Please read the IPC report, cover to cover. Read it in sorrow & in anger. Not as words & numbers but as names and lives. Be in no doubt that this is irrefutable testimony. It is a famine. The Gaza Famine. It is a famine that we could have prevented, if we had been allowed. Yet food stacks up at borders because of systematic obstruction by Israel. It is a famine within a few hundred metres of food, in a fertile land. It is a famine that hits the most vulnerable first. Each with a name, each with a story. That strips people of dignity before it strips them of life. That forces a parent to choose which child to feed. That forces people to risk their lives to seek food. It is a famine that we repeatedly warned of. But that the international media has not been allowed in to cover. To bear witness. It is a famine in 2025. A 21st century famine watched over by drones and the most advanced military technology in history. It is a famine openly promoted by some Israeli leaders as a weapon of war. It is a famine on all of our watch. Everyone owns this. The Gaza Famine is the world’s famine. It is a famine that asks ‘but what did you do?’ A famine that will and must haunt us all. It is a predictable and a preventable famine. A famine caused by cruelty, justified by revenge, enabled by indifference and sustained by complicity. It is a famine that must spur the world to more urgent action. That must shame the world to do better. It is a famine that therefore also asks ‘… and what now will you do?’ My ask, my plea, my demand to Prime Minister Netanyahu and anyone who can reach him: Enough. Ceasefire. Open the crossings, north and south, all of them. Let us get food and other supplies in, unimpeded & at the massive scale required. End the retribution. It is too late for far too many. But not for everyone in Gaza. Enough. For humanity’s sake, let us in. Remarks by Tom Fletcher, Under-Secretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs and Emergency Relief Coordinator. Aug 22, 2025