One year of war in Gaza: Food emergency continues with no end in sight

By Rob Vos

October 4, 2024

With conflict in the Middle East now escalating into Lebanon and beyond, Palestinians in the Gaza Strip continue to face dire food security conditions. One year has passed since the October 7, 2023 Hamas attacks on Israeli civilians, triggering the Israeli military retaliation and war that have killed more than 41,000 Palestinians and devastated the livelihoods of Gaza's population of over 2 million.

Food insecurity in Gaza has slightly attenuated since our previous assessment of last June, when the Integrated Phase Classification (IPC) early warning mechanism estimated that nearly all of Gaza's population faced emergency levels of acute food insecurity. IPC's Famine Review Committee did not declare famine in June, as food assistance flows into Gaza had then increased from previous low, irregular levels. Humanitarian food assistance has declined since, but an increased flow of commercial food supplies appears to have helped in reducing inflationary pressures and, for now, preventing the occurrence of widespread famine in Gaza.