Major media outlets and U.S. officials advanced claims of famine in Gaza throughout 2024, despite lacking hard evidence. The narrative—bolstered by dramatic headlines such as “Gaza Is Starving” in The New Yorker and “Israel’s War on Hamas Brings Famine to Gaza” in The Washington Post—gained credibility when USAID director Samantha Power told Congress that famine had begun, citing a report from the Integrated Food Security Phase Classification (IPC).
But that report never declared a famine. It offered projections—not confirmation. Within weeks, the IPC’s Famine Review Committee (FRC), the only body authorized to validate famine declarations, publicly rebuked the USAID assessment. Their conclusion: “Available evidence does not indicate that famine is currently occurring.”
USAID’s internal famine monitor omitted key food deliveries, including 940 metric tons of flour, salt, sugar, and yeast donated to Gaza bakeries—enough to produce 3 million pounds of bread. Private sector food shipments also went uncounted, resulting in a staggering underestimation of supplies. In reality, North Gaza had 10 times more food than USAID had claimed.
Further information previously outlined in a working paper by top Israeli health officials, based on data from the Coordinator of Government Activities in the Territories (COGAT), shows that the food supply in Gaza from January to April 2024 exceeded humanitarian standards.
Analyzing over 227,000 tons of food from 14,916 aid trucks, the study found the mean calorie availability per person per day was 3,211 kcal—well above the 2,100 kcal minimum required by the Sphere humanitarian organization. “This in-depth analysis highlights the fact that the amount of food delivered per capita should be sufficient for the entire Gazan population,” the study concluded. Calorie availability even reached 4,580 kcal per person in April.
Despite these realities, the International Criminal Court (ICC) persisted in its push to prosecute Israeli leaders for war crimes over alleged “deliberate starvation.” The court did so even as data revealed that more food entered Gaza in early 2024 than before the October 7 Hamas terror attack on Israel.
Likewise, when faced the FRC’s correction, the media continued to amplify inaccurate claims. CNN declared, “Children Are Dying of Starvation in Their Parents’ Arms,” while Reuters ran animations of dying children and repeated assertions of famine. UN rapporteur Michael Fakhri and 10 other officials added fuel to the fire in July, declaring an “intentional and targeted starvation campaign” by Israel had “resulted in famine across all of Gaza.” The IPC, however, remained silent on this claim.
Nicholas Haan, who helped develop the IPC system and co-authored the FRC’s report rejecting the USAID analysis, criticized the distortion of technical data for political gain. “Political actors, for their own reasons, will manipulate information. It’s a truism,” Haan said. But he emphasized the importance of integrity: “The most important, powerful, and necessary tool to achieve this is truth. When you give up truth, you’ve given up all moral standing to end suffering.”
While public health expert Prof. Aron Troen, a lead author of the Israeli study, criticized the misuse of data. “We would like to see improvement on the delivery of food in Gaza, and see Hamas held accountable for impeding it,” he said. Troen emphasized the need for accurate, shared responsibility: “We can actually only do that together in a credible collective effort, based on real information, and not weaponizing scant information, which becomes misinformation, and eventually demonization of Israel.”
