  {"id":310640,"date":"2025-08-22T14:37:43","date_gmt":"2025-08-22T18:37:43","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.un.org\/unispal\/?post_type=document&#038;p=310640"},"modified":"2025-08-25T14:40:46","modified_gmt":"2025-08-25T18:40:46","slug":"press-conference-famine-in-gaza-22aug25","status":"publish","type":"document","link":"https:\/\/www.un.org\/unispal\/document\/press-conference-famine-in-gaza-22aug25\/","title":{"rendered":"Press Conference: Famine in Gaza  &#8211; Emergency Directors from FAO, WFP and Ä¢¹½ÊÓÆµICEF"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>22 August 2025<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWe are in a race against time,\u201d said Rein Paulsen, Director of the Office of Emergencies and Resilience at the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO), as Ä¢¹½ÊÓÆµ agencies briefed on the latest <a href=\"https:\/\/www.un.org\/unispal\/document\/joint-press-release-by-fao-unicef-who-and-wfp-22aug25\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Integrated Food Security Phase Classification (IPC)<\/a> analysis confirming famine conditions in Gaza.<\/p>\n<p>Paulsen said the findings lay out \u201cthe scale, the nature, and the magnitude of the famine unfolding.\u201d According to the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.un.org\/unispal\/document\/joint-press-release-by-fao-unicef-who-and-wfp-22aug25\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">IPC report<\/a>, more than half a million people in Gaza are facing catastrophic deprivation and \u201cover one million people, some 54 per cent of the population, are facing what&#8217;s classified as Emergency Phase Four. By the end of September, famine is projected to further expand to the Governorates of Deir al-Balah and Khan Yunis,\u201d Paulsen noted.<\/p>\n<p>Jean-Martin Bauer, Director of the WFP\u2019s Food Security and Nutrition Analysis Service, said the confirmation reflects extreme conditions. \u201cWhat we have is extreme food deprivation, widespread acute malnutrition, and starvation-related deaths, and that should all make us pause,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWhen a famine is confirmed, it also means that we&#8217;re not just in an extreme food crisis. It means we&#8217;ve crossed the tipping point,\u201d Bauer added. \u201cWe&#8217;re not in a mathematical problem where we can say that X money or X million dollars or Y trucks will solve this problem. The problem becomes much more complex, especially in the case of the exponentially rising number of people facing malnutrition.\u201d<\/p>\n<div class=\"video-shortcode\"><iframe title=\"Famine in Gaza: Emergency Directors from FAO, WFP and Ä¢¹½ÊÓÆµICEF | Press Conference | United Nations\" width=\"1320\" height=\"743\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/vko8g46oG2s?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" referrerpolicy=\"strict-origin-when-cross-origin\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe><\/div>\n<p>He highlighted the rarity of such declarations. \u201cSince the IPC itself was created more than 20 years ago, this is only the fifth time that there has been a famine confirmation. There was one in 2011 in Somalia, 2017 in South Sudan, 2020 in South Sudan again, and then in 2024 in Sudan,\u201d Bauer said. \u201cSo, this is a historic moment; we also have two concurrent famines \u2013 Gaza and Sudan. To have two famines at the same time, that&#8217;s something that&#8217;s absolutely unprecedented. What this also constitutes is the first famine that has been confirmed in the Middle East.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>The situation is particularly grave for children, a Ä¢¹½ÊÓÆµICEF official warned. \u201cWithin this humanitarian emergency in Gaza, there&#8217;s a real child survival crisis,\u201d said Samir Elhawary, Acting Deputy Director of Emergency Programs at Ä¢¹½ÊÓÆµICEF. \u201cWe see malnutrition accelerating at a catastrophic pace, and for many, far too many children, it&#8217;s already too late.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Elhawary said aid restrictions had long been pushing children into extreme food poverty. \u201cThe signs were unmistakable: children with wasted bodies, too weak to cry or to eat; babies dying of hunger and preventable disease; and parents arriving at clinics without enough food to feed their children.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>He added that the numbers continue to surge. \u201cLast month alone, approximately 13,000 children in Gaza were identified as acutely malnourished,\u201d Elhawary said. \u201cThat&#8217;s the highest monthly figure ever recorded since the beginning of the war, and it&#8217;s a six-fold increase since the beginning of this year.