Famine declared in Gaza City as Israel vows to destroy it if Hamas doesn’t agree to ceasefire terms

Famine was officially declared on Friday in a part of Northern Gaza, including Gaza City, by the main world hunger authority while Israel has promised to shave the region if Hamas does not accept its conditions.

The declaration of the famine by the integrated classification of the food security phase, or IPC, comes while deaths by famines increase through the Palestinian enclave in a spiral crisis under the military assault restrictions of Israel and the aid restrictions.

The Israeli army is preparing to advance a new operation to seize the city of Gaza which could move hundreds of thousands of people and worsen the disastrous situation there. He launched intense strikes on the city this week after announced that she had started the first stage of his planned assault.

Declared famine

The IPC, an internationally recognized system to classify food insecurity and malnutrition, said in its report on Friday morning that famine had been confirmed in the governorate of Gaza – and that it was to extend to the humanitarian situation of Deir al -Balah and Khan Younis further south by the end of September if the humanitarian situation does not change.

Malnutrition is now threatening the lives of 132,000 children under the age of five, including 41,000 serious cases, dubbing the number of May, said the IPC.

“Famine is a race against time,” said the IPC. “An immediate ceasefire and the end of the conflict is essential to allow a large-scale humanitarian response without hindrance to save lives.”

The organization supported by the United Nations has so far declared that famine has only declared four other covers since its creation in 2004, more recently in Sudan last year.

Mike Huckabee, the United States Ambassador to Israel, attacked the IPC’s famine declaration before being officially announced.

“You know who is hungry? The hostages were kidnapped and tortured by savages of non-civilized Hamas,” he said in an article on X early Friday. “Perhaps the terrorists who are too fed could share part of their warehouse, they stole with hungry people, especially the hostages.”

Cogat, the link of the Israeli army with the Palestinians, rejected the IPC report, the appellant “false and biased” and suggesting that he was “based on partial data” from Hamas.

Israel has repeatedly denied increasing famine reports in Gaza, while trying to blame all hungry in the enclave on humanitarian groups for not having distributed enough help.

The Israeli Minister of Defense Israel Katz promised on Friday to open the “gates of hell” to Gaza City until Hamas accepts the conditions of Israel to put an end to war, including the release of all hostages and the complete disarmament of the militant group.

Otherwise, he said, the city “would become Rafah and Beit Hanoun”, areas that have been largely reduced to the ruins under the 22-month offensive in Israel.

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said a day earlier that he had authorized the operation to take over the city of Gaza, while revealing that he had asked “immediate negotiations” to start an agreement to put an end to the war in Gaza and guarantee the release of the hostages that remain held in the enclave.

The video declaration followed the days of silence after Hamas announced that it had accepted a proposal for a ceasefire advanced by the Arab mediators.

The IPC declaration occurs a little more than three weeks after warning that the “worst scenario of famine” already took place in the Palestinian enclave under the restrictions of offensive and paralyzing mortal aid of Israel – but it stressed that the alert was not a formal classification of the famine.

Help groups have noticed several times in recent weeks, there is still not enough food entering Gaza to avoid famine.

Meanwhile, the deaths of famines in Gaza continued to increase.

The Palestinian Ministry of Health in Gaza announced on Monday that it had recorded three new adult deaths “due to famine and malnutrition” within 24 hours, bringing the total number of famine deaths to 266 people, including 112 children.

Israel launched its offensive in Gaza following the October 7 attacks led by Hamas, in which some 1,200 people were killed and around 250 hostages, according to Israeli accounts, marking a major escalation in a decade conflict.

Since then, more than 62,000 people have been killed in Gaza, including thousands of children, according to the local Palestinian health ministry, a large part of the destroyed territory.

Among the dead are hundreds of people who have been killed by trying to request help following the introduction of a new distribution system led by the Gaza humanitarian foundation supported by the United States.