LAST Friday the United Nations’ Integrated Food Security Phase Classification (IPC) declared that Gaza is in “catastrophic” and “entirely man-made” “Phase 5” famine — the most critical level on its scale — with half a million people in imminent danger of starving to death and that number set to rise by more than a fifth within weeks.

The IPC has for years been criticised for being too slow and cautious in declaring other famines, measuring the situation against three thresholds: extreme food deprivation, acute malnutrition and starvation-related deaths. Two out of these three being met would result in a famine declaration; all of these are now clear in Gaza. According to the IPC report, at least one in five households face an extreme shortage in their consumption of food, more than one in three of Gaza’s approximately 900,000 surviving children are acutely malnourished and two in every 10,000 people — around 400 people — are dying every day from either outright starvation or the combination of malnutrition and disease.

The IPC’s caution and its rigorously data-based approach make the Gaza declaration a matter of the utmost credibility. This has, of course, led to the IPC being attacked by the Israeli government and apologists for Israel, who claim — where have we heard this before? — that the IPC is manipulated by and acting as a mouthpiece for Hamas, just as it accused UNRWA, the World Health Organisation, the World Court and International Criminal Court (ICC) and other agencies — and the United Nations itself — at different times during this genocide.

Israel has even taken out paid ads on Google, social media and streaming platforms claming that the starvation — which Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu also claims doesn’t exist at all — is the fault of the UN refusing to distribute food, yet in reality that is blocked at the border by Israeli troops and destroyed by Israeli settlers.

Such accusations are rightly considered meaningless propaganda by neutral observers, but they have provided governments with an excuse for inaction or even active measures against, for example, Palestine refugee agency UNRWA, with many governments withdrawing funding for an extended period, and the United States’ decision to impose sanctions on judges and lawyers of the ICC.

The time for such cynical collusion and evasion from governments, including that of the UK, was over before the genocide in Gaza even began, but the IPC iron-clad declaration of famine strips them of whatever remained of any excuses.

While the IPC’s statement is data-driven, the reality in Gaza is about far more than numbers. The world has witnessed starvation deaths daily in Gaza, many of them children like one-year-old Sanaa Mansour al-Lahham and 11-month-old Zainab Abu Hulaib, born into the genocide and little more than skeletons when they died. Older children are dying too, like 17-year-old Atef Abu Khater.
Israel’s previous excuse for starving children to death in Gaza is that they had health conditions — as if that made it not a crime against humanity — but medical professionals report that previously healthy children are now dying from malnutrition and the lie has been obliterated by the IPC’s announcement of widespread and general man-made famine. Accordingly, at least 110 children have died from malnutrition-related complications according to Gaza’s Ministry of Health, including cases of previously healthy children succumbing to starvation.

These deaths are, of course, added to the hundreds murdered and maimed by Israel every day in bombings of tents, schools and shelters or as they come in desperation to so called Gaza Humanitarian Foundation (GHF) death traps masquerading as aid distribution sites — with Israel now using banned cluster and toxic weapons, including white phosphorus and experimental weapons, as well as huge conventional bombs and missiles.

Spokespeople and apologists for Israel continue to try to blame these mass deaths on the Palestinians, claiming that the “war” and the resulting starvation would stop immediately if only Hamas would lay down its weapons and release the remaining Israeli captives held in Gaza. This is an outright lie and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is not shy about making this explicit in his Hebrew comments to the Israeli press and even some international media.

Asked by Sky News Australia earlier this month whether he still planned to take over Gaza and eliminate the terrorists if they do agree to a deal. Netanyahu answered that there was “never a question” that “we’re gonna do that anyway.” Others have been even more explicit. Israeli minister Bezalel Smotrich, who has publicly promised the complete destruction of Gaza, told Radio Galey Israel (in relation to the return of the hostages) that it is “not the most important goal” for the government.

These are not empty threats. Just on Sunday, the Israeli military said it plans to forcibly move Gaza City’s entire population to what it euphemistically calls “shelters” in southern Gaza. These “shelters” are in fact concentration camps — and Defence Minister Israel Katz was clear in July 2025 that he plans to move all the population of Gaza into them and that they will never again be allowed to leave, with Netanyahu adding, in an interview with Israeli paper Israel Hayom, that anyone who does not enter these camps will be classified as terrorists and killed. Indeed, Israeli officials have stated that those outside designated zones will be classified as terrorists, providing “legal justification for their elimination” according to plans reported in Israeli media.

That the intent of this ethnic cleansing plan is serious was underlined last week by the government’s approval of the “E1” settlement plan that will split the West Bank in two with the explicit aim of making a so-called “two-state solution” and Palestinian statehood impossible. Smotrich again: “There [will be] nothing [for Western governments] to recognise and no-one to recognise.”

It could not be clearer that Israel has no intention of ending its genocidal war on the people of Gaza until one of two things happen: it achieves his goal of the complete ethnic cleansing and annexation of Gaza — and ultimately the whole of Palestine — or it is made to stop.

Since Israel’s genocide in Gaza began, there has never been any excuse for the collaboration of Western governments and their refusal to take action to end it. Israel’s genocidal intent has always been clear and openly expressed and its lies about its actions have been debunked almost as quickly as they were issued.

The IPC’s official declaration of “catastrophic” famine in Gaza does not tell the world anything it didn’t already know — like the violent slaughter we’ve been watching every day for many months. But it does strip away the “emperor’s clothes” of any excuses the British and other governments continue to give for doing nothing.

Sanctions and a complete arms embargo are the bare minimum required for any government remotely interested in complying with international law, but in reality far more is needed.

The situation is too catastrophic and death for hundreds of thousands of people is too imminent. Some would argue that there must now be a militarily enforced humanitarian corridor by land and sea to make Israel allow food to reach the people of Gaza and that any world leaders who continue to refuse belong in The Hague.

However, I would argue that we need a broader revolutionary and class struggle; we must call for a co-ordinated international working-class and union actions to disrupt the economic and military support sustaining the Israeli state, such as by blocking shipments and supplies to Israel through strikes, pickets, and union mobilisations internationally to degrade the Israeli military’s logistical capacity, and supporting anti-war and anti-occupation protests that demand urgent humanitarian relief for Gaza while linking it to opposition to imperialist backing of Israel.

This international solidarity would aim to hit the ruling class economically and politically to pressure for an end to the siege and open humanitarian channels under conditions of workers’ control, not imperialist control. Only then will Netanyahu and the state of Israel be stopped.

Claudia Webbe was previously the Member of Parliament for Leicester East (2019 –2024). You can follow her at  https://www.facebook.com/claudiaforLE/ and https://x.com/claudiawebbe