Mariam is the embodiment of the
starvation in Gaza City. She is 9 years
old and weighs just 9 kilograms. Her
family are displaced, their stomachs
empty.
>> Muriam began showing signs of
malnutrition while we were in Rafa. At
the time, the hunger wasn't as severe as
it is now. Because of the extreme
starvation we're facing now, she lost
even more weight.
At a malnutrition clinic in Gaza City,
they're measuring emaciated limbs.
Today, the internationally recognized
threshold for famine has been formally
met here. One in five people with
extreme food shortages, one in three
children acutely malnourished, and two
in 10,000 people dying from lack of
food.
Be in no doubt that this is irrefutable
testimony.
It is a famine,
the Gaza famine.
It is a famine that we could have
prevented if we had been allowed.
Yet food stacks up at borders because of
systematic obstruction by Israel.
It is a famine within a few hundred
meters of food in a fertile land.
It is a famine that hits the most
vulnerable first. Each with a name, each
with a story,
that strips people of dignity before it
strips them of life.
>> Famine has been declared for the Gaza
governorate, which includes Gaza City.
In this part of Gaza alone, 280,000
people are facing catastrophic
starvation, destitution, and death. The
IPC believes the situation is even worse
in North Gaza, which has been under
intense Israeli attack, but it couldn't
collect the data it needs. It also says
Dear Albala and Khan Ununice will soon
formally be in famine, too. Almost the
whole of Gaza over the next year. It
says 132,000 children under five are
expected to suffer from acute
malnutrition, including over 41,000
severe cases of children at heightened
risk of death. Israel's Prime Minister
Benjamin Netanyahu has repeatedly
claimed there is no hunger or starvation
in Gaza, and his government's response
today was to claim there was no famine
either, despite the IPC's detailed
evidence-based report.
Famine has only been declared four times
previously since this monitoring started
in 2004. in Somalia in 2011, in South
Sudan in 2017 and 2020, in Sudan in
2024, and now the Gaza City region in
2025, the first time famine has been
declared outside of Africa.
The IPC's damning assessment is that
this catastrophe is entirely man-made.
Israel controls the aid flows,
and this is the result.
Central Gaza yesterday, a scramble for
aid parcels,
>> while the UN says more than 1,400 people
have been killed waiting for food at
sites run by the Israelbacked Gaza
Humanitarian Foundation.
Israel's defense minister today pledged
to raise Gaza City if Hamas doesn't
agree to its ceasefire terms.
Strikes continued overnight and into the
day. Residents of this makeshift camp
waking to find some neighbors dead and
others displaced. Bodies were brought to
the Alshifa hospital, including those of
children.
And so many are trying to escape the
north of Gaza City, fleeing Abu Iscanda
and Jabalia areas after days of air
strikes and Israeli evacuation warnings.
And all the while, hunger looms over
lives here and delivers yet more death.
Well, a few minutes ago, we heard the
loud thuds of the Iron Dome, and you may
have seen the intercept missiles behind
me. We are trying to verify and get more
detail, but the IDF said in a post on
social media just a minute or two ago
that sirens sounding across several
areas in Israel following Houthi
projectile fire from Yemen. Now earlier
I spoke to UNICEF spokesperson Tess
Ingram who is currently in Al-Mawasi in
Gaza. I began by asking her what she is
personally seeing on the ground there.
I've spent a lot of time in the last 48
hours at UNICEF supported nutrition
treatment points and I was shocked by
what I saw. This is the fourth time I've
been in Gaza since the conflict began
and it is the worst I have ever seen. I
had mothers holding my hand crying
saying that they are watching their
children die. I had one father just
repeating to me, I am shocked. I am
shocked because his son had just been
diagnosed with malnutrition and he's
losing vision in his right eye. I met a
little girl who's 14 months old who
weighs half of what she should at that
age. She's just 5 kg.
>> And that is why they expect the famine
to spread to basically cover the whole
of Gaza because you're in an area right
now that hasn't even formally been
declared as being in famine yet.
