The Israeli prime minister and the U.S. ambassador to Israel were among the officials who decried a widely-cited, Aug. 22 report from the United Nations-backed Integrated Food Security Phase Classification stating that it confirmed with “reasonable evidence” that there has been “famine” in Gaza since Aug. 15.
A report from the Famine Early Warning Systems Network, which is part of the U.S. State Department, that was also released on Aug. 22 and drew similar conclusions, is receiving considerably less attention.
“Famine is now occurring in northern Gaza and expected to expand to southern Gaza,” according to the “Gaza food security alert” from FEWS Net.
There is “direct evidence” of “famine” in north Gaza, or of “starvation combined with mass displacement, the collapse of health and nutrition services and humanitarian access constraints,” which “strongly suggest outcomes are similar to or worse than that observed in Gaza,” per the alert.
“In the absence of immediate intervention, levels of malnourishment and mortality will worsen in both governorates through September and beyond,” the U.S. State Department agency report added.
FEWS Net stated that it reached its determination of “famine” or projected famine in Gaza “jointly” with the Integrated Food Security Phase Classification. (JNS sought comment from the U.S. State Department and from FEWS Net.)
The White House and State Department have largely kept quiet about the IPC report, although U.S. President Donald Trump told reporters, as he met with the Korean president, that something “worse than hunger” was transpiring in Gaza.
“Based on what you know and what you’ve been briefed on, do you agree with that?” a reporter asked Trump of the IPC determination of “famine” in Gaza.
“I deal with Bibi Netanyahu quite a bit, and we had great success, obviously, in Iran. We knocked out their nuclear threat. That would have been a horror show, having them having a nuclear weapon. They would have used it too,” Trump said. “Right now, they’re talking about Gaza City. They’re always talking about something. At some point, it’s going to get settled.”
“I’m saying you’d better get it settled soon, and that means nobody can forget Oct. 7,” he said. “With that being said, it’s got to get over with, because between the hunger and all of the other problems. Worse than hunger—death. Pure death. People being killed,” Trump said. “I’m the one that brought back the hostages.”
The “terrible situation” in Gaza is “coming to a head. It’s coming to an end,” Trump said, noting that Washington sends $60 million worth of food into the Strip. “We’re feeding a lot of people, but with all of that being said, it’s a lot of people to feed,” he said. “I think within the next two to three weeks, you’re going to have a conclusive ending. It’s a hard thing to say, because they’ve been fighting for thousands of years, if you want to know. That’s been a hotbed forever.”
“I think we’re doing a very good job, but it does have to end,” Trump said. “But people can’t forget Oct. 7.”
Mike Huckabee, the U.S. ambassador to Israel, responded very differently to the IPC assessment on Friday, calling those who claim Israel is starving Gazans “uninformed.”
“To the uninformed who claim Israel is starving Gaza, get the facts and read the thread below,” Huckabee wrote, sharing a group of messages from the Israeli prime minister’s office. “Tons of food has gone into Gaza, but Hamas savages stole it, ate lots of it to become corpulent, sold it on the black market, but they didn’t give it to the hostages.”
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s office called the IPC’s determinations an “outright lie” and said that the Jewish state “does not have a policy of starvation” but rather “a policy of preventing starvation.”
FEWS Net was funded by the U.S. Agency for International Development, which Trump has sought to diminish drastically and roll into the State Department.
The Aug. 22 alert, which contains the State Department logo, states that “FEWS NET is a U.S. government-funded activity” and the “content of this report does not necessarily reflect the view of the United States government.”
In December, Jack Lew, then the U.S. ambassador to Israel, pressured FEWS Net to retract a report warning of imminent famine in Gaza, calling the data outdated and inaccurate.
