What began as a policy almost two decades ago has only intensified over the last two years as Israel uses hunger as a “method of war” to starve two million Gazans.
It starts with the body eating itself, consuming all the energy stored in its nooks and crannies. Then begins the shedding: weight, hair, skin, muscles, colour, sanity. And finally, when months pass, all that remains are shadows of a self that once was. Slowly, the heart and liver stop functioning, and soon after, death descends.
This is the story of two million Palestinians in the Gaza Strip, who have been stripped of food, water, shelter, dignity and a future. It is a story that started well before the onslaught began on Oct 7, 2023,[3] following the Hamas attack on Israel.
In the two years since, the Israeli military has pretty much flattened Gaza, killing almost 70,000 people, injuring and maiming thousands of others and displacing hundreds of thousands. But some in Gaza consider the deceased lucky — at least they don’t have to witness their loved ones slowly starve to death.
While the signs started showing way back, officially, a famine was declared[4] in the enclave on August 22 this year. According to the Integrated Security Phase Classification (IPC) — a standardised global system for analysing and classifying the severity of acute and chronic food insecurity and acute malnutrition — more than half a million Palestinians are trapped, starving to death, in the Strip.
The declaration was news, but no surprise. For the past two years, the world has witnessed in real time this famine unfold on their mobile and television screens. International human rights bodies had been warning[5] of it for months; resolutions were passed[6], letters were written[7], and condemnations were issued. Yet, as hundreds of desperate Palestinians starved to death, the world looked on — some with agonising helplessness, others out of brutal indifference.
As of October 1, at least 455 Palestinians have died of starvation. While most of these deaths are among children and infants, older people are increasingly succumbing to the hunger that Israel has imposed on Gaza. Aid agencies have warned that the meagre amount of aid Tel Aviv is allowing into the enclave will only worsen conditions in the Strip.
“People are literally falling dead from hunger in the streets,” said Hany Abufayez, a writer based in Gaza who specialises in social and political issues. Once a successful businessman, the father of six — four boys and two girls — lost everything in the war. His only asset now is his family; their safety is his top priority.
Under international law, access to food is a “fundamental human right”. But in Gaza, this right has become a choice: death by starvation or death by bombs. “Either we die of hunger in the tents or risk going out in search of food amid killings, bombings and sniper fire,” said Abyfayez. His nephew, Fayez Jamal Abu Akar, paid the price: “he went out to fetch food. He was shot in the head, abdomen and leg.”
Stages of starvation
By definition, starvation is suffering or death caused by the lack of food. It occurs over three stages: the first starts as early as a skipped meal, the second comes with a prolonged period of fasting when the body relies on stored fats for energy, and the third and fatal stage is when these fat reserves are depleted. The body consequently turns to bones and muscles for energy.
“Starvation is one of the most barbaric ways to kill someone,” said Dr Fyeza Jehan, professor and chairperson of the Department of Paediatrics & Child Health at the Aga Khan University in Karachi. “It is not sudden … it is prolonged, you are constantly conscious of it, and it is intended to maximise suffering.”
Chronic starvation, the doctor explained, is like the body cannibalising itself. Without access to food, the stomach contracts, leading to severe hunger pangs that occur as the body utilises all of its glycogen stores — the stored form of glucose, primarily located in the liver and skeletal muscles. In adults, the process can last 48 hours, while in children, it is accelerated and can last up to a day.
After two to three days without food, the hunger vanishes, leaving the body behind in what is called the survival mode, and as it happens, the body goes frigid. “It feels like there is no life left in you,” Dr Fyeza said. In a child, this can manifest as a boy or a girl with dull eyes who doesn’t play or talk anymore. For toddlers or infants, their cries dim or just stop altogether.
When weeks pass, these effects worsen in the form of lost weight, thin skin, shrinking muscles, hallucinations and a weak immune system in adults. In these circumstances, even a common cold can lead to severe infections.
