When They Say “Catastrophe,” They Mean Famine by Design.
Gaza’s Famine Is Already Here. The World Just Won’t Name It.
May 12, 2025 — A new IPC report released today confirms that 100% of Gaza’s population—2.1 million people—is experiencing acute food insecurity, with nearly half a million people already in IPC Phase 5 (Catastrophe). The document warns that if the siege and military escalation continue, a full-scale famine will unfold between May and September 2025.
This is the fourth time since January 2024 that the IPC has issued a variation of the same euphemistic warning:
“Famine is imminent.”
“On the brink of famine.”
“Catastrophic hunger conditions.”
Each time, the numbers get worse.
Each time, the word “famine” is avoided.
Each time, nothing is done.
The Numbers Speak of Genocide
470,000 people already in IPC Phase 5.
71,000 children projected to suffer acute malnutrition this year.
All aid and supplies blocked since March.
Food, medicine, and water either exhausted or nearly gone.
Social collapse already underway.
These conditions don’t describe a looming crisis. They describe active famine—and the silence is not neutral. It is deliberate.
How Many Times Can You Say “On the Brink” Before It’s a Lie?
Let’s be honest about the timeline:
January 2024: IPC reported catastrophic food insecurity in Gaza; 378,000 in Phase 5.
March 2024: Famine deemed imminent in northern Gaza; over 1 million facing catastrophic conditions.
May 2024: Famine Review Committee warned that all thresholds might already be passed.
May 2025: Today's report confirms Phase 5 has deepened—yet still avoids using the word famine outright.
Why? Because calling it famine means someone did it. It becomes a crime. Not a tragedy. Not an emergency. A war crime.
This Is a Siege-Induced Famine
There is no ambiguity here. Starvation is being used as a weapon:
Bakeries were bombed.
Water tanks destroyed.
Borders sealed.
Aid convoys blocked.
Hospitals starved of fuel.
These are deliberate policies—not “conditions.”
Even a Gaza physician—who issued a desperate appeal in April 2025—begged international bodies to declare famine, hoping it would break the political stalemate and force accountability. He was ignored.
The Legal Threshold Was Already Crossed
According to IPC’s own criteria, Phase 5 (Famine) requires:
At least 20% of the population facing extreme food shortages.
Acute malnutrition in over 30% of children.
Crude death rate exceeding 2 people per 10,000 per day.
North Gaza already meets or exceeds these indicators.
Deaths are mounting. Children are skeletal. Pregnant women are collapsing. Yet the IPC hedges with “Phase 5: Catastrophe”—not famine.
Because to say famine is to accuse.
And to accuse is to admit that a state actor—Israel—is starving Palestinians into annihilation with Western blessing.
What Naming It Would Mean
If the IPC or UN officially declared Gaza in famine:
International legal mechanisms would be triggered.
Aid blockades would be framed as crimes, not security issues.
The genocidal nature of this siege would be undeniable.
Governments complicit in the blockade—including the U.S.—would face growing legal and civil resistance.
So they delay. Stall. “Monitor.” Reassess. And Palestinians keep dying quietly while bureaucrats debate thresholds.
This Is a Famine. Say It.
The world’s refusal to name what Gaza is living through reflects more than cowardice. It reflects complicity. You cannot bomb water, block food, target medics, starve children, then say famine is “pending.”
Famine isn’t on the horizon.
It’s in the graveyards.
It’s in the empty community and charity kitchens.
It’s in the 71,000 hospitalized children whose bodies will carry the trauma—if they survive.
This is not a warning. It is an obituary-in-progress.
And everyone refusing to say the word has blood on their hands.
Marginalia:
When famine has arrived, aid alone cannot undo the damage. Even if food were miraculously allowed in today, the deaths wouldn’t stop. Starved bodies—especially children—can go into shock from refeeding too quickly. The gut lining is gone. Organs are failing. Bones have hollowed. This is not just hunger—it’s biochemical collapse.
Refeeding syndrome can kill if not managed with proper medical infrastructure—which Gaza doesn’t have. It’s been bombed, blockaded, and bled dry.
And yet, this slow genocide is still framed as “crisis” or “catastrophe,” not what it is: a planned famineweaponized to collapse a population.
By the time the world admits it, the damage will be irreversible.
I think the physical damage, for tens of thousands of young people is already done. Even if they opened the borders today, allowed in enough food and medicine, and provided the medical support needed, the damage can be moderated but not reversed. The psychological damage will have affected every Palestinian, millions of people, and, for thousands it will haunt them forever. The white world is responsible and if they are held accountable it might help a little.
It’s absolutely horrifying and we, the west have watched it come about in real time, it’s been building up for decades. Our government’s are complicit, not even pretending it’s not happening but sending weapons and intelligence. All western leaders not standing up to stop this need to be sent to The Hague. But I’ll believe it when I see it.