The international body responsible for monitoring world hunger will officially declare famine in Gaza City for the first time, it has been reported.
Since it was established in 2004, the UN-backed Integrated Food Security Phase Classification (IPC) has been used to declare just four famines.
The globally recognised system for classifying the severity of food insecurity and malnutrition most recently declared a famine in Sudan last year.
The IPC has previously warned of imminent famine in parts of Gaza, but has stopped short of formally declaring it.
However, it will reportedly it will officially declare a famine in Gaza City, home to around 500,000 people, on Friday morning.
The Israeli government has consistently denied that famine is taking place in Gaza and is currently moving on Gaza City, the final major built-up area of Gaza
Israel Defence Forces spokesman Brigadier General Effie Defrin said on Thursday it now controls the outskirts of Gaza City, which was one of Hamas’ last strongholds.
For a famine to be declared, three strict criteria must be met: at least 20 per cent of households face an extreme lack of food, at least 30 per cent of children suffer acute malnutrition, and two people for every 10,000 die each day due to ‘outright starvation’.
In a briefing seen by The Telegraph, the IPC will declare that famine is taking place in the ‘Gaza Governorate’, which comprises Gaza City, three surrounding towns, and several refugee camps.
The IPC briefing reportedly reads: ‘After 22 months of relentless conflict, over half a million people in the Gaza Strip are facing catastrophic conditions, characterised by starvation, destitution and death.’
Famine is also projected to expand to the governorates of Deir Al-Balah and Khan Younis by the end of September, according to the briefings.
The briefing adds that another 1.07 million people – over half of Gaza’s population – are facing ’emergency’ levels of food insecurity.
According to Gaza’s Hamas-run health ministry, 271 people so far have died from starvation in Gaza, 112 of them children,n with more than half of that figure coming in the last three weeks alone.
Earlier in the week, United Nations spokesman Stephane Dujarric said that starvation and malnutrition in Gaza were at their highest levels since the Israel-Hamas war began.
The U.N. says nearly 12,000 children under 5 were found to have acute malnutrition in July – including more than 2,500 with severe malnutrition, the most dangerous level. The World Health Organization says the numbers are likely an undercount.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said last month no one in Gaza is starving.
‘There is no policy of starvation in Gaza, and there is no starvation in Gaza,’ he said.
U.S. President Donald Trump responded to Netanyahu’s claim by noting the images emerging of emaciated people.
‘I don’t know,’ Trump said when asked if he agreed with the Israeli leader’s comment. ‘I mean, based on television, I would say not particularly because those children look very hungry.’
In the past weeks, Israel has allowed around triple the amount of food into Gaza than what had been entering since late May.
That was after 2.5 months when Israel barred all food, medicine and other supplies, saying it was to pressure Hamas to release hostages taken during its October 2023 attack that launched the war.
Earlier this week, the Israeli army has called up 60,000 reservists as the war continues. Plans suggest reservists would report in September, bringing the total active force to about 120,000.
The military has already launched initial operations in the Jabalia and Zeitoun districts around Gaza City.
The Israeli statements signalled Israel was pressing ahead with its plan to seize Gaza’s biggest urban centre despite international criticism of an operation likely to force the displacement of many more Palestinians.
It comes as an Israeli ambassador to the UK has told Foreign Office officials not to ‘tell us where to build in Jerusalem’ after she was hauled in by David Lammy over the country’s plans for a settlement project in the occupied West Bank.
Tzipi Hotovely remarks come after Foreign Secretary Mr Lammy condemned Israel’s controversial settlement plan would ‘divide a Palestinian state in two’.
Mr Lammy criticised the approval of the E1 project as he warned it would ‘critically undermine’ hopes of a two-state solution to the Middle East crisis.
Settlement development in E1, a tract of land east of Jerusalem, has been under consideration for more than two decades.
This is despite Israeli settlement construction in the West Bank being widely considered as illegal among the international community and an obstacle to peace.
An Israeli defence ministry committee on Wednesday approved plans for around 3,400 homes in E1.