Food, water at an all time low in Gaza – UN

The United Nations has stated that food and water in the besieged region of Gaza are at an all-time low and urgent action must be taken to avert further crisis.

On Monday, December 2, the UN agency, the Food and Agricultural Organization (FAO) joined the United Nations Deputy Secretary-General and humanitarian partners in calling for unrestricted and safe access to deliver at-scale emergency agricultural aid to prevent the spread of famine and further loss of lives in the region.

FAO Deputy Director-General Beth Bechdol speaking at the Cairo Ministerial Conference said;

“Today, food availability is at an all-time low across the entire Gaza Strip, and food supply has sharply deteriorated,”

‘ The window of opportunity to deliver assistance is now, today, not tomorrow. Food, medicine and fuel are self-evident priorities, but we must also prioritize the ability to grow food locally where it is needed most to ensure survival.”

The latest Integrated Food Security Phase Classification (IPC), issued in October, warned of a famine risk for the entire Gaza Strip from November 2024 through April 2025.

Around 133,000 people or 6 percent of the population are already experiencing catastrophic levels of food insecurity (IPC Phase 5, Catastrophe) – meaning that people have almost no food and cannot meet their basic needs. This number is expected to nearly triple in the coming months.

Moreover, in early November, the independent Famine Review Committee found a strong likelihood that famine is already occurring or imminent in parts of northern Gaza.

Bechdol reiterated FAO’s commitment to scale up its response to mitigate famine and prevent its spread across the Gaza Strip and beyond while emphasizing that this cannot be achieved without access.

To this end, the Deputy Director-General called on Member States to put more pressure to lift the ban on private food imports in place since early October in southern Gaza and mobilize resources to fund FAO’s appeal for $53 million which is part of the 2025 UN Humanitarian Flash Appeal.

These funds will support around 80,000 farmers, herders and fishermen and women with time-critical agriculture inputs to restore local food production.

“In Gaza, ensuring the right to food is not just about meeting immediate needs—it is about safeguarding human dignity, preventing famine from spreading, and laying the groundwork for rebuilding a resilient agrifood system,” she concluded.

Before October 7, Gaza was largely self-sufficient in vegetables, eggs, fresh milk, poultry and fish, and produced much of its red meat, olive oil and fruits.

More than one year into the war, agrifood systems have collapsed, and local food production – the primary source of nutrition and sometimes people’s only source for food – has been decimated across the whole of Gaza, the FAO said.

According to the FAO-UNOSAT most recent geospatial analysis in Gaza, nearly 70 percent of croplands – which contributed up to one-third of daily food consumption – have been damaged or destroyed since the escalation of hostilities. The same is true for orchards, greenhouses, water wells and other agricultural infrastructure.

Moreover, almost 95 percent of cattle and more than half of sheep and goat herds, have died. These animal losses have both removed access to critical and nutritious sources of protein and milk and devastated people’s livelihoods.