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Critical risk of Famine in Gaza Strip amid ongoing conflict, aid blockade
by IPC, WFP, UNICEF, agencies
 
12 May 2025
 
Gaza Strip: IPC Acute Food Insecurity and Acute Malnutrition Special Snapshot | April - September 2025
 
Nineteen months into the conflict, the Gaza Strip is still confronted with a critical risk of Famine. Over 60 days have passed since all humanitarian aid and commercial supplies were blocked from entering the territory. Goods indispensable for people’s survival are either depleted or expected to run out in the coming weeks. The entire population is facing high levels of acute food insecurity, with half a million people (one in five) facing starvation.
 
From 11 May to the end of September 2025, the whole territory is classified in Emergency (IPC Phase 4), with the entire population expected to face Crisis or worse acute food insecurity (IPC Phase 3 or above).
 
This includes 470,000 people (22 percent of the population) in Catastrophe (IPC Phase 5), over a million people (54 percent) in Emergency (IPC Phase 4) and the remaining half million (24 percent) in Crisis (IPC Phase 3).
 
This marks a significant deterioration compared to the previous IPC analysis (released in October 2024) and the already dire conditions detected between 1 April - 10 May 2025. During this time, 1.95 million people (93 percent) were classified in Crisis or worse (IPC Phase 3 or above), including 244,000 people (12 percent) in IPC Phase 5 (Catastrophe) and 925,000 (44 percent) in IPC Phase 4 (Emergency).
 
Between 1 April and 10 May, acute malnutrition (AMN) was at Alert and Serious levels (IPC AMN Phase 2 and 3). However, experience has shown that acute malnutrition can worsen rapidly, and latest data indicate a deteriorating trend that is expected to persist. Consequently, acute malnutrition in North Gaza, Gaza and Rafah governorates will likely reach Critical levels (IPC AMN Phase 4) between 11 May and end of September.
 
Between mid-January and mid-March 2025, the ceasefire allowed a temporary alleviation of acute food insecurity and malnutrition conditions in parts of the Gaza Strip. However, the ongoing blockade imposed in early March reversed the situation. Since 18 March, the escalating conflict has displaced over 430,000 people, further disrupted access to humanitarian assistance, markets, health, water and sanitation services, and caused additional damage to remaining essential infrastructure.
 
All 25 bakeries supported by the World Food Programme (WFP) closed at the beginning of April due to lack of supplies, and food stocks for most of the 177 hot meal kitchens are reportedly exhausted.
 
All preventive nutrition supplies have run out in UNICEF and WFP warehouses. Food prices are soaring daily, with wheat flour ranging from USD $235 per 25 kg in Deir al-Balah to USD $520 in Gaza and Khan Younis - a 3,000 percent increase since February 2025. Latest data show many households resorting to extreme coping strategies. A third reported collecting garbage to sell for food, while a quarter indicated that no valuable garbage remains. Observations reveal that social order is breaking down.
 
The plan announced on 5 May by Israeli authorities for delivering food and non-food items across the governorates is estimated to be highly insufficient to meet the population’s essential needs for food, water, shelter and medicine.
 
Moreover, the proposed distribution mechanisms are likely to create significant access barriers for large segments of the population. In light of the announced large-scale military operation across the Gaza Strip and the persistent inability of humanitarian agencies to deliver essential goods and services, there is a high risk that Famine (IPC Phase 5) will occur in the projection period (11 May – 30 September). The latest announcements suggest that this worst-case scenario is becoming more likely.
 
Immediate action is essential to prevent further deaths, starvation and acute malnutrition, and a descent into Famine. This entails ending hostilities, ensuring unrestricted humanitarian access, restoring essential services and commercial flows, and providing sufficient lifesaving assistance to all in need.
 
http://www.ipcinfo.org/ipcinfo-website/countries-in-focus-archive/issue-124/en/ http://www.wfp.org/news/risk-famine-across-all-gaza-new-report-says http://www.unocha.org/news/un-relief-chief-calls-security-council-act-decisively-prevent-genocide-gaza http://www.who.int/news/item/12-05-2025-people-in-gaza-starving--sick-and-dying-as-aid-blockade-continues
 
8 Apr. 2025
 
If we die while sleeping… will it still hurt, by Nour Elassy - Poet and writer based in Gaza
 
Last week, during another violent night, my almost four-year-old niece asked me a question I’ll never forget. “If we die while sleeping… will it still hurt?”
 
