EU, UK and Japan urge action against 'famine unfolding' in Gaza

BRUSSELS (AFP) — The European Union, Britain and Japan on Tuesday called for urgent action to stop “famine” in the Gaza Strip.

“The humanitarian suffering in Gaza has reached unimaginable levels. Famine is unfolding before our eyes,” a joint statement signed by the EU’s top diplomat and foreign ministers from 24 countries, including Canada and Australia.

“Urgent action is needed now to halt and reverse starvation,” they said.

U.N.-mandated experts have warned that Gaza is slipping into famine while international organizations have for months condemned the restrictions imposed by the Israeli authorities on aid distribution in Gaza.

The ministers and EU foreign policy chief Kaja Kallas also demanded Israel “provide authorization for all international NGO aid shipments and to unblock essential humanitarian actors from operating.”

Seventeen European Union countries signed the statement, including France, the Netherlands and usually pro-Palestinian countries such as Ireland and Spain.

Notably absent was Germany, Israel’s staunch supporter in the EU, despite its drastic move to halt the export of military equipment to Israel last week.

Israel has until recently enjoyed broad support across the political spectrum in Germany, a country still seeking to atone for the World War II murder of more than 6 million Jews.

The EU struck a deal last month to increase aid access to Gaza but senior officials have said the agreement has not been implemented fully.

‘Misleading narrative’

Israel said Tuesday it had found “no signs” of widespread malnutrition in Gaza, rejecting evidence from the war-battered territory even as U.N. agencies warn it is on the brink of famine.

Israel has faced mounting criticism over the 22-month-old war which has created a dire humanitarian crisis in the Gaza Strip, home to more than 2 million Palestinians.

Humanitarian groups, U.N. agencies and Palestinian militant group Hamas have sounded the alarm on the risk of widespread famine particularly since Israel had imposed a complete aid blockade for more than two months, only partially easing it since late May.

The health ministry of the Hamas government in Gaza says at least 227 people including 103 children have died of hunger since the war began in October 2023, with many cases recorded in recent weeks.

The Israeli defense ministry’s COGAT, a body overseeing civil affairs in the Palestinian territories, said in a report published Tuesday that it had carried out an “in-depth review” of the Gaza health ministry data.

The review, according to COGAT, found a “significant gap” between the ministry’s reported deaths attributed to malnutrition and the “cases documented and published with full identifying details in the media and on social media.”

COGAT pointed specifically to people with pre-existing medical conditions who were recorded as dying from malnutrition, arguing that these cases were not representative of Gaza’s wider population.

The review, which included analysis of “photographic evidence and other available intelligence, concluded that there are no signs of a widespread malnutrition phenomenon among the population in Gaza,” COGAT said.

It dismissed the figures from Gaza as “misleading,” accusing Hamas of pushing a “narrative of famine.”

Hamas’s government press office issued a rebuttal, denouncing a “futile attempt to cover up a crime that is internationally documented.”

The International Criminal Court in November issued arrest warrants for Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and his former defense minister for crimes including starvation as a method of warfare, which Israel has repeatedly rejected.

The U.N.’s World Health Organization says that 148 people have died of malnutrition since January 2025, and the World Food Programme said in August that starvation and malnutrition in Gaza were at their highest levels since the start of the war.

WFP said “more than a third of the population is not eating for days at a time” and 300,000 children are at severe risk of malnutrition, with a worsening situation as not enough trucks of aid are allowed into Gaza.

Officially in order to keep Hamas from diverting aid, Israel has drastically curtailed the amount of humanitarian aid it allowed into Gaza since the war began, sparked by Hamas’ Oct. 7, 2023 attack.

AFP journalists document deadly chaotic scenes at distribution points daily, as desperate Palestinians gather in thousands to get aid.

Jean-Guy Vateaux, head of mission for medical charity Doctors Without Borders who was recently in Gaza, told AFP that “in Gaza, malnutrition is real, it’s growing fast, and it’s impacting the whole population.”

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By Agence France-Presse