Gaza Strip famine

The population of the Gaza Strip underwent a famine as a result of an Israeli blockade during the Gaza war between 22 August 2025 and 19 December 2025. The prevention of basic essentials and humanitarian aid from entering Gaza, as well as airstrikes that destroyed food infrastructure, such as bakeries, mills, and food stores, caused a widespread scarcity of essential supplies. Humanitarian aid was also blocked by protests at borders and ports. Increasing societal breakdown in Gaza, including looting, was also cited as a barrier to the provision of aid.

By August 2025, Integrated Food Security Phase Classification (IPC) projections showed that 100% of the population are experiencing "high levels of acute food insecurity", and 32% were projected to face Phase 5 catastrophic levels by 30 September 2025. On 22 August 2025, the IPC said that famine is taking place in at least one of the five governorates in the Gaza Strip: specifically, the Gaza Governorate which includes Gaza City. The IPC added that, within the next month, famine was likely to also occur in both the Deir al-Balah Governorate and the Khan Yunis Governorate. The IPC had insufficient data on the North Gaza Governorate for a classification but concluded that conditions were likely similar or worse than in the Gaza Governorate. Within the next 6 weeks as of 16 August, the number of people in IPC Phase 5 was expected to rise from 500,000 to over 640,000.

On 22 October 2025, the International Court of Justice found that Israel is obliged to guarantee sufficient food to Gazans and to allow UNRWA to operate in Gaza. On 19 December, the IPC published a report declaring that there is no longer a famine in Gaza after improvements in food delivery following the ceasefire, but warned that the situation remains "highly fragile" with 100,000 still facing "catastrophic conditions", although that number was projected to decline to 1,900 by April 2026. As of January 2026, Gazans have received enough humanitarian aid to meet their basic food needs for the first time since the start of the war.

However, in late July 2026, the IPC reported that the scale-up of humanitarian assistance, enabled by the October 2025 ceasefire, has driven improvements in food security and nutrition conditions across Gaza, but that over 1.2 million people (59% of the population of Gaza) continued to face Phase 3 Crisis levels of food insecurity or worse, including 212,000 (about 10% of Gazans) experiencing Phase 4 Emergency levels, and warned that Gaza is still experiencing a severe food emergency that could develop into another famine.