Amman: World Food Program (WFP) Food Security and Nutrition Analysis Director, Jean-Martin Bauer, Friday night called for urgent action on starvation in the Gaza Strip, saying famine has been confirmed in the Middle East for the first time. He told a press conference in his assessment of the Integrated Food Security Phase Classification (IPC), the global standard for measuring food insecurity, that famine is "severe food deprivation, widespread acute malnutrition, and deaths due to hunger," according to the WFP official website.

According to Jordan News Agency, Bauer stressed the need to protect data systems that will guide humanitarian responses, adding that the famine in the Middle East is a defining moment.