>> That's right. The classification today
was for Gaza City in the north. uh these
treatment places that I visited were in
dear Albala which is one of the places
where the experts have said that famine
will spread to in the coming weeks if
conditions don't change.
>> It's been described by much of the world
today as a man-made famine. What are the
absolute key drivers from where you are
that's causing this?
>> This is engineered scarcity. The volume
of aid that is coming in is still a drop
in the ocean and we have an ocean of
need. So we really need far more. We're
seeing dozens of trucks when we need 5
to 600. That is the reality. So claims
that aid entries is entering the Gaza
Strip at scale are not true.
>> How much aid is sitting there meters
away from Gaza waiting to get in?
>> UNICEF has hundreds of trucks ready to
enter the Gaza Strip as do other UN
agencies. Those trucks should be on the
other side of the crossing. And another
challenge that we have is when they are
on the other side of the crossing, we
often have challenges getting the access
to collect them from the crossing. We
need permission to go there and pick
them up. And we do not always get that
uh at the speed or scale that we need to
given the crisis that we have on our
hands. So, it's a double-edged sword.
It's like a game of snakes and ladders.
Every time we take a step forward, we
face another barrier. And it is
children's lives that are really bearing
the brunt of that.
Do you believe that you are seeing there
the militarization of aid in that Israel
is locating aid in locations that it
wants to force the population to move to
for its war aims?
>> The United Nations has been very clear
that we will not participate in the
nonua distribution sites that are in the
militarized zone and that have
militarized personnel around them. The
result of that system that has been
established is clear. It's dangerous. A
number of children have been killed and
injured while trying to go there to get
the basics that they need to survive.
That is not how aid should be delivered
and that is not how the United Nations
delivers aid.
>> Do you think that this declaration of
famine today will make any difference in
terms of the Israeli response in letting
aid through?
>> I think that depends on what the
international community does in
response. This is a robust piece of
evidence from a group of global experts
uh who are highly regarded and have used
the methodology that they use in other
contexts around the world. To us, this
is irrefutable evidence of a famine and
I hope the international community and
world leaders take it with that same
weight because so far we have failed
Gaza's children. I have met mothers who
have told me they are watching their
children die. So if there was a moment
to act, it is now. The Israeli
government has already responded to this
declaration of famine. It said there is
no famine. So what do you say then to
the Israeli government today?
>> There is a famine and we can have a war
of words and we have been for almost two
years. There has been an information war
waged as well as the war on the ground.
But I hope that your listeners and other
people will take their responsibility as
witnesses to this seriously. But to us
on the ground and to the people that
we're serving, it is clear and simple.
There is a famine.
>> Tess Ingram, thank you very much for
speaking with us.
>> Thank you.
>> Well, for an insight into the growing
crisis facing people in Gaza, we've been
sent pictures from one of the hospitals
still working in Gaza City where staff
in the neonatal unit are doing their
best to treat malnourished babies in
appalling conditions. We should warn you
there are distressing images in Zara
Wasami's report.
>> A newborn should be a reason to
celebrate. But in this hospital in Gaza
City, there is no joy.
Nora is just a few weeks old.
Her grandmother took her to this
hospital because Norah's mother is too
malnourished to breastfeed her newborn
and too weak to sit by her side.
for
[Music]
the UN warns the shortage in baby
formula and food will push more children
into starvation. And relatives in this
hospital know if the mothers can't eat,
neither will their babies.
Famine has now been declared in Gaza
City where the patients friend
benevolent society hospital is located.
Over the last 2 years, Gaza's health
care system has been destroyed by
Israeli bombardment.
And the benevolent hospital was not
spared. Operating rooms, oxygen
stations, and electrical supplies have
been damaged repeatedly.
Israel's aid restrictions has also
resulted in severe shortage of
specialized milk and medical supplies.
Doctors at the benevolent hospital say
children are dying of malnutrition.
Jenna is 8 years old.
Her malnutrition is severe. Staff say
she needs to be evacuated for urgent
care. Her one-year-old sister, Julie,
died at this hospital because of hunger.
