GENEVA, May 12, 2025 (WAFA) – The World Health Organization on Monday warned that the lack of immediate access to food and essential supplies was causing more deaths and famine in the war-torn Gaza Strip.

 “Today’s report shows that without immediate access to food and essential supplies, the situation will continue to deteriorate, causing more deaths and descent into famine,” WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said in a statement.

“We do not need to wait for a declaration of famine in Gaza to know that people are already starving, sick and dying, while food and medicines are minutes away across the border,” he added.

Referring to the latest food security analysis released on Monday by the Integrated Food Security Phase Classification (IPC) partnership, the WHO said: “The risk of famine in Gaza is increasing with the deliberate withholding of humanitarian aid, including food, in the ongoing blockade.”

“The entire 2.1 million population of Gaza is facing prolonged food shortages, with nearly half a million people in a catastrophic situation of hunger, acute malnutrition, starvation, illness and death. This is one of the world’s worst hunger crises, unfolding in real time,” it added.

“Famine has not yet been declared, but people are starving now. Three quarters of Gaza’s population are at “Emergency” or “Catastrophic” food deprivation, the worst two levels of IPC's five level scale of food insecurity and nutritional deprivation,” it said.

“Since the aid blockade began on 2 March 2025, 57 children have reportedly died from the effects of malnutrition, according to the Ministry of Health. This number is likely an underestimate and is likely to increase. If the situation persists, nearly 71,000 children under the age of five are expected to be acutely malnourished over the next eleven months, according to the IPC report,” it elaborated.