The numbers are in: Gaza “famine” never happened, data show
Recent data and statements from international officials suggest that reports of a famine in Gaza were deliberately exaggerated.
On August 22, the Integrated Food Security Phase Classification (IPC)—a group created by the United Nations to assess hunger crises—declared that Gaza was experiencing a famine. The IPC’s own methodology estimates that in a “Phase 5” famine, approximately two people per 10,000 die each day from hunger-related causes, while a “Phase 4” emergency assumes one death per 10,000 per day.
Based on the IPC’s most recent report, which classified roughly 500,000 Gazans in Phase 5 and 1.07 million in Phase 4, those figures would imply more than 10,000 famine-related deaths between August 22 and October 7. However, Hamas officials reported just 461 deaths from malnutrition during that period—a 98 percent shortfall compared to projections.
These numbers emerged after the IPC quietly rewrote its own famine standards so it could declare one in Gaza. Typically, the IPC assesses whether there is a famine by measuring the height and weight of children in an affected area. If 30% of children are found to be suffering from acute malnutrition, the IPC considers it a famine.
But in its July 29th report on Gaza, the IPC quietly changed its standards, the Washington Free Beacon reported. Instead of using detailed height and weight measurements, the IPC measured children’s mid-upper arm circumference (MUAC), a metric considered far less precise. In addition, the IPC halved its acute malnutrition metric from 30% to 15%.
The group was then able to declare a famine after determining that in Gaza City, 16.5% of children were malnourished based on MUAC. In Deir al-Balah and Khan Younis, the two other cities studied by the IPC, the number was just 8%.
The IPC’s conclusion was cited by legacy media outlets to accuse Israel of “starving” Gazans.
“If you keep pulling the thread here, you start to understand this is one of the greatest frauds ever perpetrated on the world,” former National Security Council official Richard Goldberg said. “There is no famine in Gaza—the data thresholds don’t support that claim—and yet we have the United Nations changing the rules to fit the desired political outcome.”
A manufactured narrative
And although the IPC declared a famine on August 22nd, a World Health Organization (WHO) official recently revealed that discussions about accusing Israel of perpetrating a famine in Gaza started as early as December 2023—just two months after the Hamas massacre of Israelis.
Dr. Michel Thieren, the WHO’s representative to Israel, revealed on the Mosaïque podcast that as early as October 8, 2023—the day after Hamas slaughtered more than 1,200 Israelis—his professional circles had already decided Israel was to blame. By December, at a Geneva meeting involving UN and WHO officials, Thieren said the discussion had shifted to how to “scientifically demonstrate” a famine in Gaza.
“At the very end of the meeting – I won’t say exactly where, and it wasn’t necessarily at the WHO, rest assured – there was a gathering of experts who asked the question quite forcefully. I was there, and I was absolutely stunned. What they were saying, essentially, was that one should try to find a term that could be used to exert pressure. So yes, I was very shocked by that,” Thieren said, as quoted by the Jerusalem Post.
“So when these people were saying it would be necessary to demonstrate famine, the guilt had already been assigned [to Israel],” he added. “When we talk about genocide, the WHO never went there, others did – but very early, these people pronounced these two terms [genocide and famine], they were thrown out right from the start. So the crimes were already predetermined, and then the organizations tried to demonstrate them. And for me, that is not normal at all.”
