U.N. Still Hasn't Declared a Famine in Gaza, a Year After Palestinian Groups Called for It

"Secretary General Guterres should not allow Israel's deliberate blocking of data collection to impede a formal famine declaration and provide cover for this genocide by starvation.“

I just put out the news release below via accuracy.org.

And here’s the latest posting [PDF, jpeg] at Papers Project — a flyer put out by some D.C. activists about how Israel is starving children. Thousands of copies have apparently been passed out around D.C., especially outside the Israeli embassy. But it can also be used by others in other cities. I hope to feature and create more such quality flyers that people can print, copy and distribute to take back the public square.

U.N. Still Hasn't Declared a Famine in Gaza, a Year After Palestinian Groups Called for It -- Interviews Available

Protests are escalating -- often using empty pots and pans -- regarding the genocide in Gaza. This includes activists passing out thousands of flyers in front of the Israeli embassy in D.C. and other locations. There was even a "die-in" at the U.S. Senate cafeteria.

Protests have been ongoing around the United Nations and outside the New York City residence of UN Secretary General António Guterres, including Friday evening at 6:30 p.m. ET. Contact: sawsans@gmail.com.

RAED JARRAR, rjarrar@dawnmena.org,

raedjarrar

Jarrar is advocacy director for DAWN, founded by slain writer Jamal Khashoggi. The group just released the report: "U.N. Secretary General: Declare Famine in Gaza -- Israel Using Starvation as a Weapon of War, Causing Deaths to Surge in Gaza."

The group states: "United Nations Secretary General António Guterres should immediately work to secure the official declaration of famine in Gaza by U.N. agencies in light of the escalating death of Palestinians due to hunger due to Israel's deliberate starvation policy, said DAWN today. The Gaza ministry of health has reported more than 40 hunger-related deaths this month, including 16 children, and 111 since the beginning of the war, 81 of them children."

Sarah Leah Whitson, DAWN's executive director, said: "The time is now to formally declare a famine in Gaza and to condemn Israel for carrying out a genocide by deliberately starving Palestinians. The UN's bureaucratic delay in declaring a famine while Palestinians starve to death before the eyes of the world is a grave moral failure that makes the international community complicit in Israel's extermination campaign."

The DAWN report notes: "The U.N.’s Integrated Food Security Phase Classification (IPC), a partnership of 19 international organizations, including the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO), World Food Programme (WFP), World Health Organization (WHO), and United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF), has established strict criteria for famine declaration: 20 percent of households facing extreme food shortage, 30 percent of children under five suffering acute malnutrition, and death rates exceeding 2 per 10,000 people daily. The partnership has declared famine only a few times, including in Somalia in 2011, and South Sudan in 2017 and 2020.

“All available evidence indicates Gaza has surpassed these thresholds. The IPC's own Famine Review Committee concluded in March 2024 that ‘[f]amine is now projected and imminent’ in northern Gaza, with all famine thresholds expected to be surpassed. Despite this assessment, technical obstacles, including Israel's blockade of international monitoring and the destruction of Gaza's health system, appear to have prevented the comprehensive data collection that the multi-stakeholder partnership requires for formal declaration.

“Secretary General Guterres has the authority to coordinate action among UN agencies to issue a formal famine declaration based on assessments from FAO, WFP, WHO, and UNICEF, even when the multi-stakeholder IPC partnership faces political or technical obstacles. Secretary-General Guterres can coordinate a famine declaration based on the overwhelming evidence of Israel's systematic starvation of Gaza's population.”

Raed Jarrar, DAWN's advocacy director, said: “Secretary General Guterres should not allow Israel's deliberate blocking of data collection to impede a formal famine declaration and provide cover for this genocide by starvation. The international community has sufficient evidence, including video documentation of starving children, testimonies from U.N. officials, and Israel's own statements about cutting off food supplies to support an immediate famine declaration.”

DAWN notes: “Palestinian civil society organizations called for a U.N. famine declaration over a year ago, with groups including the Palestinian Non-Governmental Organizations Network warning in June 2024 that ‘causing famine as a military tactic against civilians is prohibited’ under international humanitarian law and constitutes a war crime under the Rome Statute.”

See past IPA news releases: "Protests Demand Aid Get Into Gaza, Sanctions on Israel" and "Can Uniting for Peace Help Save the International Legal Order?"