In children, prolonged starvation eats up all the fat and protein in their bodies, leaving them with oedema — swelling caused by excess fluid trapped in the body’s tissues, often affecting the legs, ankles, and feet. Physically, the child loses all colour and embodies a shrunken leaf. At this stage, any infection can cause death.
For Gaza’s children, the signs Dr Fyeza pointed out fit like a glove.
Dr Wesam Amir, a Palestinian medic who left the enclave for safety last year, cannot forget those dull eyes, once sparkling with life and light. “Instead of running around, they now search for a place to lie on; instead of toys, they now ask for bread; many have forgotten what it is like to eat a full meal.”
“Their cries echo in my ears even today … and it breaks me every single time,” he sighed. Dr Wesam recalled the wails of an infant in the neighbourhood where he lived. “The mother couldn’t breastfeed … she was malnourished herself. Her baby would cry with hunger for hours, but there was nothing that could be fed, not even formula milk.”
As months pass without adequate food, a starving adult may still be able to survive. But they are merely a shadow of their former selves; all that remains are bones and skin. Eventually, the heart and liver begin to fail, and the body’s tissues break down. Death is not far away.
Children, on the other hand, rarely ever reach this stage. Their fragile bodies rapidly deteriorate, becoming susceptible to diarrhoea, pneumonia and sepsis. At three weeks, the process of starvation reaches its catastrophic phase, where children get lesions on their eyes and go blind, their hair falls out, and their organs shut down.
“Unable to move, speak or cry out, they draw their last breath,” said Rachael Cummings, humanitarian director at Save the Children. She highlighted that data compiled by the organisation[8] for July showed cases of acute malnutrition in children under the age of five at their clinics across Gaza surged tenfold during the four months of total siege.
Of the 3,533 children screened for malnutrition during the first half of July, 259 were admitted for treatment (7pc) compared to 28 (1pc) in March. The number of children admitted for treatment of malnutrition in the first two weeks of July was close to the total for the whole of June, a trend that is dangerous and unprecedented. “There is a clear correlation here with the start of the total siege[9] at the beginning of March and its knock-on impacts.”
When it comes to grown-ups, research[10] suggests that a healthy adult can survive without food for between one to two months. However, there are no healthy adults in Gaza today — two years of aid being blocked intermittently by Israel has deprived them of conditions indispensable for survival, essentially rendering people in the enclave vulnerable to malnutrition[11] and a host of infectious diseases[12].
“Imagine that 99 per cent of people here have not eaten a meal containing meat or eggs in over a year or six months,” Khalil Abu Shama, a human rights defender in Gaza, told Dawn.com. His family is very much a part of this percentage.
Shama’s son, Mohammed, especially requires the nutrients. He fractured his right leg during the Israeli bombing of the beachfront Al-Baqa cafe[13] in Gaza City on June 30, in which the military used a 500lb bomb — a powerful and indiscriminate weapon that generates a massive blast wave and scatters shrapnel over a wide area.
“He needs nutritious foods, like meat and eggs, to recover and walk again,” the father said. “But we struggle to provide him with even basic food. The available food consists mainly of canned goods such as fava and kidney beans, peas, some bread, cheese, and a very limited amount of vegetables,” he rued.
But meals in Gaza are no longer about nutrition or flavour; they are now only meant to quell the hunger pangs. Most families survive on one meal a day. As per the recent IPC report, July 2025 was consistent with the exponential rise in acute malnutrition across Gaza. It found that at least 1 in 5 households in the enclave are facing an extreme shortage in their consumption of food, roughly 1 in 3 children or more are acutely malnourished, and at least 2 in every 10,000 people are dying daily because of outright starvation or the combination of malnutrition and disease.
It further reported that in the Gaza governorate, 15pc of households said they have resorted to scavenging through bins for food, adding that at certain points over the past 23 months, people were forced to eat leaves to survive, or scraps that even rats wouldn’t want to eat.
