UN food agency chief says women and children are starving in Gaza and pressed Netanyahu on aid

TEL AVIV, Israel (AP) — The head of the U.N. food agency said Thursday that it was “very evident” during her visit to Gaza this week that there isn't enough food in the Palestinian territory and that she spoke with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu about the urgent need for more aid.

The world’s leading authority on food crises said last week the Gaza Strip’s largest city is gripped by famine, and that it was likely to spread across the territory without a ceasefire and an end to restrictions on humanitarian aid.

Cindy McCain, the World Food Program's executive director, told The Associated Press that starvation was underway in Gaza.

“I personally met mothers and children who were starving in Gaza," she said. "It is real and it is happening now,”

Netanyahu, she said, was “obviously very concerned that people aren’t getting enough food.” In the past, he has denied that there is famine in Gaza and said the claims about starvation are a propaganda campaign launched by Hamas.

“We agreed that we must immediately redouble our efforts to get more humanitarian aid in. Access and security for our convoys is critical,” McCain said.

The famine declaration has increased international pressure on Israel, which has been fighting Hamas since the militant group’s deadly Oct. 7, 2023, attack. Israel now says it plans to seize Gaza City and other Hamas strongholds, and there have been no public signs of progress on recent efforts for a ceasefire.

Israel rejects the declaration — issued by the authority on food crises known as the Integrated Food Security Phase Classification, or IPC — and on Wednesday asked for a formal retraction.

The Israeli military agency in charge of transferring aid to the territory, known as COGAT, said Thursday that more than 300 humanitarian aid trucks enter Gaza every day, most of them carrying food.

But aid groups say it’s not nearly enough after 22 months of fighting, the blockade of aid earlier this year and the collapse of food production in Gaza. McCain spent most of Tuesday on a tour of Gaza speaking to displaced families living in tents and facing hunger.

“I got to meet a family who had come from the North, there were 11 of them, and they’d come from the North and they literally had not had enough food at all and they still don’t have enough food," she said.

McCain said her program is getting more food in to Gaza, but said a surge in food supplies was needed.

U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said famine in Gaza is “a present-day catastrophe" and the start of expanded Israeli military operations present “a new and dangerous phase.”

He said it will have “devastating consequences" and force hundreds of thousands of traumatized and exhausted civilians to flee again.

“Gaza is piled with rubble, piled with bodies, and piled with examples of what may be serious violations of international law,” he said.

Mediators Egypt and Qatar were still waiting for Israel’s response to a 60-day ceasefire proposal in Gaza, which has been accepted by Hamas, Qatari foreign minister said Thursday.

The proposal, which Egyptian and Qatari mediators delivered to Israel earlier this month, calls for a 60-day ceasefire in exchange for the release of 10 living hostages and the handover of bodies of 18 dead ones, according to Arab mediators. It also calls for the withdrawal of Israeli forces to a buffer zone on Gaza.

Also Thursday, Israeli airstrikes hit the Yemeni capital, Sanaa, in response to attacks by the Arab country's Iran-backed Houthi rebels, who have launched missiles and drones toward Israel and targeted ships in the Red Sea for over 22 months. The Houthis say the attacks are in solidarity with Palestinians.

Nearly 63,000 people have been killed in Gaza since the war began, according to the Palestinian Health Ministry in Gaza. The agency reported that 71 people were killed by Israeli strikes over the past day, while scores more were injured. While the ministry does not differentiate between civilians and combatants, it says more than half of the dead were women and children.

The ministry is part of the Hamas-run government and staffed by medical professionals. The United Nations and independent experts consider it the most reliable source on war casualties. Israel disputes its figures but has not provided its own.

Hamas-led militants abducted 251 people and killed around 1,200 people, mostly civilians, in the Oct. 7, 2023, attack that triggered the war. Most of the hostages have been released in ceasefires or other deals. Of the 50 remaining in Gaza, Israel believes around 20 are alive.

The U.N. chief said Israel, as the occupying power, has obligations to protect civilians, facilitate far greater humanitarian access and meet their essential needs.

The systematic dismantling of systems that provide food water and healthcare, Guterres said, “are the result of deliberate decisions that defy basic humanity.”

Displaced Palestinians fleeing northern Gaza Strip move with their belongings on a street in Gaza City, Thursday, Aug. 28, 2025. (AP Photo/Abdel Kareem Hana)

Relatives and supporters of hostages held by Hamas in the Gaza Strip take part in a protest calling for their release as they stand at the site where revelers were killed on Oct. 7, 2023, at the Nova music festival, near the Kibbutz Reim, southern Israel, Thursday, Aug. 28, 2025. (AP Photo/Maya Levin)

An Israeli tank moves along the Israeli-Gaza border as seen from southern Israel, Thursday, Aug. 28, 2025. (AP Photo/Maya Levin)

A Palestinian girl waits at a community kitchen before donated food is distributed in Gaza City, Friday, Aug. 22, 2025. (AP Photo/Abdel Kareem Hana)

A Palestinian children wait at a community kitchen before donated food is prepared and distributed in Gaza City, Friday, Aug. 22, 2025. (AP Photo/Abdel Kareem Hana)

WASHINGTON (AP) — The Supreme Court agreed on Friday to hear an appeal from global agrochemical manufacturer Bayer to block thousands of state lawsuits alleging it failed to warn people that its popular weedkiller could cause cancer.

The justices will consider whether the Environmental Protection Agency's approval of the Roundup weedkiller without a cancer warning should rule out the state court claims.

The Trump administration has weighed in on Bayer's behalf, reversing the Biden administration's position and putting it at odds with some supporters of the Make America Healthy Again agenda who oppose giving the company the legal immunity it seeks.

Some studies associate Roundup’s key ingredient, glyphosate, with cancer, although the EPA has said it is not likely to be carcinogenic to humans when used as directed.

Bayer disputes the cancer claims but has set aside $16 billion to settle cases. At the same time, it has tried to persuade states to pass laws barring the lawsuits. Georgia and North Dakota have done so.

The high court will take up a case from Missouri, in which a jury awarded $1.25 million to a man who developed non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma after spraying Roundup on a community garden in St. Louis.

The Supreme Court in 2022 declined to hear a similar claim from Bayer in a California case that awarded more than $86 million to a married couple.

But Germany-based Bayer, which acquired Roundup maker Monsanto in 2018, contends the Supreme Court should intervene now because lower courts have issued conflicting rulings. In 2024, the 3rd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals ruled in Bayer’s favor.

Bayer faces about 181,000 Roundup claims, mostly from residential users. It has stopped using glyphosate in Roundup sold in the U.S. residential lawn and garden market. But glyphosate remains in agricultural products. It’s designed to be used with genetically modified seeds, including corn, soybeans and cotton, that resist the weedkiller’s deadly effect. It allows farmers to produce more while conserving the soil by tilling it less.

Bayer has said it might have to consider pulling glyphosate from U.S. agricultural markets if the lawsuits persist.

It’s unclear if the case will be argued in the spring or at the start of the next court term, in October.

Follow the AP's coverage of the U.S. Supreme Court at https://apnews.com/hub/us-supreme-court.

U.S. Supreme Court is seen, Wednesday, Jan. 14, 2026, in Washington. (AP Photo/Rahmat Gul)

The U.S. Supreme Court is seen, Wednesday, Jan. 14, 2026, in Washington. (AP Photo/Rahmat Gul)