I didn’t know what to say. How do you tell a child — who has seen more death than daylight — that dying in your sleep is a mercy?
 
So I told her: “No. I don’t think so. That’s why we should fall asleep now.”
 
She nodded quietly, and turned her face to the wall. She believed me. She closed her eyes.
 
I sat in the dark, listening to the bombs, wondering how many children were being buried alive just down the street.
 
I have 12 nieces and nephews. All are under the age of nine. They have been my solace and joy in these dark times.
 
But I, like their parents, struggle to help them make sense of what is going on around us.
 
We have had to lie to them so many times. They would often believe us, but sometimes they would feel in our voices or our stares that something terrifying was happening. They would feel the horror in the air.
 
No child should ever have to endure such brutality. No parent should have to cower in despair, knowing they cannot protect their children.
 
Last month, the ceasefire ended, and with it, the illusion of a pause. What followed wasn’t just a resumption of war — it was a shift to something more brutal and relentless.
 
In the span of three weeks, Gaza has become a field of fire, where no one is safe. More than 1,400 men, women and children have been killed. Daily massacres have shattered what remained of our ability to hope.
 
Some of them have hit home. Not just emotionally. Physically. Just yesterday, the air was filled with dust and the smell of blood from just a few streets away. The Israeli army targeted al-Nakheel Street in Gaza City, killing 11 people, including five children.
 
A few days earlier, at Dar al-Arqam School, a place that had sheltered displaced families, an Israeli air strike turned classrooms into ash. At least 30 people were killed in seconds—mostly women and children.
 
They had come there seeking safety, believing the blue United Nations flag would protect them. It didn’t. The school is less than 10 minutes away from my home.
 
The same day, the nearby Fahd School was also bombarded; three people were killed.A day earlier, there was news of a horror scene in Jabalia. An Israeli strike targeted a clinic run by the UNRWA, where civilians were sheltering.
 
Eyewitnesses described body parts strewn across the clinic. Children burned alive. An infant decapitated. The smell of burning flesh suffocating the survivors. It was a massacre in a place meant for healing.
 
Amid all this, parts of Gaza City received evacuation orders. Evacuate. Now. But to where? Gaza has no safe zones. The north is levelled. The south is bombed. The sea is a prison. The roads are death traps.
 
We stayed. It is not because we are brave. It is because we have nowhere else to go. Fear is not the right word to describe what we feel in Gaza. Fear is manageable. Fear can be named.
 
What we feel is a choking, silent terror that sits inside your chest and never leaves. It is the moment between a missile’s whistle and the impact, when you wonder if your heart has stopped.
 
It is the sound of children crying from under the rubble. The smell of blood spreading with the wind. It is the question my niece asked.
 
Foreign governments and politicians call it a “conflict”. A “complex situation”. A “tragedy”.
 
But what we are living through is not complex. What we are living through is not a tragedy. It is a war crime.
 
I’ve spent months writing, calling out to the world. I will not let our truth remain unspoken. Because I believe someone is listening. Somewhere. I write because I believe in humanity, even when governments have turned their backs on it. I write so that when history is written, no one can say they didn’t know.
 
http://www.unicef.org/press-releases/world-must-act-urgency-save-palestinians-gaza http://www.wfp.org/news/wfp-runs-out-food-stocks-gaza-border-crossings-remain-closed http://www.unocha.org/news/ocha-warns-deliberate-dismantling-life-gaza http://news.un.org/en/story/2025/06/1163911 http://news.un.org/en/story/2025/05/1163681 http://www.unocha.org/news/aid-must-not-be-weaponized-warns-gaza-humanitarian-country-team-amid-mounting-crisis http://www.un.org/sg/en/content/sg/press-encounter/2025-05-23/secretary-generals-press-encounter-the-humanitarian-situation-gaza http://news.un.org/en/tags/gaza
 
UN urges global action to protect and support civilians devastated by Sudan’s war
 
Two years of conflict have fueled a catastrophic protection crisis and displaced a staggering 12 million people in Sudan and across borders.
 
