Photograph: Anadolu/Getty Images
Good morning. Humanitarians are running out of words to describe the horrors taking place in Gaza. The small strip of land has been brutalised, with all institutions that sustain life – from hospitals to schools – either completely destroyed or barely functioning. Now, the UN-backed Integrated Food Security Phase Classification (IPC) warns that “the worst-case scenario of famine is now unfolding in the Gaza Strip.”
Thousands of children are malnourished and hunger-related deaths on the rise, particularly among the youngest. It is worth noting this is not a formal designation of famine in Gaza, and formal designations are incredibly rare and have only taken place a handful of times in the 21st century: in Somalia in 2011, in South Sudan in 2017 and 2020, and in Sudan in 2024.
