Famine is declared in Gaza. Will anything change?

Consider This from NPR

NPR

Society & Culture, News, Daily News, News Commentary

4.1 • 5.3K Ratings

🗓️ 22 August 2025

⏱️ 8 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

The people of Northern Gaza are starving. That’s according to an official declaration by a United Nations-backed group of experts, who comprise the Integrated Food Security Phase Classification or IPC. They say that famine has officially reached Gaza city and could soon reach other areas of the territory.

Still, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has says there is no famine in Gaza, and that food shortages are the result of Hamas seizing aid shipments.Jean-Martin Bauer is the director of Food Security and Nutrition Analysis for the World Food Program. He explains how the ICP came to this conclusion and what the declaration means for the people facing starvation.

For sponsor-free episodes of Consider This, sign up for Consider This+ via Apple Podcasts or at plus.npr.org. Email us at [email protected].

This episode was produced by Michael Levitt, with audio engineering by Hannah Gluvna. It was edited by Courtney Dorning. Our executive producer is Sami Yenigun.

Learn more about sponsor message choices: podcastchoices.com/adchoices

NPR Privacy Policy

Transcript

Click on a timestamp to play from that location

0:00.0	For months, international humanitarian and aid organizations have been warning about the lack of food and aid in Gaza.
0:07.6	This as pictures and video of wasted children have been beamed around the world.
0:12.3	Now, the world's leading authority on food insecurity, declared famine has reached Gaza.
0:18.1	This is an interview from Gaza City.
0:20.4	Maybe you're talking about your name of your. Ahmed Sheikh an interview from Gaza City. You can't know by your name of Amr?
0:23.4	NPR's producer on the ground, Anas Baba, spoke with Ahmad Sheikh Khalil.
0:29.9	He's 24 years old living in Gaza City.
0:33.5	Baba asked him for his response to the declaration of famine in Gaza.
0:37.1	He's not sure we have metachar, jet. Baba asked him for his response to the declaration of famine in Gaza.
0:46.0	This declaration is extremely late, says Khalil.
0:47.7	We've lost so much weight.
0:48.9	We've lost children. Those who've died died of hunger.
0:57.2	Children have starved.
0:58.7	We can no longer even support our weight.
1:06.1	We've still not seen any of the food and aid that are supposed to be entering.
1:10.4	What does come in, get stolen.
1:15.6	If you want even just one bite of food, he says, it will be paid for in blood.
1:25.4	The strength and patience we have in us is from God, he says.
1:28.9	We're not expecting help from anyone.
1:31.6	Consider this.
1:32.7	After months of warnings, famine has officially been declared in Gaza.
1:36.5	But will this declaration change anything for the hundreds of thousands of people experiencing starvation?
	...

Transcript will be available on the free plan in 18 days. Upgrade to see the full transcript now.

Previous episode | Next episode

Disclaimer: The podcast and artwork embedded on this page are from NPR, and are the property of its owner and not affiliated with or endorsed by Tapesearch.

Generated transcripts are the property of NPR and are distributed freely under the Fair Use doctrine. Transcripts generated by Tapesearch are not guaranteed to be accurate.