Fighting continues to kill and injure civilians and destroy hospitals, markets and other essential infrastructure. Nearly two-thirds of the population need emergency aid, and the country is facing famine conditions. Refugees in dire need arrive in neighbouring countries where local resources are already stretched thin.
 
“Sudan is a humanitarian emergency of shocking proportions,” said Under-Secretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs and Emergency Relief Coordinator Tom Fletcher. “Famine is taking hold. An epidemic of sexual violence rages. Children are being killed and injured. The suffering is appalling. We need to stop the fighting, and funding to deliver for the Sudanese people, and we need better access by land, sea and air to those who need help.”
 
“Today, one-third of Sudan’s entire population is displaced. The consequences of this horrific and senseless conflict spread far beyond Sudan’s borders,” said Filippo Grandi, UN High Commissioner for Refugees. “Neighbouring countries have shown great solidarity by welcoming refugees, even when more are arriving every day. But their resources are stretched – essentials such as water, shelter and health services are scarce – and Sudan needs urgent support. The international community must step up and help, not just to ensure that emergency aid and life-saving protection can continue without disruption, but also to end the violence and restore peace to Sudan.”
 
Famine conditions have been reported in numerous locations in Sudan including displacement camps in Darfur and in the western Nuba Mountains. Catastrophic hunger is expected to worsen by May when the lean season begins. With continued fighting and basic services having collapsed across most of the country, the crisis is set to get worse.
 
The Humanitarian Needs and Response Plan for Sudan aims to reach nearly 21 million vulnerable people with life-saving aid and protection. This is the highest number of people in any UN-coordinated plan this year. As the conflict rages on, thousands continue to flee every day. The majority arrive in an extremely vulnerable state, with high levels of malnutrition and requiring emergency assistance. To date, nearly 3.5 million people have sought safety in neighbouring countries further stretching already scarce services and resources.
 
Sudan: Acute Food Insecurity Situation
 
Twenty months into the conflict, Sudan continues to slide into a widening Famine crisis characterized by widespread starvation and a significant surge in acute malnutrition. The IPC Famine Review Committee (FRC) has detected Famine in at least five areas and projects that five additional areas will face Famine between December 2024 and May 2025. Furthermore, there is a risk of Famine in seventeen additional areas. Half of the population (24.6 million people) is facing high levels of acute food insecurity. This marks an unprecedented deepening and widening of the food and nutrition crisis, driven by the devastating conflict, which has triggered unprecedented mass displacement, a collapsing economy, the breakdown of essential social services, and severe societal disruptions, and poor humanitarian access.
 
Between December 2024 and May 2025, 24.6 million people face high levels of acute food insecurity (IPC Phase 3 or above). These results mark a stark increase of 3.5 million people compared to the number originally projected and correspond to over half of the population of Sudan. This includes about 15.9 million people (33 percent) classified in IPC Phase 3 (Crisis), 8.1 million people (17 percent) in IPC Phase 4 (Emergency), and at least 638,000 people (1 percent) in IPC Phase 5 (Catastrophe).
 
http://www.ipcinfo.org/ipc-country-analysis/details-map/en/c/1159433/ http://www.nrc.no/news/2025/april/sudans-darkest-hour http://reliefweb.int/report/sudan/sudan-two-years-war-starvation-global-failure-world-must-act-now http://www.ohchr.org/en/press-releases/2025/04/sudan-faces-worsening-humanitarian-catastrophe-famine-and-conflict-escalate http://www.unicef.org/press-releases/number-children-need-humanitarian-assistance-sudan-doubles-conflict-enters-third http://www.icrc.org/en/news-release/sudan-new-report-sheds-light-two-years-devastation-sudan http://www.msf.org/two-years-war-sudan-leave-millions-more-need-ever http://news.un.org/en/tags/sudan http://www.unocha.org/latest/news-and-stories?responses=30
 
22 February 2025
 
Three years into the war in Ukraine, one third of population in frontlines regions struggle to find enough to eat
 
As the war in Ukraine enters its fourth year, an estimated five million Ukrainians are facing food insecurity, with the greatest needs concentrated in areas near the frontlines.
 
