evidence: The Mid-Year update of the Global Report on Food Crises (GFRC) 2024, reveals that the number of people facing, or projected to face Catastrophe, an IPC/CH phase 5 classification identifying extreme food crisis at household level, is the highest since the first GFRC had provided a global assessment back in 2016. The JRC has contributed to the production of data and has provided technical and advisory support. [...] The situation continues to be very worrying as the number of people facing, or projected to face Catastrophe more than doubled, from 705,000 in five countries/territories in 2023 to 1.9 million in four countries/territories in 2024. These record numbers are driven by two major ongoing conflicts, in the Gaza Strip and in Sudan. [...] - The Gaza Strip (Palestine) remains the most severe food crisis in the history of the Global Report on Food Crises (GRFC), with almost all of the 2.2 million residents still in urgent need of food and livelihood assistance between March and April 2024. The severity of the crisis has intensified, with half of the population in Catastrophe (IPC Phase 5) during this period, up from a quarter in December 2023–February 2024.