In brief
In a distressing account, Rida Hijjeh reveals that her daughter, Lamia, has lost nearly half her body weight, attributed to the confirmed famine in Gaza City. With the Integrated Food Security Phase Classification designating the area in the highest state of food insecurity, urgent humanitarian concerns escalate amid conflicting reports from Israeli officials. Prime Minister Netanyahu dismisses these claims, furthering the complex narrative around the humanitarian crisis unfolding in Gaza.
A mother has told the BBC her five-year-old daughter has lost almost half of her body weight due to the famine in Gaza City. Lamia Hijjeh, whose family has been displaced several times during the war, has lost 8.5kg and cannot walk, according to her mother Rida. On Friday, the Integrated Food Security Phase Classification (IPC) raised its classification to Phase 5, the highest and worst level of its acute food insecurity scale. It says famine is confirmed in the Gaza Governorate, which includes Gaza City and its surrounding area, with catastrophic conditions projected to expand to Deir al-Balah and Khan Younis by the end of September. Israel has denied there was starvation in Gaza and Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has described the IPC report as an outright lie.
