Food insecurity concerns improve in Gaza, but warning signs are mounting

The world’s leading authority on food insecurity said that the situation in Gaza had improved since famine was declared in parts of the Palestinian territory last year.

But the body warned that conditions remained at crisis levels and could slip back into catastrophe.

The Integrated Food Security Phase Classification, or IPC, said a reduction in fighting – as well as Israel allowing more aid into Gaza – had driven improvements.

But the IPC noted that food consumption remained inadequate for most of the 2.1 million people living in the war-battered enclave.

“Improved access and reduced conflict intensity following the October 2025 ceasefire enabled a major scale-up of aid operations, generating significant impact, albeit unevenly across areas,” it said, warning “even small disruptions to humanitarian access could rapidly reverse recent gains”.

The designation underscored how conditions in Gaza have both markedly improved since last year and remain at crisis levels without immediate prospects for recovery.

More than 1,185 people have been killed by Israeli strikes and shelling since last October’s agreement, according to the territory’s health ministry.

Israel controls more than half the territory, leaving Palestinians confined to squalid tent camps and heavily damaged urban neighbourhoods.

Failing sewage systems have contributed to routine disease outbreaks and left residents with inconsistent access to basic services.

The IPC assesses hunger crises by measuring indicators of acute malnutrition and famine, including how many households are experiencing extreme food shortages, how many young children show bodily signs of malnutrition and how many people are dying from starvation.

It uses five phases to classify food insecurity. Last August, IPC confirmed famine, its most severe classification, in Gaza Governorate, which covers Gaza City.

Thursday’s report classified all five governorates in the territory as being in Phase 3 “crisis” conditions, while estimating that more than 200,000 residents were experiencing Phase 4 “emergency” conditions.

It has declared famines in other places, including parts of Sudan and Somalia. But the authority’s declaration last August of famine in parts of Gaza was its first in the Middle East.

Israel strenuously denied allegations of widespread hunger and man-made famine in Gaza, calling them lies.

But after imposing an almost total blockade on humanitarian aid from early March to mid-May last year, it began allowing more aid into the territory.

This week’s assessment was IPC’s first since December 2025, when it said famine in Gaza City had not spread as feared, downgrading the governorate’s classification to Phase 4.

Cogat, the Israeli military body overseeing humanitarian affairs in Gaza, said it “strongly rejects the claims and conclusions” in the report because it lacked objectivity and did not take into account Israel’s data about the amount of aid entering.