A panel of global experts said on Friday that hundreds of thousands of people in Gaza faced major difficulties accessing food, despite improved flows of humanitarian aid and commercial goods into the enclave since October’s cease-fire.
In its report on Friday, the Integrated Food Security Phase Classification, or I.P.C., acknowledged that access to aid and the flow of goods into Gaza had improved but said that around 1.6 million people were still experiencing high levels of acute food insecurity.
Gaza was facing an “emergency” level of food insecurity, said the group, which the United Nations and aid agencies rely on to monitor and classify global hunger crises. The group said more than 100,000 people faced famine across the four regions of Gaza that it had looked at but did not classify any one region as facing widespread famine.
The Israeli agency responsible for coordinating the entry of aid and commercial goods into Gaza, known as COGAT, described the report as showing “blatant, biased and deliberate disregard” for the 500,000 tons of food that it said had entered Gaza since the cease-fire between Israel and Hamas.
Riwaa Abu Quta, 31, a displaced person in Khan Younis, said she had seen fruits, vegetables and frozen meats in local markets but that many families were still unable to afford them.
About 80 percent of Gazans are unemployed, according to a December 2024 report from the Palestinian Central Bureau of Statistics.
In August, the I.P.C. reported widespread famine in Gaza City and its surroundings and said at the time that at least half a million people across the enclave were facing an extreme lack of food.
After that report, Israel accused the I.P.C. of “departures from transparency, neutrality and methodological rigor.”
In its latest report, the I.P.C. predicted that more than 100,000 young children would face moderate or severe acute malnutrition by mid-October 2026.
“Despite the improved situation, the population of the Gaza Strip still faces high levels of acute food insecurity and acute malnutrition,” the report said. “Although humanitarian assistance, including food aid, has increased, only basic survival needs are being met.”
The I.P.C. uses five categories to classify hunger. In its latest report, the group said that almost a million people were at Phase 3, defined as “crisis” levels of food insecurity; more than half a million at Phase 4, or “emergency”; and over 100,000 at Phase 5, or famine.
On Tuesday, Ramiz Alakbarov, the United Nations’ deputy special coordinator for the Middle East peace process, said the hunger situation in Gaza had improved during the cease-fire, but he warned that most of the population lacked access to “key protein sources.”
“Humanitarian access remains restricted, with aid convoys facing logistical and security obstacles,” he told the U.N. Security Council, adding that Gaza was grappling with “severe shortages” of clean water, medical care and shelter.
On Dec. 7, Carl Skau, the deputy chief of the U.N. World Food Program, told The New York Times that the agency had made progress in delivering food to Gaza, but he cautioned that other humanitarian organizations were struggling with Israeli restrictions and that insufficient fresh fruits and vegetables were reaching the enclave.
He said that the program was sending roughly 100 trucks into Gaza daily and had helped 1.5 million people in the territory in November.
Adam Rasgon is a reporter for The Times in Jerusalem, covering Israeli and Palestinian affairs.
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