Is there famine in Gaza? What the IPC says now

What the IPC found, and when

The Integrated Food Security Phase Classification (IPC) is the system UN agencies, governments and aid groups use to judge how severe hunger is. Its findings on Gaza over the past year:

• August 2025: the IPC confirmed famine in Gaza Governorate, with more than half a million people in Gaza trapped in famine and famine conditions projected to spread to Deir Al Balah and Khan Younis. It was the first time a famine had been officially confirmed in the Middle East region.
• December 2025: after the October ceasefire and improved access, no area of the Strip was classified in famine. At least 1.6 million people, 77% of the population, still faced high levels of acute food insecurity, and Gaza Governorate was downgraded from Famine to Emergency (IPC Phase 4).
• July 2026: the entire Gaza Strip was classified in IPC Phase 3 (Crisis). UN News reported 1.4 million people (67%) in Phase 3 or worse and about 212,000 in Phase 4 (Emergency), many living near the Israeli-controlled "yellow line".

Is the famine in Gaza over?

In the IPC's terms, yes: no area of Gaza has been classified in famine since the December 2025 analysis. But "not famine" does not mean people have enough to eat. Phase 3 means households have food gaps, or meet minimum food needs only by selling off essential assets or other crisis coping, and Phase 4 still indicates, in the words of UN agencies, "large food consumption gaps, high levels of acute malnutrition, and an elevated risk of mortality".

Individual households can also be in the IPC's worst phase, Catastrophe, even when their area as a whole is not classified in famine. Our guide to IPC phases explains what each phase means.

What changed after the ceasefire

The main change was the amount of aid reaching people. In May 2026 alone, food parcels reached around 1.5 million people, multipurpose cash assistance peaked at around 700,000 people, and nutrition support reached 60% of children under five. In September 2025, around 500,000 people had received any food assistance, and nutrition coverage for under-fives was less than 1%.

Child malnutrition fell with it. The IPC reported that acute malnutrition among children declined after nutrition programmes were scaled up. Our page on malnutrition in Gaza has the latest survey and screening figures.

Why the situation remains fragile

The UN agencies and the IPC point to several reasons the improvement could reverse:

• Aid coverage has declined since February 2026, and the IPC warns that further cuts could quickly trigger a sharp deterioration, given collapsed livelihoods and exhausted coping mechanisms.
• Only one crossing, Kerem Shalom/Abu Salem, remains open, and most people still depend on aid. Food rations remain insufficient in quantity, quality and variety. See how aid reaches Gaza.
• Local food production has barely restarted: more than 70% of Gaza's cropland is not accessible, and only 3% is currently usable.
• Some areas near the yellow line were inaccessible to IPC analysts, so conditions there are the least well measured.

How famine is determined

Whether Gaza was or is in famine is argued about online. The most reliable way to check any claim is against the IPC's published method. The IPC classifies an area as Famine when at least 20% of households face an extreme lack of food, at least 30% of children are acutely malnourished, and two people in every 10,000 die each day from starvation or the interaction of malnutrition and disease.

The IPC can classify famine "with solid evidence", when data covers all three measures, or "with reasonable evidence", when two thresholds are clearly met and analysts assess from wider evidence that the third has likely been reached. The August 2025 finding for Gaza Governorate was made on the basis of reasonable evidence. Analyses are built on data from many partners and reached by technical consensus, and the IPC publishes its reports.