Euro-Med refutes Israeli narrative on Gaza famine

In a statement issued Monday, Euro-Med Monitor said the 0.5% figure promoted by Israel is based exclusively on the “weight-for-height” indicator used to measure acute malnutrition, while disregarding other, more comprehensive indicators. Data based on mid-upper arm circumference (MUAC) shows a rate of 1.3%, the same rate obtained when both indicators are combined. According to the organization, this reflects a deliberate attempt to obscure the full findings and promote the lowest figure as the study’s definitive result.

The organization explained that the 1.3% figure effectively means that one in every 77 children under the age of five was suffering from acute malnutrition during the period covered by the study. It stressed that the data reflects only a limited period and does not include cases that occurred before or after the study or children who suffered repeated relapses.

Euro-Med also said Zionist regime ignored a key indicator used to assess children’s nutritional condition: stunting, which stood at 12.2%, equivalent to approximately one in every eight children. The organization said stunting reflects long-term nutritional deprivation and chronic stress that cannot be measured through the narrower wasting indicator cited in the Israeli narrative.

The organization also described comparisons promoted by Israel between Gaza and countries such as Germany and Finland as statistical manipulation, saying they relied on a single isolated indicator while comparing data from different years, depriving the comparison of scientific or methodological validity.

Euro-Med Monitor noted that the study covered only 83% of Gaza’s population, while more than 358,000 people were excluded because of security restrictions. As a result, the nutritional condition of this group remains unknown and cannot be assumed to be better, particularly given the conditions of blockade and military escalation.

The organization stressed that the study did not conclude that there was no famine. Rather, it measured nutritional conditions during a brief period in June 2026, while an IPC famine declaration relates to a specific period and geographical area and is based on multiple indicators, including food consumption, malnutrition, and mortality.

Euro-Med Monitor said the latest IPC reports, issued in July, contradict Israeli claims. According to the organization, the reports found that the improvement recorded was limited and linked to the flow of humanitarian aid, while projecting that approximately 1.4 million people would face acute levels of food insecurity through the end of the year and that more than 74,000 children would require treatment for acute malnutrition by April 2027.

The organization also accused Israel of applying double standards in its use of UNICEF reports, citing them when selectively presenting certain indicators while ignoring their documentation of the killing of 265 Palestinian children since the ceasefire was announced, an average of one child per day, as a result of bombing, gunfire, and drone attacks, including inside homes and schools.

Euro-Med Monitor added that the Israeli Foreign Ministry later deleted a post in which it had used the data after manipulation was exposed. However, pro-Israel advocacy groups continue to promote the misleading figure in an attempt to undermine evidence of the starvation of civilians in the Gaza Strip.

The organization stressed that citing these percentages provides no legal basis for a defense against allegations of starvation. It explained that the crime of starvation does not depend on reaching a particular level of malnutrition or on an official declaration of famine but can occur through the deliberate deprivation of objects indispensable to civilians’ survival, including the systematic obstruction of humanitarian aid.