According to data collected by the UN World Food Programme (WFP), millions of people are resorting to coping mechanisms, sacrificing their own meals so their children can eat. Others are going into debt to buy sufficient food supplies to feed their families.
 
WFP continues to provide food and cash assistance to nearly 1.5 million Ukrainians each month, mostly in the frontline regions. Despite these efforts, more than half of the people in the Kherson region in the south face severe hunger, and, two out of every five individuals face hunger in Zaporizhzhia as well as the Donetsk region in the east.
 
"Families in frontline regions are struggling to put food on the table, forcing them to make heartbreaking choices just to get by," said Richard Ragan, WFP Country Director in Ukraine. “As we look forward to sustainable peace in what is considered to be one of the world’s historical breadbasket regions, we must face the reality that humanitarian aid continues to be a lifeline for millions.”
 
According to WFP monitoring, 72 percent of those who receive food assistance reported having to cut back on food, buy less nutritious food, skip meals, or borrow money to feed their family. Across six frontline regions almost a third of all people are food insecure.
 
In areas close to the war, commercial supply chains are disrupted, infrastructure is often damaged or destroyed, and the opportunities to earn money are scarce. Where supermarkets are accessible and stocked, many families cannot afford nutritious food. The cost of basic food items rose by 25 percent in the last year, with some staple vegetables more than doubling in price.
 
Since March 2022, WFP has provided assistance in Ukraine equivalent to 3.3 billion meals and distributed 445,000 metric tons of food.
 
Meanwhile, the challenges of delivering lifesaving assistance near the frontlines have been growing. In the last six months, WFP food distribution points and the vehicles or assets of its local humanitarian partners have been hit by drones, shelling or missiles more than 20 times, putting humanitarian operations at risk.
 
http://www.wfp.org/news/three-years-ukraine-war-one-third-population-frontline-regions-struggle-find-enough-eat http://www.nrc.no/news/2025/february/ukraine-three-years-on-sharp-increase-in-basic-needs-along-the-frontline http://www.unhcr.org/news/briefing-notes/unhcr-after-three-years-war-ukrainians-need-peace-and-aid http://www.msf.org/medical-humanitarian-needs-ukraine-remain-urgent-ever http://www.ifrc.org/article/ukraine-ifrc-president-kate-forbes-reflects-scars-conflict-and-long-road-recovery http://www.actionagainsthunger.org/press-releases/suspension-of-us-international-aid-has-serious-consequences-as-ukraine-marks-three-years-of-war/ http://unocha.exposure.co/ukraine-three-years-of-fullscale-war http://www.savethechildren.net/news/ukraine-i-fear-i-wont-be-able-help-my-child-75-people-struggling-make-ends-meet-after-3-years http://reliefweb.int/report/ukraine/three-years-loss-and-fear-war-ukraine-shatters-childrens-lives


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Closer than ever: It is now 89 seconds to midnight
by Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists
 
28 Jan. 2025
 
In 2024, humanity edged ever closer to catastrophe. Trends that have deeply concerned the Science and Security Board continued, and despite unmistakable signs of danger, national leaders and their societies have failed to do what is needed to change course. Consequently, we now move the Doomsday Clock from 90 seconds to 89 seconds to midnight—the closest it has ever been to catastrophe.
 
Our fervent hope is that leaders will recognize the world’s existential predicament and take bold action to reduce the threats posed by nuclear weapons, climate change, and the potential misuse of biological science and a variety of emerging technologies.
 