“Breakfast is often a cup of water and, if you are lucky, a piece of stale bread,” described Dr Wesam. “The main meal of the day is usually a thin rice soup made with lots of water and a handful of grains. On other days, it is plain rice with a pinch of salt.” A dish like eggplant stew, he continued, has become a luxury — unseen in months.
“My grandmother-in-law has health conditions that require a special diet, but we can’t provide it. She is so frail, yet she often gives a portion of her food to the children, pretending she isn’t hungry,” he added.
Psychological toll
Beyond the toll and hunger is something grave — it is the erosion of dignity and future potential and the long-term psychological trauma that will haunt generations of Palestinians to come.
“There is … a multi-generational societal impact. The trauma, sense of degradation and humiliation that accompany the experience of famine lives on in the memories of people,” said Alex de Waal, one of the world’s leading experts on famine, in an interview with Anadolu Agency, while comparing starvation in Gaza with the Great Irish Famine of the 1840s, which left a lingering silence and chafed pain for over a century.
“I fear that in the case of Gaza, this sense of trauma, degradation, humiliation, dehumanisation will mean that this is a wound that … will take generations to heal,” he added.
The Palestinian spread, once a symbol of pride for Gaza, was reduced by Israel to stale bread and thin rice soup made of a handful of grains — that too require begging — and dirty water. Some families look at old photos of meals on their phones just to remember what it used to feel like to have a full table and a fuller stomach.
“Managing feels too generous. People aren’t managing; they are barely surviving,” said Dr Wesam. And this affects not just their bodies, but also their behaviours, which become contrary to normal survival instincts, both in adults and children. For babies born in Gaza during the last several months, food is a foreign concept, as many of them have never tasted a hearty meal. This doesn’t just impact them but also helpless mothers, who are malnourished themselves.
“In Nasser, the hospital corridors are lined with women who have just given birth. In six missions to Gaza, I have never seen it like this — new mothers and vulnerable newborns lying on the floor,” said UNICEF spokesperson James Elder.
“Three premature babies share a single oxygen source — each breathing for 20 minutes, before giving way to the next. A premature baby, Nada, who was in intensive care for 21 days, is discharged and now waits outside, lying on the corridor floor with her mother. Nada weighs two kilograms, less than half of what she should weigh,” he added.
This hunger, visible across Gaza, is also preventing injured Palestinians from recovering fully, as two years of war and starvation have taken a toll on their immune systems. And contrary to popular belief, refeeding, as Dr Fyeza pointed out, is not the solution.
“At this time, even if aid enters Gaza, the damage has already been done,” she lamented. Palestinians in the enclave are now at risk of the refeeding syndrome — a metabolic disturbance which occurs as a result of the reintroduction of nutrition in people who are starved, severely malnourished, or metabolically stressed because of severe illness.
If food is introduced too quickly, the doctor explained, it can cause serious complications such as an electrolyte imbalance. This happens because of the ways our bodies change when they are deprived of nutrients. When we begin refeeding, they have to change back, but they may not have the resources they need.
“As the body starves, it makes adaptations to maintain life as long as possible. These adaptations mean that if a severely malnourished person suddenly consumes a large amount of food, it may actually kill them,” the IPC report highlighted. Instead, food needs to be introduced gradually and under medical supervision to ensure that this unfortunate consequence does not happen.
“Even if the food comes back, all the effects, especially those on children and their brain development, cannot be undone,” Dr Fyeza said. When the body experiences repeated cycles of undernutrition, it causes chronic health problems. In adults, they manifest in the form of heart diseases and diabetes.
It is, however, the children who suffer the biggest loss. Those who survive will be more susceptible to anaemia, stunting, and poor immunity. Similarly, babies born to mothers who are malnourished are more likely to be smaller, less healthy, and at higher risk of malnutrition themselves. But most of all, this is an entire generation growing up with less capacity, whether it is physical or cognitive.
“The impacts of famine often ripple across generations: children who survive may face lifelong health and developmental challenges, and their own children may inherit increased vulnerability,” said Rachael of Save the Children. “The physical, mental, and social harms of famine are not only devastating in the moment, but they also shape families, communities, and futures for decades.”
