Published by NPR’s Goats and Soda, STORIES OF LIFE IN A CHANGING WORLD, July 25, 2025
By Nurith Aizenman, Tom Benner
Gaza’s hunger crisis worsens by the day, but it’s still not been declared a famine.
The war-torn Palestinian enclave faces catastrophic shortages of food, water and medicine, according to the British Red Cross and the World Health Organization. The World Food Programme, an arm of the United Nations, said Monday that hunger in Gaza has reached “astonishing levels,” with a third of the population of just over 2 million people currently going multiple days without eating.
On Tuesday, U.N. Secretary-General António Guterres called Gaza a “horror show” of devastation and starvation, marked by “a level of death and destruction without parallel in recent times.”
So why the hesitation in labeling it a famine? And who are the authorities with the power to make that call?
Here are five takeaways from NPR interviews with specialists and analysts who monitor hunger crises around world.
Tom Benner Reports 