In setting the Clock one second closer to midnight, we send a stark signal: Because the world is already perilously close to the precipice, a move of even a single second should be taken as an indication of extreme danger and an unmistakable warning that every second of delay in reversing course increases the probability of global disaster.
 
In regard to nuclear risk, the war in Ukraine, now in its third year, looms over the world; the conflict could become nuclear at any moment because of a rash decision or through accident or miscalculation.
 
Conflict in the Middle East threatens to spiral out of control into a wider war without warning. The countries that possess nuclear weapons are increasing the size and role of their arsenals, investing hundreds of billions of dollars in weapons that can destroy civilization.
 
The nuclear arms control process is collapsing, and high-level contacts among nuclear powers are totally inadequate given the danger at hand. Alarmingly, it is no longer unusual for countries without nuclear weapons to consider developing arsenals of their own—actions that would undermine longstanding nonproliferation efforts and increase the ways in which nuclear war could start.
 
The impacts of climate change increased in the last year as myriad indicators, including sea-level rise and global surface temperature, surpassed previous records. The global greenhouse gas emissions that drive climate change continued to rise. Extreme weather and other climate change-influenced events—floods, tropical cyclones, heat waves, drought, and wildfires—affected every continent.
 
The long-term prognosis for the world’s attempts to deal with climate change remains poor, as most governments fail to enact the financing and policy initiatives necessary to halt global warming. Growth in solar and wind energy has been impressive but remains insufficient to stabilize the climate.
 
Judging from recent electoral campaigns, climate change is viewed as a low priority in the United States and many other countries.
 
In the biological arena, emerging and re-emerging diseases continue to threaten the economy, society, and security of the world. The off-season appearance and in-season continuance of highly pathogenic avian influenza (HPAI), its spread to farm animals and dairy products, and the occurrence of human cases have combined to create the possibility of a devastating human pandemic.
 
Supposedly high-containment biological laboratories continue to be built throughout the world, but oversight regimes for them are not keeping pace, increasing the possibility that pathogens with pandemic potential may escape.
 
Rapid advances in artificial intelligence have increased the risk that terrorists or countries may attain the capability of designing biological weapons for which countermeasures do not exist.
 
An array of other disruptive technologies advanced last year in ways that make the world more dangerous. Systems that incorporate artificial intelligence in military targeting have been used in Ukraine and the Middle East, and several countries are moving to integrate artificial intelligence into their militaries.
 
Such efforts raise questions about the extent to which machines will be allowed to make military decisions—even decisions that could kill on a vast scale, including those related to the use of nuclear weapons.
 
Tensions among the major powers are increasingly reflected in competition in space, where China and Russia are actively developing anti-satellite capabilities; the United States has alleged that Russia has tested a satellite with a dummy warhead on it, suggesting plans to place nuclear weapons in orbit.
 
The dangers we have just listed are greatly exacerbated by a potent threat multiplier: the spread of misinformation, disinformation, and conspiracy theories that degrade the communication ecosystem and increasingly blur the line between truth and falsehood.
 
Advances in AI are making it easier to spread false or inauthentic information across the internet—and harder to detect it.
 
At the same time, nations are engaging in cross-border efforts to use disinformation and other forms of propaganda to subvert elections, while some technology, media, and political leaders aid the spread of lies and conspiracy theories.
 
This corruption of the information ecosystem undermines the public discourse and honest debate upon which democracy depends. The battered information landscape is also producing leaders who discount science and endeavor to suppress free speech and human rights, compromising the fact-based public discussions that are required to combat the enormous threats facing the world.
 
Blindly continuing on the current path is a form of madness. The United States, China, and Russia have the collective power to destroy civilization. These three countries have the prime responsibility to pull the world back from the brink, and they can do so if their leaders seriously commence good-faith discussions about the global threats outlined here.
 
Despite their profound disagreements, they should take that first step without delay. The world depends on immediate action. It is 89 seconds to midnight.
 
http://thebulletin.org/doomsday-clock/2025-statement/


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