“Children in Gaza are systematically being starved to death. This is a deliberate policy. This is starvation as a method of war in its starkest terms.”
What begins as hunger does not end with it — it seeps into memory, body, even the bloodline. In Gaza, starvation has become a legacy written into the next generation.
“They need to starve […] the moment it becomes hard for them, it will also be hard for Hamas. There is no problem bombing fuel and food reserves,” Israeli Heritage Minister Amichai Eliyahu said[14], days before a famine was declared in Gaza. Before him, far-right Israeli Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich also thundered[15]: “Not even a single grain of wheat will enter the Gaza Strip.”
“[…] we should bomb all their generators. If our hostages don’t have electricity, let them have no electricity … we need to explain to him [President Trump] that this aid goes to Hamas, and Hamas are Nazis, and they shouldn’t be given a single grain of food. Not only [should we] not give them, but [we should] bomb all of their food reserves,” Israeli Minister of National Security Itamar Ben-Gvir posted on X on March 3, 2025.
It is no longer a secret that Tel Aviv is deliberately starving Palestinians, not just since October 2023, but as a systematic policy for almost two decades now. The question is how.
After Hamas took control of Gaza in 2007, Israel placed restrictions on everything entering the enclave through crossings controlled by its military. “The idea is to put the Palestinians on a diet, but not to make them die of hunger,” Dov Weisglass, a senior adviser to the then Israeli prime minister had said[16] back then.
Henceforth, Israel began to carefully calculate the amount of food Gaza precisely needed, allowing just that into the enclave. According to files released by the defence ministry two years later, the food calculation had applied the average daily requirement of 2,279 calories per person. An average adult needs[17] 2,500kcal a day.
Even before October 2023, 1.2 million of Gaza’s 2.2 million population was estimated to be facing acute food insecurity, and over 80pc were reliant on humanitarian aid, the Human Rights Watch noted in a report[18].
Today, Cogat, the Israeli agency that controls aid shipments to Gaza, appears to be following the same policy. The agency’s records show that 319,926 tonnes of aid were allowed into the enclave between March and September, which is insufficient to meet the starving territory’s needs. As per the World Food Programme, Gaza needs more than 62,000 metric tonnes[19] of food every month to cover basic humanitarian needs for its population.
Even if every bag of flour or can of beans were handed out equitably, starvation and hunger in Gaza were inevitable.
In March and April, after Israel resumed attacks on Gaza following the ceasefire violation, the enclave was under a total siege, with no food allowed to enter. By May, Netanyahu succumbed to growing international pressure and allowed[20] only a trickle of aid to enter the Strip, which didn’t prevent but delayed the famine.
Between May and July, a meagre 116,030 tonnes of aid entered Gaza; one-third of the required food never reached the territory. By August, a famine was officially declared. And all of this happened as hundreds of trucks, carrying humanitarian aid sufficient to feed Gaza for three months, waited a few kilometres from the Strip, awaiting Israeli approvals.
“Just outside Gaza, in warehouses — and even within the territory itself — tonnes of food, clean water, medical supplies, shelter items and fuel sit untouched with humanitarian organisations blocked from accessing or delivering them,” said Rachael Cummings of Save the Children.
“The Government of Israel’s restrictions, delays, and fragmentation under its total siege have created chaos, starvation, and death.”
Like a hawk eyeing its prey, Israel has exercised complete control over the aid entering Gaza ever since the beginning of its onslaught on the Strip. A recent analysis of food availability, conducted by the IPC, showed that from October 2023 to December 2024, there was a considerable caloric deficit in the enclave, as only 1,640kcals per person were available every day. By May 2025, this number fell to just 1,400 calories[21] or “67pc of what a human body needs to survive”.
“Before the war, Gaza was receiving about 500 aid trucks daily,” Nebal Farsakh, spokesperson of the Palestine Red Crescent, told Dawn.com. “But the trucks entering the enclave now are in mere dozens, which does not even scratch the surface of its needs.”
