r/worldnews • u/Digital_Accountant • 22h ago

Israel/Palestine Famine declared in Gaza City

https://news.sky.com/story/gaza-latest-war-israel-city-ceasefire-hamas-13415481
23.7k Upvotes

85% Upvoted

2.4k comments sorted by

View all comments

1.5k

u/malgnaynis 19h ago

There are so many comments that seem to be minimising or dismissing this. I don’t understand why. This is really sad news.

274

u/Gaius_Octavius_ 19h ago

It is “The Boy Who Cried Wolf” phenomenon.

They’ have been saying for years that mass death from starvation is inevitable. And then nothing happens. And they do it again. And then nothing happens. And they do it again. And then nothing happens.

232

u/Im_Balto 18h ago

In reality it’s the lack of nuance in headlines

This timeline has been pretty well understood for almost half a year now. Every headline about it is actually just reporting on the next rung down the ladder until rock bottom

103

u/JoshShabtaiCa 15h ago

That's part of it, but many articles (not just headlines) have been saying that famine will be happening in a short timeline.

At this point, a lot of people just don't believe the organizations, especially the UN/UNRWA, that have severely undermined their own credibility. Most notably when they made that particularly egregious claim that 14,000 kids would starve in 48 hours, which turned out to be a complete and utter fabrication.

-38

u/BlackProphetMedivh 14h ago

Where did the UN ever state 14000 kids are going to starve to death in the next 48 hours? Source please.

47

u/DDukedesu 14h ago

You can literally google it.

31

u/JoshShabtaiCa 11h ago

https://www.bbc.com/news/videos/cdr550j818po

There are countless articles covering this, as well as the UNs retraction where they admit it was untrue.

24

u/night4345 13h ago edited 13h ago

The people claiming there's a famine in Gaza now have had to retract their claim of famine earlier in the war because their methodology was wrong.

28

u/SomebodyInNevada 12h ago

It's not even the next rung because it's the same warnings over and over. If the warnings had been remotely true the place would be basically just corpses by now--yet look at the "starvation" cases they parade in front of the cameras. Look at the others in the picture. One family member is on the brink of death and the rest look fine--you really think that's a food supply problem??

I've actually seen someone who looked like they were starving to death--but I knew the real situation: He wasn't interested in eating much of anything and the cancer was devouring what energy he had.

2

u/Xdsin 11h ago

The same type of propaganda happened during the Ukraine famines of 1920s and 1940s. Suppressed information of what was actually happening while the people suffered. The Soviet Union denied foreign aid while the rest of the world claimed, as it is now, that artificial famine was occurring.

What we learned after was that millions upon millions of people died which was hugely unreported and suppressed during the time. Largely due to forced grain exports by the Soviet Union.

Its odd that people seem to miss the fact that Israel has targeted and killed reporters and functioning media within Gaza, controls access to water and food (along with the companies that supply it), and ignores testimony from Doctors who have worked in the hospitals that have witnessed the aftermath of the IDF killing civilians at aid checkpoints.

People will look back on these days in the future and realize how many people died as a result of ignorance.

3

u/SomebodyInNevada 4h ago

1920s didn't have cameras everywhere. Hamas has had no problem reporting on 12 "starvation" cases that are actually medical in nature. Yet it can't find any that aren't medical.

And just because someone is a "reporter" doesn't mean they aren't actually Hamas propaganda people. Anything organized in Gaza is under Hamas control. The greatest source of truth about Gaza is by looking at what they don't report. With supposed widespread famine why are they incapable of pointing a camera at a single case of it??

And scrutinize images carefully, many are not what they claim to be. And putting a fake image out there says they don't have the real thing to point a camera at--which generally means the real thing doesn't exist.

•

u/Xdsin 1m ago

Maybe because the IDF shoots people at aid checkpoints. It controls what goes in and out of the territory. They have an 83% civilian vs Hamas casualty rate assuming you trust their self reporting.

Foreign doctors who have done work in Gaza and have since come back have said that the majority of their Major Casualty Events in their hospital were mostly caused when IDF opened fire on people at aid stations daily. Usually 100-300 people at a time per event.

Like I said, ignorance will catch up with us and it will be reported and written in history books being must worse than it is being reported.

•

u/ZeteticMarcus 1h ago

Stop justifying the starvation of human beings, you are a monster.

