put forward by Egypt and Qatar that Hamas accepted earlier this week. The deal calls for a 60-day truce, the release of 10 living hostages and 18 bodies in exchange for 200 Palestinian prisoners.

Despite mounting international pressure, Mr Netanyahu said he was committed to the government’s plan to defeat Hamas and seize Gaza City, which was approved earlier this month by the security cabinet.