by Israel National News
David Adesnik, vice president of research at the Foundation for Defense of Democracies, tells Fox News Digitial that the mortality figures from Gaza do not support claims of a famine in the enclave.
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As more data emerges from the Gaza Strip following the ceasefire agreement with Hamas, experts have begun to question the narrative told by UN-affiliated organizations that parts of Gaza reached the point of famine over the summer.
David Adesnik, vice president of research at the Foundation for Defense of Democracies spoke with Fox News Digital on Saturday about the discrepancies between the Integrated Food Security Phase Classification (IPC) claims of famine in Gaza and the actual mortality figures from the Hamas-controlled enclave.
"What makes famine different from just hunger or deprivation is that it’s lethal," Adesnik explained. "Using the IPC definition - that famine claims two lives per day per 10,000 people - the famine in Gaza directorate should by now have resulted in about 9,000 deaths from hunger or hunger-related disease. They didn’t have data showing that mortality rate had been reached."
Adesnik noted that Hamas itself claims that only 460 people have died of hunger or malnutrition in Gaza since the start of the war two years ago, 187 of whom are alleged to have died between August 22 and October 7, 2025. "I imagine it was a horrific end for those 187 individuals. But an accusation of famine is supposed to rest on evidence," he said.
More than 20,000 people died of malnutrition or hunger in the US in 2022. In Yemen, which is experiencing conditions much closer to actual famine, an estimated 85,000 children died from malnutrition and starvation between 2014-2018 alone, according to the Save the Children organization. This year, the UN warned that a million people in Yemen are at risk of starving to death.
In addition, in Sudan, where a Phase 5 famine has been declared, an 522,000 children have died due to malnutrition, according to a report by The Sudan Doctors Union in January 2025.
Adesnik also pointed to food prices as evidence that the claims of a famine in Gaza are incorrect. The IPC claimed that the food situation in Gaza would worsen, but food prices went down or stayed the same from August into September, which Adesnik called "the opposite" of what would have happened if the food situation actually became worse during that period.
The IPC and other UN agencies did not respond to Fox News Digital's requests to comment.
Israel National News
Source: https://www.israelnationalnews.com/news/416599
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