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p><em>Read more about this topic:<\/em><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/www.un.org\/unispal\/document\/sg-statement-22aug25\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Ä¢¹½ÊÓÆµ Secretary-General \u2013 on famine in Gaza<\/a><\/li>\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/www.un.org\/unispal\/document\/joint-press-release-by-fao-unicef-who-and-wfp-22aug25\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Famine confirmed for first time in Gaza \u2013 Joint Press Release by FAO, Ä¢¹½ÊÓÆµICEF, WHO, and WFP<\/a><\/li>\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/www.un.org\/unispal\/document\/un-relief-chief-press-briefing-gaza-famine-22aug25\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Ä¢¹½ÊÓÆµ Relief Chief says Gaza famine \u201cmust spur the world to urgent action\u201d<\/a><\/li>\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/www.un.org\/unispal\/document\/unrwa-cg-22aug25\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Ä¢¹½ÊÓÆµRWA Commissioner-General on Gaza: Famine is now confirmed in Gaza City<\/a><\/li>\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/www.un.org\/unispal\/document\/wfp-stories-22aug25\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">WFP: As famine grips Gaza, families turn to desperate measures to survive<\/a><\/li>\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/www.un.org\/unispal\/document\/opt-humanitarian-coordinator-on-famine-statement-22aug25\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Ä¢¹½ÊÓÆµ Humanitarian Coordinator for the Occupied Palestinian Territory on famine in Gaza<\/a><\/li>\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/www.un.org\/unispal\/document\/ohchr-statement-22aug25\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Ä¢¹½ÊÓÆµ Human Rights Chief says Gaza Governorate famine is direct result of Israeli Government actions<\/a><\/li>\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/www.un.org\/unispal\/document\/ocha-ohchr-wfp-who-press-briefing-22aug25\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Gaza: Famine \u201cirrefutably\u201d confirmed, Ä¢¹½ÊÓÆµ humanitarians unite in plea for aid access \u2013 OCHA, OHCHR, WFP and WHO<\/a><\/li>\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/www.un.org\/unispal\/document\/unfpa-press-release-22aug25\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Gaza Famine a Catastrophe for Mothers and Infants<\/a><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>&nbsp; 22 August 2025 \u201cWe are in a race against time,\u201d said Rein Paulsen, Director of the Office of Emergencies and Resilience at the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO), as Ä¢¹½ÊÓÆµ agencies briefed on the latest Integrated Food Security Phase Classification (IPC) analysis confirming famine conditions in Gaza. Paulsen said the findings lay out \u201cthe <a href=\"https:\/\/www.un.org\/unispal\/document\/press-conference-famine-in-gaza-22aug25\/\"> [&#8230;]<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":299,"featured_media":0,"parent":0,"template":"","meta":{"footnotes":""},"country":[],"document-category":[2377,1699,2805],"document-source":[6169],"committee-meeting":[],"document-subject":[1769,2033,2005,1741,2349,6871],"entity":[1729],"document-language":[6542],"class_list":["post-310640","document","type-document","status-publish","hentry","document-category-multimedia","document-category-press-conference","document-category-video","document-source-united-nations-department-of-global-communications","document-subject-armed-conflict","document-subject-children","document-subject-gaza-strip","document-subject-human-rights-and-international-humanitarian-law","document-subject-living-conditions","document-subject-malnutrition","entity-united-nations-system","document-language-english"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.un.org\/unispal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/document\/310640","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.un.org\/unispal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/document"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.un.org\/unispal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/document"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.un.org\/unispal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/299"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/www.un.org\/unispal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/document\/310640\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":310656,"href":"https:\/\/www.un.org\/unispal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/document\/310640\/revisions\/310656"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.un.org\/unispal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=310640"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"country","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.un.org\/unispal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/country?post=310640"},{"taxonomy":"document-category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.un.org\/unispal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/document-category?post=310640"},{"taxonomy":"document-source","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.un.org\/unispal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/document-source?post=310640"},{"taxonomy":"committee-meeting","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.un.org\/unispal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/committee-meeting?post=310640"},{"taxonomy":"document-subject","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.un.org\/unispal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/document-subject?post=310640"},{"taxonomy":"entity","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.un.org\/unispal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/entity?post=310640"},{"taxonomy":"document-language","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.un.org\/unispal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/document-language?post=310640"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}