Famine was officially declared Friday in northern Gaza, including Gaza City, by the Integrated Food Security Phase Classification system (IPC), the world’s leading authority on hunger. But Israel swiftly denounced the move as a politically motivated fabrication designed to shield Hamas from defeat as the IDF prepares for a major offensive.

According to the IPC, an estimated 514,000 people—nearly a quarter of Gaza’s population—are already in famine, with the figure projected to rise to 641,000 by the end of September. The declaration marked the first time Gaza has been classified at famine level, with the IPC citing Gaza Governorate as the epicenter and warning that Deir al-Balah and Khan Younis could follow next month. The report argued that fighting, aid restrictions, and a collapse in food production had pushed hunger to life-threatening levels.

Israel rejected the claims outright, accusing the IPC of bending its own rules in order to reach a predetermined conclusion. Traditionally, famine is declared when at least 20 percent of households face extreme food shortages, 30 percent of children are acutely malnourished, and at least two adults or four children out of every 10,000 die each day from starvation. In Gaza, however, the IPC invoked a lower threshold, declaring famine when 15 percent of children were found to suffer acute malnutrition, while conceding it lacked reliable mortality data. Israel’s Foreign Ministry called this a dangerous distortion, saying the IPC had “changed its own global standard, cutting the 30 percent threshold to 15 percent for this report only, and totally ignoring its second criterion of death rate.”

COGAT, the Israeli defense body overseeing Gaza humanitarian affairs, issued a counter-report charging that the IPC’s assessment relied on “biased and self-interested sources originating from Hamas,” including UNRWA workers in Gaza, some of whom Israel says are Hamas operatives. Maj. Gen. Ghassan Alian, COGAT’s chief, said the IPC had abandoned professionalism in favor of propaganda. “Instead of a professional, neutral assessment, the report adopts a biased approach riddled with severe methodological flaws, thereby undermining its credibility and the trust the international community can place in it,” he said.

Israeli officials pointed to the large volumes of aid entering Gaza in recent months as proof that famine conditions do not exist. Since May, more than 10,000 trucks have entered the enclave, while the U.S.- and Israel-backed Gaza Humanitarian Foundation has distributed over 2.2 million relief packages. Between 200 and 300 trucks of aid cross daily, Israel says, alongside daily humanitarian pauses and international airdrops. While still below the UN’s demand for 600 trucks a day, Israeli officials argue the deliveries have eased conditions significantly. Any remaining shortages, they contend, stem from Hamas seizing supplies and hoarding food for its fighters. U.S. Ambassador to Israel Mike Huckabee echoed that point in a blistering post: “You know who IS starving? The hostages kidnapped and tortured by uncivilized Hamas savages. Maybe the overfed terrorists could share their warehouse full they stole with hungry people especially the hostages.”

The timing of the declaration has fueled suspicion in Jerusalem that the IPC is attempting to interfere with Israel’s military strategy. IDF Chief of Staff Lt. Gen. Eyal Zamir has already announced preparations for “Gideon’s Chariots II,” a full-scale offensive to capture Gaza City. Defense Minister Yisrael Katz vowed to open the “gates of hell” unless Hamas surrendered and released all hostages, saying Gaza City would “become like Rafah and Beit Hanoun,” both of which lie in ruins after months of fighting. Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu authorized the operation this week, insisting Israel would not stop short of Hamas’s destruction.

Israel argues that the famine declaration is not only premature but fundamentally political, aimed at applying pressure to halt the Gaza City operation and preserve Hamas. The Foreign Ministry dismissed the IPC’s findings as “Hamas lies laundered through organizations with vested interests,” adding that the report would be “thrown into the despicable trash bin of political documents.”

While famine has been declared just four times globally since 2004—in Somalia, South Sudan, Sudan, and Yemen—each time under the stricter 30 percent criteria, Israel says the decision to lower the bar for Gaza exposes the true motive: to stop the IDF from finishing the job.

Twenty-two months after Hamas’s October 7 massacre in Israel that killed 1,200 people and left 250 taken hostage, Israel’s leaders insist they will not bow to political maneuvers dressed up as humanitarian reports. “Hamas will be defeated,” one senior Israeli official said. “Famine declarations or not.”

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