Country: occupied Palestinian territory Source: Integrated Food Security Phase Classification Please refer to the attached file. Despite recent improvements, acute food insecurity remains widespread across the Gaza Strip. Between 16 April and…
What the source says
Country: occupied Palestinian territory
Source: Integrated Food Security Phase Classification
Please refer to the attached file.
Despite recent improvements, acute food insecurity remains widespread across the Gaza Strip. Between 16 April and 30 June 2026, over 1.2 million people (59 percent of the population) faced Crisis or worse conditions (IPC Phase 3 or above), including 212,000 people in Emergency (IPC Phase 4).
Conditions are projected to worsen between July and December 2026, with more than 1.4 million people (67 percent) expected to face Crisis or worse, including 212,000 people remaining in Emergency (IPC Phase 4). All five governorates are classified in Crisis (IPC Phase 3). Humanitarian assistance is the key lifeline for most families. Improved access and reduced conflict intensity following the October 2025 ceasefire enabled a major scale-up of aid operations, generating significant impact, albeit unevenly accessible at area level. In-kind food assistance reached around 1.49 million people in May 2026, although rations remained insufficient to support adequate and diverse diets. Multi-purpose cash assistance (MPCA) also expanded—reaching around 700,000 people in May—though its impact was constrained by the high cost of essential non-food items. Commercial imports also increased, reaching an average of nearly 100 trucks per day in recent months, though still below pre-crisis levels.
The expansion of humanitarian assistance has improved household food consumption since the December 2025 IPC analysis, shifting from IPC Phase 4 to Phase 3 levels. However, food consumption remains inadequate for most families. Some households resort to emergency coping strategies, such as begging and scavenging for food, while 83 percent report having no source of income in Gaza Governorate. The widespread loss of productive assets, combined with access constraints, continues to prevent households from resuming agricultural and economic activities, leaving the population almost entirely dependent on external assistance. As a result, in the absence of humanitarian food security assistance, an estimated 1.9 million people (90 percent of the population) would face high levels of acute food insecurity through December 2026.
The nutrition situation has improved considerably since early 2026, with all analysed governorates classified in IPC Acute Malnutrition (AMN) Phase 1 (Acceptable) between mid-April and June; and IPC AMN Phase 2 (Alert) in July – December 2026. Rafah was not analysed due to insufficient data. Acute malnutrition—particularly among children—has declined significantly, driven by a marked scale-up of nutrition programmes. Nevertheless, an estimated 74,200 children aged 6-59 months will likely require treatment for acute malnutrition through April 2027. Adults continue to reduce their own food intake to prioritise their children. An estimated 24,600 pregnant and breastfeeding women (PBW) are expected to suffer from acute malnutrition over the same period.
These recent gains remain highly fragile. Despite a surge in humanitarian food security assistance following the ceasefire, coverage has declined since February 2026, falling from a peak of 2.13 million people reached in November 2025 to 1.49 million people in May 2026. Further reductions are expected due to funding constraints and uncertainty surrounding the renewal of operational authorisations for 37 international non-governmental organisations (INGOs). Meanwhile, the area accessible to Gaza’s population has shrunk by more than 50 percent since October 2023, forcing people to shelter in overcrowded sites marked by extremely precarious conditions and heightened risk of infectious disease. Combined with limited access to health, water, sanitation and hygiene (WASH) services, these conditions make recent improvements in food security and nutrition highly vulnerable to reversal.
Advancing peace plans is essential to support transition and reconstruction, enabling displaced populations to safely return home and rebuild their livelihoods. In the interim, families will remain reliant on external assistance and severe coping measures to survive, while even small disruptions to humanitarian access could rapidly reverse recent gains.
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