The United Nations on Friday officially declared a famine in Gaza—the first in the Middle East—with experts saying 500,000 people are facing “catastrophic” hunger.
UN aid chief Tom Fletcher described the famine as entirely preventable, blaming the situation on what he called “systematic obstruction by Israel.”
However, Israel’s foreign ministry dismissed the report, insisting “there is no famine in Gaza,” and accused the Rome-based IPC panel of relying on false claims.
The IPC said the crisis is the most severe deterioration in Gaza since it began monitoring, driven by war escalation, mass displacement, and restrictions on food supplies.