The United Nations World Food Program (WFP) could officially declare a famine in the Gaza Strip unless conditions drastically improve, an official said on Tuesday, noting this would represent only the fifth famine of the century.
According to the Integrated Food Security Phase Classification (IPC) report released on the same day, two out of the three famine thresholds have been reached in Gaza, with plummeting food consumption and acute malnutrition being observed.
Famine has not been declared in Gaza as the third indicator -- which concerns deaths from malnutrition -- cannot yet be demonstrated, according to the report.
However, there is mounting evidence that "widespread starvation, malnutrition and disease" are driving a rise in hunger-related deaths.
The IPC also noted that more than one in three people in Gaza are now going without food for days at a time, while over 500,000 people -- nearly a quarter of Gaza's population -- are enduring "famine-like conditions" while others face emergency levels of hunger.
Hospitals have treated more than 20,000 children for acute malnutrition since April, and at least 16 children under the age of five have died from hunger-related causes since mid-July, according to IPC data.
Back in May, the IPC had already projected catastrophic levels of food insecurity for the entire Gazan population by September, when at least half a million people are expected to be in the IPC's most serious classification level of Phase 5 -- "catastrophe" -- which is marked by starvation, destitution and death.
Jean-Martin Bauer, the WFP's Director of Food Security and Nutrition Analysis echoed the fears of UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres, who said the latest report shows Gaza is on the brink of famine.
Speaking at a press briefing via video link, Bauer warned that unless there is a ceasefire, then the already desperate situation will only continue to worsen.
"So if we get a pause, we would expect these indicators to improve, we would expect things to evolve in the right direction. Now if this doesn't happen, what you're seeing is that you'd have a famine [that] would be confirmed and it would cover more areas," he said.
"Since the IPC system has existed there have only been four famines in this century, so that's been Somalia in 2011, South Sudan twice and then Sudan, which is also ongoing now. So this tells you that these are very rare, very serious events, and we need to respond now at scale, as my colleagues have insisted," he said.
UN to declare official famine in Gaza if conditions don't improve: WFP official
UN to declare official famine in Gaza if conditions don't improve: WFP official
UN to declare official famine in Gaza if conditions don't improve: WFP official
China will continuously build a robust domestic market to bolster its economy and counter external challenges in accordance with the requirements and arrangement from the annual Central Economic Work Conference, which put domestic demand at the forefront of eight key tasks for next year's economic work, according to experts.
The tone-setting conference was held in Beijing from Wednesday to Thursday in which the Chinese leadership decided priorities for the economic work in 2026.
Over the past four years, domestic demand has contributed an average of 86.4 percent to China's economic growth, according to the National Development and Reform Commission (NDRC), China's top economic planner.
"The top priority is to expand domestic demand as the key reason for this is that our demand is relatively weak. The first step here is figuring out how to increase consumption," said Chen Binkai, vice president of Central University of Finance and Economics.
Consumption has continued to play a leading role in the country's economic growth this year. In the first three quarters, final consumption expenditure contributed 53.5 percent to economic growth, an increase of 9 percentage points compared to the whole of last year.
The annual Central Economic Work Conference proposed that in 2026, a special campaign to boost consumption will be implemented in depth, the supply of high-quality goods and services will be expanded, policies on new and emerging industries will be optimized, unreasonable restrictions in the consumption field will be eliminated, and the potential of service consumption will be unleashed.
"Previously, much of the consumption we have encouraged is for manufactured goods. However, the growth rate of our service sector is not as ideal as that of the manufacturing sector. Therefore, increasing some investment to encourage consumption in the service sector may play a better role in stabilizing growth and expanding domestic demand," said Huang Qunhui, a researcher of the Institute of Economics under the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences.
Experts said that income is the primary factor determining consumption, and only by increasing residents' disposable income, can their consumption capacity be improved.
They also said that the conference, while emphasizing the promotion of consumption, also clearly pointed out the need to formulate and implement a plan to increase the income of urban and rural residents.
"The Third Plenary Session [of the 20th CPC Central Committee] mentioned the need to increase the proportion of residents' income, specifically the proportion of labor compensation within that income. The Fourth Plenary Session [of the 20th CPC Central Committee] further proposed implementing a specific income-increasing plan for urban and rural residents. Of course, consumption is not solely an income issue. We need to strengthen basic public services and improve our social security fund. If these issues are further improved and optimized, and residents have higher incomes, they will be more willing to spend more on consumption, especially on development-oriented consumption," said Huang.
Expanding domestic demand remains top priority for China's economic work in 2026: experts
