Palestinians Reject UN Famine Declaration as ‘Too Little, Too Late’

GAZA CITY: In Gaza City, desperate residents lined up with empty pots and buckets outside a charity kitchen on Saturday, only a day after the United Nations officially declared that famine had struck the war-torn enclave.

Video from the city, which Israeli forces have vowed to capture in their next military push, showed women and children packed tightly together, shouting and scrambling for small portions of rice. One boy used his hands to scrape the last grains from a pot, while a young girl sat on the ground beside a tent, eating directly from a plastic bag.

“We have no house, no food, no source of income,” said 58-year-old Yousef Hamad, who fled Beit Hanoun in the north. “Charity kitchens are our only option, but even then, we remain hungry.”

Further south in Deir el Balah, Umm Mohammad, 34, condemned the UN’s famine declaration as “far too late,” explaining that children there were collapsing from exhaustion and unable to wake due to severe hunger and dehydration.

UN Points to Blocked Aid

On Friday, the UN confirmed famine conditions in Gaza, citing Israel’s continuous restriction of humanitarian assistance throughout nearly two years of war. According to the Integrated Food Security Phase Classification (IPC), famine is already impacting about 500,000 people in Gaza governorate, which includes Gaza City and represents roughly one-fifth of the entire territory.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu dismissed the UN findings as “a complete fabrication.”

In response, UNRWA chief Philippe Lazzarini urged Israel to acknowledge the dire reality. “It is time for the government of Israel to stop denying the famine it has caused in Gaza. All those with influence must act with moral responsibility,” he wrote on X.

The IPC further warned that by late September famine could engulf Deir el Balah and Khan Yunis, pushing the crisis to nearly two-thirds of Gaza’s population.

Intensified Bombardment

Even as the famine report spread, Israeli bombardments pounded Gaza. Thick smoke rose over Zeitoun, where residents searched through destroyed homes. Gaza’s civil defence spokesperson Mahmud Bassal described the devastation in Zeitoun and Sabra as “utterly catastrophic,” noting that entire neighborhoods had been flattened.

“We are trapped, living in fear, with nowhere safe to go,” said 35-year-old Ahmad Jundiyeh, displaced to Zeitoun’s outskirts. “Every day we hear jets, artillery, and drones. We feel the end is coming.”

Israeli Defence Minister Israel Katz vowed that Gaza City would face the same destruction as other parts of the territory unless Hamas disarmed, released hostages, and accepted Israel’s conditions for ending the war.

For many residents, survival is the only focus. “They should come and see what is happening in Zeitoun,” said 53-year-old Aymen Daloul, whose home was destroyed. “We sleep on the streets like animals. Have mercy on us.”

Mahmud Abu Saqer, 24, said families were fleeing en masse as Israel announced plans to seize Gaza City. “This morning alone, more than 500 to 600 families left. Yesterday, thousands more followed,” he explained.