Study Challenges Famine Claims in Gaza, Finds Adequate Food Supply

A recent study by Israeli academics has concluded that the quantity and nutritional composition of food entering the Gaza Strip meets international standards, refuting claims of widespread famine and severe malnutrition.

A new scientific study that examined food insecurity in the war-torn Gaza Strip has found that the quality and quantity of food that has entered the Palestinian enclave over the past few months meets international nutritional standards and should adequately provide for the territory's entire population of around 2.4 million.

The findings of the report come in stark contrast to statements and predictions made over the past few months by the U.N., aid agencies and human rights organizations, as well as government officials in the U.S., who have warned of severe malnutrition, especially among children, and of looming famine in some parts of Gaza. It also comes a week after the world's top two courts issued rulings accusing Israel, and its leaders, of purposely starving the Palestinian people.

Conducted by a group of leading Israeli academics and public health officials, the study, which is based on data from COGAT, the Israeli military body responsible for facilitating the entry of aid into Gaza, found that the quantity and nutritional composition of the food that has been delivered over the past four months complied, and even exceeded, the Sphere standards, an internationally recognized benchmark for humanitarian response.

While the study assessed all food aid shipments that passed through the Kerem Shalom and Nitzana land crossings, as well as air drops into the territory from January-April 2024, it did not, however, examine what happened to the food aid after it entered into the Strip or how it was distributed to the civilian population.

As part of its research, Troen's team scanned COGAT's registry of all the aid that entered Gaza via air and land between January and April. Quantifying and assessing the nutrient composition of the individual food items and summing up the energy, protein, fat and iron content of all the shipments, the researchers then calculated the supply per capita per day according to population size in 2023. The findings were then compared to the Sphere standards for food security and nutrition in conflict-affected populations, showing that what has entered should have been sufficient to feed the entire population.

Ahed Al-Hindi, a senior fellow at the Center for Peace Communications, who has been monitoring the humanitarian situation in Gaza by speaking to people on the ground, told Fox News Digital "there is no way that we can say there is a famine in Gaza."

In Israel, Col. Elad Goren, who heads the civil department of COGAT, told Fox News Digital there are currently no limits on the amount of food going into Gaza and that the U.N. calculations, widely cited by international organizations and government officials in the U.S., were misleading and inaccurate.

He said the U.N. figures on the aid going into Gaza did not encompass the entire picture, failing to include what is also being brought in by other international agencies, daily air drops by the Jordanian and Egyptian militaries, and the pier, which the U.S. Central Command put in place earlier this month but last week was temporary closed for safety reasons.

Prior to the war, Goren detailed how the U.N. had only about eight aid trucks in Gaza. Since the war started on Oct. 7 and the humanitarian situation deteriorated, the U.N. had added around 15 more trucks to its fleet – not enough to reach all the areas in need. Goren also noted that the U.N. had sent in fewer than 60 people to help deal with the crisis.

Also hampering efforts, he said was Hamas, which often disrupts aid efforts, firing rockets at humanitarian convoys and emptying all the available cash from the banks. Last week, COGAT released a photograph showing aid workers running for cover as the terrorist organization attacked the Kerem Shalom crossing.

In response to a request from Fox News Digital, Eri Kaneko, spokesperson for the U.N. Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA), said, however, that "the responsibility to facilitate aid operations in order to meet people’s humanitarian needs lies with parties to the conflict."

In recent weeks, Kaneko said "every third humanitarian mission coordinated with the Israeli authorities in southern Gaza was either impeded following an initial approval or denied access altogether."

Last week, the International Criminal Court’s chief prosecutor, Karim Khan, also held Israel and its leaders responsible for preventing the crucial supplies from reaching the population, saying he would seek warrants for Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Defense Minister Yoav Gallant for war crimes and crimes against humanity, including "the starvation of civilians as a weapon of war."

Israel, however, has accused the IPC of not following its own protocols in making its famine assessment for Gaza, pointing out that it relies on information provided by Hamas-run bodies.

While he acknowledged looting by Hamas and others, he said the "greater obstacle is the extensive movement restrictions imposed by the Israeli military, and the atmosphere of fear and insecurity that aid agencies face due to repeated army strikes on humanitarian movements and facilities."

"Safe aid access and last-mile distribution within Gaza remain the biggest challenges in terms of combating famine," said Konyndyk.

Shira Efron, senior director of policy research at the Israel Policy Forum, told Fox News Digital. "Whereas in the beginning, insufficient quantities of aid, including foodstuff was going in, now it seems, at least from the number of trucks and that way of counting, there are sufficient quantities of food going into Gaza, at least according to the Spheres standard."

Efron also said there was a problem with distribution once the aid entered into the Strip, highlighting the difficulties of getting goods to displaced people who are constantly on the move and other war-related factors.

"While there might be enough food going to prevent large-scale hunger, unless we solve the distribution problems inside Gaza it will not reach the people who need it," she said. "I think it’s time for the U.N. or international organizations, and Israel, to try to develop a more result-oriented approach to understand how this aid is going in, where it is going and whether it is getting to the people who really need it."