“It is a drop in the ocean.”
According to the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs, after the resumption of hostilities in March, only 35pc of 1,445 humanitarian missions were facilitated by Israeli authorities, while 810 were impeded or denied. Israel’s recent changes in its policies, requiring all humanitarian trucks to be accompanied by its security escorts, have further impacted humanitarian logistical operations.
The lack of escort capacity has already caused suspensions on some humanitarian supply corridors, while previously authorised items such as nutrition, health, hygiene and water treatment aid face longer delays than food items, noted the IPC report.
Even if aid trucks do manage to cross the rigidly guarded Gaza border, what they carry is rarely ever sufficient to meet the needs of Palestinians. “The goods that come through the crossing are very limited,” said Nour Abu Shammala, a human rights activist and writer in the enclave. “For example, meat of any kind is not allowed in. The reliance remains on canned foods, legumes and cheese.”
“We went through a period where we didn’t have flour or bread … we had to eat rice instead, and we rationed bread carefully to keep some for the next day. At first, breakfast might have been za’atr and olive oil, but even those ran out, so we depended mainly on fava beans,” she recalled.
Other times, the trucks are hijacked and looted or seized by criminal groups supported by Israel to break down civil order in the Strip and prevent aid deliveries, Nour added.
While Palestinians always knew who funded these gangs, mounting evidence has recently surfaced, laying bare Israel’s glaring role in mobilising criminals in Gaza. On June 5, Netanyahu admitted[22]: “The government has activated powerful local clans in the enclave on the advice of security officials.”
Earlier, Israeli newspaper Haaretz reported[23] that sources in Gaza claimed one such group Bibi referred to consisted of roughly 100 armed men operating with the implicit support of the Israeli military.
The New Humanitarian, a not-for-profit newsroom, described[24] the gangs as “big and very dangerous”. They are especially located in areas where aid is entering or being distributed. “They loot UN trucks, selling the goods at inflated rates — or sometimes the food just disappears altogether … they also steal food directly from other people who risk their lives to get aid from distribution centres.”
What these gangs steal is sold into the market at exorbitant rates; sugar now costs 300 times more than it did before the war, same is the case with flour and beans. As per the IPC report released in August, July food prices in Gaza increased by 25pc to as much as 9,900pc compared to the February ceasefire levels, and by 233pc to 15,285pc compared to the pre-war prices.
The highest fluctuations were seen in wheat flour — which has become both a bane and boon for Palestinians — up to $30 in June and coming back down to around $15 in July.
Qusay Qasem, 22, is among the thousands of Palestinians for whom fetching bread has become a fatal exercise. A resident of North Gaza, which has been declared a combat zone, he has to risk his life every day to secure a piece of bread. But the markets, now merely a remnant of what they used to be before the war, are nearly inaccessible. The IPC has found that Palestinians face extreme challenges reaching markets across the Strip, with 82pc of households in Deir al-Balah Governorate, 76pc in Khan Younis Governorate, 72pc in Gaza Governorate and 66pc in North Gaza Governorate unable to reach markets.
“Instead, I head to aid distribution centres, where bullets pour down on us,” Qasem told Dawn.com. “I have escaped death several times. Yet, I return alive each time because I know my family is waiting for that one sack of flour, that one loaf of bread.”
Bakeries, previously a reliable source of food — particularly bread — for a majority of Palestinians like Qasem, have remained closed since April 2025. Most of them have been bombed, and the undamaged ones are out of reach. Of the 29 bakeries in Gaza, 13 are now in evacuation and militarised zones, while none of the previous bakeries in North Gaza, Rafah, and Khan Younis are accessible due to the movement restrictions imposed by Israel.
Before the war, many Gazans relied on the enclave’s fertile lands for sustenance and livelihood. But two exhausting years of Israeli aggression have snatched that. All that remains is rubble, dust and despair.
