Statement by President Higgins following declaration of Famine in Gaza City and surrounding areas
22 August 2025
“The formal declaration that Gaza City and its surrounding areas now meet the criteria of Famine under the Integrated Food Security Phase Classification system will sadly not surprise all of us who have been warning of this for some time.
As the Secretary General of the United Nations, Antonio Guterres has put it,
“This is not a mystery — it is a man-made disaster, a moral indictment and a failure of humanity itself. Famine is not only about food; it is the deliberate collapse of the systems needed for human survival. People are starving. Children are dying. And those with the duty to act are failing.”
So many world leaders have issued statements over the last two years, always referencing a two-state solution. How can they now see the very concept destroyed before their eyes – in Gaza with the loss of life and in the West Bank with further illegal occupation.
Without urgent change, it is difficult to see how the international community can emerge without a loss of credibility and moral authority.
What is at stake now is the status of international law, the granting of impunity in conditions of indiscriminate destruction, and misrepresentation of the right to food itself by an occupying power.
None of this will wait until September. It is now the time for action on behalf of the international community, including all members of the European Union.”
