ROME: 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.
He blamed Israel, accusing it of "systematic obstruction" of aid deliveries to the war-ravaged Palestinian territory.
Israel's foreign ministry said the declaration that famine is now present in and around Gaza City was "based on Hamas lies laundered through organisations with vested interests".
"There is no famine in Gaza," it insisted.
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 per cent of households have an extreme lack of food; 30 per cent 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 for months been warning of the deteriorating humanitarian situation in Gaza, which has worsened as Israel steps up its offensive against Hamas.
The Rome-based IPC said that "as of August 15, 2025, famine (IPC Phase 5) -- with reasonable evidence -- is confirmed in Gaza governorate", the area that encompasses Gaza City and its surroundings.
The UN estimates that nearly one million people currently live in the Gaza governorate.
"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," the IPC report said.
It projected that famine would spread to the Deir el-Balah and Khan Yunis governorates by the end of September, encompassing more than three-quarters of the total Gaza population, or nearly 641,000 people.
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 materialised, despite the humanitarian crisis in the country.
