A UN-affiliated body monitoring food security in Gaza altered a key measurement standard, making it easier to declare “famine” in the Hamas-controlled territory, the Washington Free Beacon reported
The Integrated Food Security Phase Classification (IPC), a network of Western governments, UN agencies, and NGOs, issued a report on July 29 warning of “the worst-case scenario of famine” in Gaza, citing evidence of starvation, malnutrition, and disease-related hunger deaths. Major outlets, including The New York Times, NPR, CNN, and ABC News, highlighted the findings, attributing the crisis to Israeli aid restrictions, with The New York Times specifically pointing to “months of severe aid restrictions imposed by Israel” as the cause.
However, unlike previous IPC reports on the situation in Gaza, the July report used a metric known as the “mid-upper arm circumference” (MUAC) as a famine indicator, replacing its traditional reliance on weight-for-height measurements. The MUAC has not been used as an indicator of famine in any other war zone, including Gaza, prior to the July report.
The report also included a decreased threshold for the proportion of children who must be deemed malnourished for the IPC to declare a famine, from 30% to 15%.
In other words, the Gaza report used MUAC, a measurement that can be carried out quickly but is not considered precise, with the IPC’s own guidelines warning it is not a substitute for detailed anthropometric data, in addition to lowering the threshold from 30% to 15%. The change appeared in a small asterisk under a graphic titled “When is Famine Classified?”
In its Gaza fieldwork, IPC found MUAC-based malnutrition rates of under 8% in Deir al-Balah and Khan Younis and 16.5% in Gaza City—above the new 15% benchmark but well below the former 30% standard. A veteran aid practitioner told the Washington Free Beacon, “If you’re planning to make a famine declaration based off the 15-percent MUAC, we as practitioners would say that’s an issue.”
Past famine declarations in Somalia, South Sudan, and Sudan relied on the 30% weight-for-height metric.
“In all of the famines that have been declared, they’ve been using the 30-percent global malnutrition measurement, most of which has been based on the weight-for-height metric—which, again, is much harder to collect, much more burdensome, and it’s 30 percent,” the aid worker said. “So, this asterisk that’s been added for Gaza essentially says that they’re going to allow a 15 percent global malnutrition rate measured by MUAC.”
“I think many people would say it’s like lowering the bar or making it more possible, essentially, to declare whatever it is that they’re going to declare.”
The IPC report also claimed that over 20,000 children in Gaza were treated for acute malnutrition between April and mid-July—over 3,000 of them severe cases—and that at least 16 children had died of hunger-related causes since July 17. These figures are drawn from non-public “internal documents” from sources that are “not publicly available,” making it impossible for outsiders to vet their credibility. In general, the data from Gaza used by the IPC almost always comes from unreliable sources such as the Hamas-run Gaza Health Ministry and Ard el Insan, a terrorism-related group.
Richard Goldberg, a former White House and National Security Council staffer in both Trump administrations who spent a decade performing humanitarian aid oversight on Capitol Hill, told the Free Beacon the IPC standards are another example of U.N. malfeasance.
“If you keep pulling the thread here, you start to understand this is one of the greatest frauds ever perpetrated on the world,” said Goldberg, who now serves as a senior adviser at the Foundation for Defense of Democracies think tank. “There is no famine in Gaza—the data thresholds don’t support that claim—and yet we have the United Nations changing the rules to fit the desired political outcome.”
COGAT (Coordination of Government Activities in the Territories) responded to the report by stating, “It is highly concerning that the IPC appears to have quietly lowered the bar for declaring famine just before its expected report on Gaza. With one barely noticeable footnote, without any explanation, the IPC effectively cut by half one of the three empirical criteria it has been applying globally to date.”
“This is the latest example of the IPC’s persistent lack of transparency, double standards, and methodological issues in its reports on Gaza throughout the war.”
“Yet, no response or explanations were ever provided by the IPC.”
“The IPC is a major player in shaping the narrative on Gaza, exerting pressure on Israel and vilifying it with false accusations of starvation. Bending core definitions in this manner at this sensitive time raises serious questions regarding the reliability of its reports on Gaza.”
(YWN Israel Desk—Jerusalem)
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Even AI knows the truth: AI Overview
A famine is declared when specific, severe conditions related to food insecurity, malnutrition, and mortality are met. These conditions include at least 20% of households facing extreme lack of food, over 30% of children suffering from acute malnutrition, and at least two deaths per 10,000 people per day due to starvation or malnutrition-related diseases. These criteria are part of the Integrated Food Security Phase Classification (IPC) system for assessing food insecurity.
Here’s a breakdown of the thresholds:
Extreme Lack of Food:
At least 20% of households in a defined area experience a severe shortage of food, with limited ability to cope with the situation. This includes situations where people are resorting to extreme measures to survive, like selling assets or reducing food consumption.
Acute Malnutrition:
At least 30% of children under five years of age are suffering from acute malnutrition, a condition caused by a lack of essential nutrients.
Mortality:
The death rate due to starvation or diseases related to malnutrition exceeds two deaths per 10,000 people per day. In some cases, the threshold may be specified as four child deaths per 10,000 per day, according to the United Nations.
These thresholds are used by the IPC to classify areas as experiencing famine (IPC Phase 5), indicating a severe and widespread food crisis that requires immediate and large-scale humanitarian assistance, says the World Food Programme.