Her mother says, "I can't bear to lose
my second daughter."
Israeli authorities say they're not
restricting aid, but one in every 10
children in Gaza is malnourished.
Aid workers from Save the Children say
some mothers had zero access to food in
North Gaza.
>> They were taking
desperate, desperate, and dehumanizing
measures to feed their children because
had no access to aid. So, one mother was
telling me how she was feeding her
children animal feed, trying to make
some sort of dough with that animal feed
to make bread that she would cut up into
pieces to feed her four children.
>> If these children were growing up
elsewhere, they would be laughing and
playing with their friends. But instead,
they're struggling for every breath.
Well, earlier I spoke to Gideon Levy, a
columnist for Israel's Harets newspaper.
I asked him how Israelis are reacting to
the UN's unprecedented report confirming
Gaza farming in Gaza.
>> As you can imagine, sir, first of all,
it was hardly mentioned. The problem of
Israeli media those days, ever since the
war started, is not its political views
or standings. It's its professional
commitment. and they don't cover Gaza
and they don't cover reports like this.
It's now too early to judge, I guess.
And if you will follow Israeli outlets,
most of them, the mainstream outlets,
you will hardly know that there is
starvation in Gaza. You will hardly know
that 20,000 children were killed. You
will hardly see the scenes.
>> Do the Israeli public know that there
has been starvation in Gaza for for
weeks and months and that children are
dying? Most of the Israelis live in
denial and deny it. I I can see even
when I show them images
to some of my friends, the first
reaction will be, "Oh, it's AI. Oh, it's
fake. Oh, it's from Afghanistan. It's
not from Sudan. This is not from Gaza."
The the reaction is denying as much as
they can.
>> So, is this a moment where that could
change? Because this is an
internationally recognized body. It's
the world body that monitors famine.
>> It will be labeled immediately and it
was already by the government as
anti-semite anti-semitic organizations
who who spread lies and propaganda
against Israel.
>> Why do you think people here choose to
believe Prime Minister Benjamin
Netanyahu who says there is no
starvation over much of the rest of the
world that says there is. It is very
hard to admit that your government, your
state, your army is committing a
genocide. It is very hard to digest. The
sons of your friends and the friends of
your sons are committing those crimes
against humanity in Gaza. It's very hard
to live with it. What do you do with it?
It's your states and you state and it is
a democracy. It's not like a tyranny
which the tyrant decides. We are all
partners in this project.
>> That's not the view of everyone in
Israel, is it? There are people who
speak up. There are people who protest.
>> Listen to the protest. And I have a lot
of appreciation to the protest and to
the protesters. They are talking about
two things. Releasing the hostages,
bringing them home, which is obviously a
holy mission, and getting rid of
Netanya, which is also very important.
you will hear very little about the
genocide, about the starvation in in
Gaza. It's not that you will not hear,
but only the margins.
>> If it's not international bodies saying
there is famine, if it's not the
accusations of genocide, if it's if it's
not Benjamin Netanyahu been under wanted
for arrest in the international criminal
court, what will change minds? So there
is still hope that some accumulative
effects will be that there will be a
stage in which denial denial will be not
relevant will be impossible and
obviously the real magic will be a phone
call by Donald Trump to stop the war. If
he does so within hours the war is over.
>> So that's a pretty bleak assessment
you've given us. I'm sensing that you
don't think that anything is going to
change dramatically in Israeli public
opinion anytime soon.
>> More than this, I think the damages of
the last two years, at least part of
them, are irreversible. The Israeli
society is a different society after
those two years and not for the good.
And I'm not sure that all those wounds
will be healed soon. Israel is still a
democracy and you choose your own
government and this is the government
that the people of Israel have chosen.
>> You know, South Africa was also a
democracy for its white citizens. Israel
is a democracy for its Jewish citizens.
There are 7 million Palestinians who
live under the rule of Israel and have
no rights or at least partial rights.
It's very problematic to define Israel
as a democracy.
>> Gideon Levy, thank you very much.
>> Thank you for having me.