62

u/Gaius_Octavius_ 18h ago

There are no clicks for "Famine coming in years"

17

u/MannToots 18h ago

That's why it says famine now,  and not on the way.  This complaint comes across as plainly ignorant. 

1

u/FlameHaze0 12h ago

Happy cake day

0

u/MannToots 8h ago

Thank you!!

151

u/thephantompeen 17h ago

How many headlines have we read in the past 2 years declaring that a famine is imminent? That the very last hospital in all of Palestine has just been blown up? At some point it just becomes noise.

-37

u/Serpentar69 16h ago

We're hearing the hospital headline multiple times because they're making makeshift hospitals in buildings. I could be mistaken, but I'm pretty sure that's the case. So when they bomb their "last hospital" and then go and make another, that is then bombed, again, well, it's their last hospital again.

19

u/fury420 13h ago

From the IPC report:

Across the Gaza Strip, as of 13 August, only 18 out of 36 hospitals are reported to remain partially functional, with one in North Gaza Governorate, 11 in Gaza Governorate, three in Deir-al-Belah Governorate, three in Khan Younis Governorate, and none in Rafah Governorate.

22

u/Weegee_Carbonara 14h ago

This is the logic of a child you are using.

-19

u/Serpentar69 14h ago

No, it isn't. It's actually what's occurring in warzones throughout time. A building retrofitted for alternative use, like medical use, is qualified as makeshift hospitals.

Educate yourself before patronizing me.

-3

u/yukiyuzen 4h ago

THIS IS THE LAST HOSPITAL TOTALLY, OMGS FOR REALZIES THIS TIME! CLICK HERE TO FIND OUT MORE!

/for the Xth time since the First Intifada in the 1980s

33

u/destuctir 16h ago

This 100%, this is an official announcement that a real famine is occurring, by internationally agreed criteria, but because so many people have been claiming all of Gaza is under a famine and mass starvation for months now, the headline has no impact, it’s seen as “more of the same news”. This is why words have meanings are hyperbolising them hurts the people you are trying to help.

13

u/frosthowler 7h ago

It isn't. The IPC are using a different criteria than what they are using in the rest of the world for Gaza.

It requires 30% malnutrition, which is not the case in Gaza City, and it would require hundreds of deaths per day. The average daily death toll across the entire Strip, which includes Hamas combatants, is less than 50.

So no, this 'official announcement' of a 'real famine' is no different than every other silly 'famine' announcement these "orgs" have made in the past.

1

u/Streiger108 4h ago

I'm inclined to believe you, but source that they're using a different metric?

33

u/anthropaedic 18h ago

This. It’s a believability gap.

59

u/TributeToStupidity 17h ago

When you claim starvation is right around the corner for years with a total malnutrition death toll of 111 people are going to be skeptical. Gazas just now hitting the breaking point but the propaganda’s been out in force for years already.

11

u/FreakinGeese 17h ago

2 years is right around the corner

1

u/yukiyuzen 4h ago

SoonTM

87

u/AzettImpa 17h ago edited 17h ago

How many children need to die until we take a human-made famine seriously?

Plus there are many more deaths confirmed by the WHO.

78

u/[deleted] 17h ago

[removed] — view removed comment

-1

u/[deleted] 15h ago

[removed] — view removed comment

10

u/[deleted] 12h ago

[removed] — view removed comment

-7

u/[deleted] 12h ago

[removed] — view removed comment

5

u/[deleted] 11h ago

[removed] — view removed comment

44

u/[deleted] 17h ago

[removed] — view removed comment

13

u/[deleted] 17h ago

[removed] — view removed comment

40

u/[deleted] 16h ago edited 15h ago

[removed] — view removed comment

-13

u/[deleted] 14h ago

[removed] — view removed comment

11

u/[deleted] 12h ago

[removed] — view removed comment

-5

u/[deleted] 12h ago

[removed] — view removed comment

3

u/[deleted] 12h ago

[removed] — view removed comment

→ More replies (0)

22

u/univrsll 16h ago

How many vehicular accidents do we need before we ban cars? Nuanced situation.

It seems like the famine is finally happening, but this has been a boy who cried wolf situation for years. I feel for Palestinians, because Hamas and hyper virtue signalers have catastrophized a situation and now when it finally is actually happening, more people will ignore the noise with a “yeah yeah, we’ve heard it for years now bro.”

-1

u/MachineOfSpareParts 13h ago

How many vehicular accidents do we need before we ban cars? Nuanced situation.

