Photos: Gaza's worsening hunger crisis
The world’s leading authority on food crises said Friday that he Gaza Strip’s largest city is now gripped by famine. Aid groups and food security experts have warned for months that Gaza was on the brink of famine, but this is the first official confirmation.
Somoud Wahdan looks at the camera while she and her child wait for trucks of humanitarian aid to arrive in Gaza City, July 25, 2025. (AP Photo/Abdel Kareem Hana)
FILE - Palestinians rush to collect humanitarian aid airdropped into Zawaida in central Gaza Strip, July 31, 2025. (AP Photo/Abdel Kareem Hana, File)
FILE - Palestinians struggle to get donated food at a community kitchen in Gaza City, northern Gaza Strip, July 14, 2025. (AP Photo/Jehad Alshrafi, File)
Seven-month-old Salem Awad, suffering from severe malnutrition, lies on a mattress in his family's tent in Gaza City, July 28, 2025. (AP Photo/Jehad Alshrafi)
Palestinians carry sacks of flour taken from a humanitarian aid convoy in the outskirts of Beit Lahiya, northern Gaza Strip, Aug. 1, 2025. (AP Photo/Jehad Alshrafi)
Samah Matar poses for a photo with her sons, Yousef, 6, in her arms, and Amir, 4, affected by malnutrition and cerebral palsy, at a U.N.-run school in Gaza City, July 26, 2025. (AP Photo/Jehad Alshrafi)
FILE - Ahmad Sbeteh, 17, injured by shrapnel from a strike on a neighboring house, has lost about 15 kilograms (33 pounds), and doctors say the lack of healthy food and nutritional supplements is slowing his recovery at Shifa Hospital in Gaza City on Monday, Aug. 18, 2025. Before the shrapnel injury, he had no preexisting conditions, doctors say. (AP Photo/Abdel Kareem Hana, File)
Palestinians mourn during the funeral of people who were killed while trying to reach aid trucks entering northern Gaza through the Zikim crossing with Israel, at Shifa Hospital, in Gaza City, Saturday, July 26, 2025. (AP Photo/Abdel Kareem Hana)
Palestinians pray over the body of a person who was killed while trying to reach aid trucks entering northern Gaza through the Zikim crossing with Israel, at Shifa Hospital, in Gaza City, Saturday, July 26, 2025. (AP Photo/Abdel Kareem Hana)
Palestinians struggle to get donated food at a community kitchen, in Gaza City, northern Gaza Strip, Saturday, July 26, 2025. (AP Photo/Abdel Kareem Hana)
Palestinians struggle to get donated food at a community kitchen, in Gaza City, northern Gaza Strip, Saturday, July 26, 2025. (AP Photo/Abdel Kareem Hana)
Palestinians struggle to get donated food at a community kitchen, in Gaza City, northern Gaza Strip, Saturday, July 26, 2025. (AP Photo/Abdel Kareem Hana)
Palestinians struggle to get donated food at a community kitchen, in Gaza City, northern Gaza Strip, Saturday, July 26, 2025. (AP Photo/Abdel Kareem Hana)
Palestinians struggle to get donated food at a community kitchen, in Gaza City, northern Gaza Strip, Saturday, July 26, 2025. (AP Photo/Abdel Kareem Hana)
Palestinians pray over the body of 5-month-old baby, Zainab Abu Halib, who died from malnutrition-related causes, according to the family and the hospital, during her funeral outside the Nasser Hospital, in Khan Younis, Gaza Strip, Saturday, July 26, 2025. (AP Photo/Mariam Dagga)
Palestinians carry sacks of flour unloaded from a humanitarian aid convoy that reached Gaza City from the northern Gaza Strip, Saturday, July 26, 2025. (AP Photo/Jehad Alshrafi)
Humanitarian aid is airdropped to Palestinians over northern Gaza Strip, Sunday, July 27, 2025. (AP Photo/Abdel Kareem Hana)
Humanitarian aid is airdropped to Palestinians over Gaza City, Gaza Strip, Sunday, July 27, 2025. (AP Photo/Jehad Alshrafi)
A Palestinian youth carries a sack of aid that landed in the Mediterranean Sea after being airdropped over central Gaza, at the shore of Zawaida, Gaza Strip Tuesday, July 29, 2025. (AP Photo/Abdel Kareem Hana)
Palestinians search for aid that landed in the Mediterranean Sea after being airdropped over central Gaza, at the shore of Zawaida, Gaza Strip Tuesday, July 29, 2025. (AP Photo/Abdel Kareem Hana)
Palestinians collect aid that landed in the Mediterranean Sea after being airdropped over central Gaza, at the shore of Zawaida, Gaza Strip Tuesday, July 29, 2025. (AP Photo/Abdel Kareem Hana)
"We want to hand it over to Arab forces that will govern it properly without threatening us and giving Gazans a good life," he said.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Sunday that Israel “has no choice but to finish the job and complete the defeat of Hamas.”
Aid groups have warned for months that Gaza was on the brink of famine, but this is the first confirmation. Netanyahu has called reports of starvation "lies" promoted by Hamas.
The decision is likely to bring more condemnation of Israel as frustration grows over dire conditions for Palestinians and hostages in Gaza.
Israel struck the headquarters of Hamas' political leadership in Qatar on Tuesday as the group's top figures gathered to consider a U.S. proposal for a ceasefire in the Gaza Strip.
Aid workers carried out a last-minute rescue mission for the items before Israel flattened a Gaza warehouse.
Israel says it expects all of the living hostages held in the Gaza Strip to be released Monday, while Palestinians on Sunday awaited the release of prisoners held in Israel.
Newly recovered bodies brought the Palestinian death toll above 68,000, according to Gaza's Health Ministry.
