Sunday, August 16, 2026
UN study debunks Gaza malnutrition claim, but Labour presses on
There are lies, there are damned lies, and then there are United Nations statistics.
This time last year the Integrated Food Security Phase Classification (IPC) scheme, a UN-supported outfit, declared a famine in Gaza.
There was some pushback from Israel at the time. To make a finding of famine, the rules require evidence that 30 per cent of under-fives are experiencing acute malnutrition.
There was no data available for the preferred metric (measuring the circumference of the upper arm), so the IPC used measurements for lower down the arm. Then they doubled them. The result was 15 per cent. The definition required 30 per cent. The result was multiplied by two.
All of a sudden, Jerusalem was starving the Palestinians. Except, this has now been debunked by another report, produced by the UN-backed Nutrition Cluster.
It shows that not only was Gaza’s upper-arm-measured acute malnutrition at the same rate, or lower, than before October 7, but that the Palestinians record lower levels of malnutrition than neighbouring countries including Egypt and Jordan.
As the researcher Dr Mark Zlochin observes in the JC, the data show that Gazan malnutrition is “exceptionally low by both regional and even Western standards”.
This time last year the Integrated Food Security Phase Classification (IPC) scheme, a UN-supported outfit, declared a famine in Gaza.
There was some pushback from Israel at the time. To make a finding of famine, the rules require evidence that 30 per cent of under-fives are experiencing acute malnutrition.
There was no data available for the preferred metric (measuring the circumference of the upper arm), so the IPC used measurements for lower down the arm. Then they doubled them. The result was 15 per cent. The definition required 30 per cent. The result was multiplied by two.
All of a sudden, Jerusalem was starving the Palestinians. Except, this has now been debunked by another report, produced by the UN-backed Nutrition Cluster.
It shows that not only was Gaza’s upper-arm-measured acute malnutrition at the same rate, or lower, than before October 7, but that the Palestinians record lower levels of malnutrition than neighbouring countries including Egypt and Jordan.
As the researcher Dr Mark Zlochin observes in the JC, the data show that Gazan malnutrition is “exceptionally low by both regional and even Western standards”.
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