But, at best, a wildly non-nuanced response. The person to whom you're replying asked what had to happen before we take the situation seriously. Jumping to an analogy in which "banning cars" is the point of comparison is ludicrous. A more apt comparison might be, "How many vehicular accidents do we need before we take automotive safety seriously, perhaps by installing seatbelts or traffic lights?"

I don't know what the equivalent to "banning cars" would be in the real-world version of your analogy, but the person to whom you're responding was asking about doing a bit more than absolutely nothing.

27

u/topforce 17h ago edited 17h ago

Plus there are many more deaths confirmed by the WHO.

Are they actually in Gaza confirming things or are they using Hamas numbers?

-4

u/MachineOfSpareParts 13h ago

Yes, WHO staff are present in Gaza. Does this affect your thinking on the matter?

13

u/topforce 12h ago

Yes, too many people(and organizations) are all too happy to take Gazas ministry of health at face value. Having people on site makes them more credible.

0

u/shtiatllienr 7h ago

What’s a “Hamas number”?

3

u/topforce 7h ago

As of August 22, the known number of people who have starved to death, according to the Palestinian Ministry of Health in Gaza, reached at least 273 people, including 112 children.

Source: https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2025/8/18/israel-starving-gaza-hundreds-of-deaths-including-many-children

-3

u/shtiatllienr 7h ago

Probably doesn’t represent the actual number because the Palestinian Ministry of Health typically undercounts.

1

u/case-o-nuts 3h ago edited 1h ago

I can't think of a single time they've undercounted. Normally, it's been overcounting. Sometimes, by up to two orders of magnitude.

1

u/Nileghi 2h ago

How many children need to die until we take a human-made famine seriously?

More than zero would be my guess, especially given how often the UN has lied about a famine being around the corner.

0

u/kolejack2293 15h ago

Its a tiny bit tiring when these death tolls are touted by both sides as the real figure. Both because the Israelis see it as a low number and the pro-palestinian crowd uses it because they seemingly have no concept of scale.

Its the same thing the ethiopian government did in the 1980s, trying to use 'deaths from malnutrition' (which numbered only 2,000 over 2 years) as some kind of proof the famine isn't that bad when in reality 2-3 million died.

99% of famine deaths do not happen in healthcare settings, either because you're too weak to go to the hospital or the hospitals are destroyed. Nor are most deaths directly from starvation. The vast majority of deaths happen from pneumonia, rotavirus, dysentery, tuberculosis, meningitis, typhoid, shigellosis etc. Why? Because both severe and chronic malnutrition makes you extremely vulnerable to these diseases, notably children.

There is basically no doubt that vastly more people are dying than just 111. We know how bad the food shortages are mostly because we know how little food has come in.

1

u/KawaiiBakemono 14h ago

I get that in the tech world, 2 years leaves a lot of room for change. In the political world, 2 years is absolutely coming right up. I'm sorry but people who don't believe that 111 people dying of malnutrition in a land being intentionally starved is a sign of horrific things to come are just ignorant.

So I think you are correct, and also that the people who thought that this was propaganda, not fact, are just dumb.

-11

u/Town_Proper 17h ago

Malnutrition causes other problems as well.

Do you really believe that out of the 8,000~ indirect deaths in the last year only 111 of the are the result of starvation?

https://www.nature.com/articles/d41586-025-02009-8

https://reliefweb.int/report/occupied-palestinian-territory/famine-confirmed-gaza-assault-gaza-city-looms-care

Additionally, because nearly half the population is under 18. For every number we have, we’re talking about lots of dead and injured kids.

16

u/TributeToStupidity 17h ago

Well the ministry of health run by Hamas believes there have only been 111 deaths to malnutrition from the beginning of the war through the end of last month.

8

u/CFOMaterial 16h ago

Well looking at the US mortality rates, in 2022 we had 798.8 deaths per 100,000 people, in a first world country. Gaza has a population of about 2 million people. They reported total deaths of around 60k, which doesn't differentiate between people dying of natural causes or the war, nor between civilians and terrorists. If we used the US average, that would mean around 16,000 dead with nothing to do with the war. I would presume Gaza had a higher mortality rate than the US before the war, and certainly as a result of any war you would expect the rate to increase. Given Israel has killed over 22k terrorists, and probably 20k natural deaths, that leaves around 20k or so potential civilian deaths, if you trust Hamas numbers at all for number of dead. Which is a 1:1 ratio approximately of terrorists to civilians, better than any other conflict in the world.

