‘Famine isn’t just a word – it’s a technical term’: WFP
Jean-Martin Bauer, a UN World Food Programme (WFP) director who has worked to combat hunger in West Africa, Syria, Iraq and Central Africa, explains how significant the use of the word “famine” is to describe the situation in Gaza.
The expert outlined how the term is arrived at through a globally accepted process with clear standards and conditions that relate to the number of deaths from starvation and the share of population and children suffering from extreme food shortages and acute malnutrition.
Famine isn’t just a word – it’s a technical term. And it’s never declared by one organization alone.
A famine confirmation is the result of a joint, data-driven analysis using agreed global standards set by the IPC. #Gaza is only the fifth famine ever confirmed by this scale.… pic.twitter.com/4KM6NjMGCI
— World Food Programme (@WFP) August 22, 2025
What responsibilities do other countries have to intervene in Gaza?
Ralph Wilde, a law professor at University College London, explains that, as outlined by the International Court of Justice last year, Israel’s presence in Gaza and the occupied West Bank is illegal.
Additionally, its treatment of Palestinians in Gaza – including through its use of apartheid, genocide, crimes against humanity and serious violations of the laws of war, including using starvation as a weapon of war – violates international law.
“Because the rules violated have a special fundamental character, all states are themselves subject to a special legal duty that they wouldn’t ordinarily have, to end these violations,” Wilde told Al Jazeera.
“The violations that have created this famine, these other states have what’s called a responsibility to protect the Palestinian people. This means taking all action within their power, including completely ending trade relations with Israel.”
He added that any governments that continue to support Israel, “including through weapons sales, military aid and intelligence sharing, are inevitably supporting these violations and are therefore themselves acting illegally”.
Gaza famine declaration ‘must mark end of US complicity’: CAIR
The Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) says today’s findings of famine in northern Gaza must push US President Donald Trump and the US Congress to end Washington’s unwavering support for Israel.
“This famine is not a natural disaster — it is the intended outcome of Israel’s brutal blockade, targeted destruction of food systems, and systematic obstruction of humanitarian aid. For months, international aid organizations have sounded the alarm,” CAIR wrote on X.
The advocacy group described the famine in Gaza as “Israeli-made and US-backed”.
The US has provided billions of dollars in military assistance to Israel since it launched its war on Gaza in October 2023 while also shielding the country from accountability at the UN and other international bodies.
Now that the United Nations has officially recognized the famine in Gaza that human rights groups have warned about for months, President Trump and congressional leaders must, at long last, end U.S. complicity in this genocide.
This famine is not a natural disaster — it is the… https://t.co/qJz6F3ikpi
— CAIR National (@CAIRNational) August 22, 2025