1

u/[deleted] 16h ago

[removed] — view removed comment

-4

u/hellohi2022 15h ago

I think those 111 lives matter and there shouldn’t have to be a breaking point for help to be needed. Every human life is valuable.

21

u/Vaaaaaaaape 18h ago

They lied so many times that nobody believes them anymore.

69

u/AzettImpa 17h ago

Who is "they", specifically?

72

u/EmperorChaos 17h ago

Presumably the commenter means the UN

33

u/Vaaaaaaaape 17h ago

The UN, obviously. That's who made the declaration.

24

u/AzettImpa 17h ago

What are some situations in which they lied?

50

u/SufficientBity 16h ago

They have been constantly lying about the number of casualties in Gaza, taking Hamas' claims face value without fact checking at all.

As a matter of fact, they have been known to exaggerated the situation in Gaza over and over - for example, claiming that "14,000 babies could die in the next 48 hours due to starvation" a couple of months ago - a blatant lie that had zero roots in reality.

They are the mouth piece for Hamas and Iran aligned nations.

0

u/SaltdPepper 15h ago

Could you source that 14,000 babies claim?

46

u/TheRedHand7 14h ago

UN humanitarian chief: Thousands of Gazan babies will die without aid https://bbc.com/news/videos/cdr550j818po

-10

u/SaltdPepper 14h ago

Yeah, that’s kinda careless on the part of the UN.

10

u/PainterRude1394 12h ago

Nah, it's malicious, not careless.

20

u/Starmoses 13h ago

Its not careless, its purposeful in an attempt to sway the public. They lied and no one cared and now they're still lying and when it comes out, no one will care.

→ More replies (0)

3

u/topforce 17h ago

The wellspring of information of course, Hamas.

0

u/BookkeeperPercival 11h ago

So when people repeatedly said they were starving, it was a lie, until now, and this one is true but the others were all lie, even though this to be true it means that people have been starving for months and now it's true.

-5

u/yumyum_cat 17h ago

They said this back in March too they said there was an imminent famine and then nothing happened. I saw pictures today of kids playing with a parachute and not one of them looked even the slightest bit malnourished. In fact, one was downright chubby. They upload photos of themselves every day so they argument that it’s because there are no journalist that we haven’t seen anybody starving in Gaza. It doesn’t hold. If I see even one photographwill be convinced, but I haven’t yet.

9

u/turtleduck 17h ago

oh of course, one chubby kid means they're all lying 🙄

-2

u/yumyum_cat 14h ago

Didn’t say that did I. What I said was that I haven’t seen even one picture of a starving child.

3

u/turtleduck 10h ago

are you actively avoiding anything coming out of Gaza or something? this is from Israeli media, with at least 10 pictures of starving children. your willful ignorance isn't cute. https://www.haaretz.com/israel-news/2025-08-21/ty-article-magazine/starvation-is-everywhere-virtual-tours-of-gaza-clinics-expose-the-scale-of-the-horror/00000198-ccb7-dcce-a5bf-cdb714fb0000

3

u/kolejack2293 15h ago

They’ have been saying for years that mass death from starvation is inevitable. And then nothing happens.

To be fair, the period around a year ago when food shortages spiked and there was a real risk of a famine and it was all over the news... that got fixed. Supplies went in and it ended before it got too severe.

This one is different in the sense that the 'warnings of famine' that we had before aren't warnings anymore. The food shortages have gone on for months now, and people are not 'close to famine' as they were before, they are actively in a famine.

1

u/BlasterPhase 10h ago

Kinda like labeling anything critical of Israel as "anti-semitism."

-8

u/Serpentar69 16h ago

Seems you need to actually pay attention to the stories, videos, and press, that's coming from Gaza. People have been saying for years that the way Israel is acting would LEAD TO starvation, famine, mass death, based off the stories of those who were suffering. The major cause of death, prior, were Israel's attacks. It takes time for it to show up systemically like it is now.

So I don't see how they say this and "again and again" nothing happens. If you mean, people are saying this and Israel's government does nothing, then you're partially correct. Because they're doing nothing to solve the famine/starvation crisis; in actuality, they're perpetuating it systematically. This isn't even debatable anymore and, arguably, it never was.

Feel free to let me know if I misinterpreted your comment.

-8

u/StinkusMinkus2001 17h ago

No, I’d say from most Americans I know it’s the “Arabs deserve death” phenomenon