According to an assessment by the Food and Agriculture Organisation, Gaza’s agrifood system faces a near-total collapse. About 86pc of cropland has been damaged, with over 91pc land inaccessible to farmers and only 1.5pc of arable land in use. Agriculture previously supplied most of the Strip’s fresh vegetables, eggs and milk. In fact, some of its top exports included strawberries, dates, olives, and flowers.
A similar situation persists with livestock, most of which have been killed; only 26pc of sheep and 34pc of goats remain, ceasing the commercial production of poultry, cattle and dairy. With the Israeli ban on access to the sea — the beach that was once a source of solace, laughter and barbeques — over 72pc of fishing assets, including boats, aquaculture, farms and cold storage have been destroyed.
With its 24-month-long aggression in Gaza, Israel has systematically robbed the enclave of its ability to feed itself, forcing Palestinians to now depend almost entirely on irregular food aid and imports. This is not just an erasure of life, but also dignity. And the FAO agrees, explicitly describing Gaza’s crisis as an “entirely man-made catastrophe, driven by access restrictions and bombardment rather than natural causes”.
Families like that of Nour, who still have some financial stability enabling to purchase food, also face massive hindrances in terms of preparation because of the complete lack of fuel and gas — the latter hasn’t entered the enclave since February 2025. As a result, Gazans must now rely on burning rubbish to light their stoves.
“Staple foods such as lentils and wheat flour, if poorly cooked, are not well digested by the body, reducing its ability to fully absorb and use the nutrients,” the FAO told Dawn.com. Thus, even for households that can sporadically access food, they often lack the means to safely prepare it.
In addition to this, the IPC report highlighted that basic cooking implements continue to be in short supply due to the constant displacement of populations.
Nearly 800,000 Palestinians have been displaced since the end of the ceasefire on March 18, with almost 350,000 since the escalation of May 15 alone. Most of the population has been displaced multiple times across Gaza Governorate, Deir al-Balah and Khan Younis governorates. Across these governorates, around 20pc or more of the population has been displaced three to six times, with at least 4pc across all three areas displaced seven or more times.
Continued and frequent displacement erodes household capacity to cope as essential assets such as shelter materials, storage items, water, and food may be lost along the journey, especially given the limited notice that people have to evacuate or relocate from approaching hostilities, the report noted.
Before the war, Hani Abufayez was recognised across Gaza as a successful businessman. He ran a consulting office and lived in a villa with his family of eight. Today, he lives in a tent after being displaced not once but at least thrice. “I survive on very little money … my fears grow with each passing day. I fear my family and I could be killed at any moment, or die of hunger.”
“The reality is that Israel has turned Gaza into a death zone where there is no place for life anymore.” It didn’t just rain down bombs on the enclave, but also ran a planned campaign there, using “food and aid as a weapon to humiliate, weaken, displace and kill Palestinians”.
Systems breakdown
The dismantling[25] of the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestinian Refugees was a part of this campaign. For decades, Palestinians have relied on the organisation for aid. “It is the only agency with real experience in humanitarian relief,” said Khalil Abu Shama, a human rights defender in Gaza.
“I am considered a part of the third generation of the Nakba of 1948. I completed my primary and preparatory education in UNRWA schools. I grew up witnessing the agency providing its services to refugees in various fields. I completed my studies, and throughout my long career in the field of human rights, there was continuous coordination between us and UNRWA,” he reminisced.
The UNRWA was established[26] by the UN General Assembly on December 8, 1949, to provide basic support, including food, healthcare and education to Palestinian refugees, who were displaced during the Nakba. It supports about six million Palestinian refugees, residing both within and outside Palestine, and provides direct services such as schools, health centres and other social services.
Before Israel launched its offensive in Gaza, about a million Palestinians in the Gaza Strip were sheltering in UNRWA schools, clinics and other buildings run by the agency. Meanwhile, nearly the entire population of the Strip relied on it for basic necessities, including food, water and hygiene.
“It was our lifeline, both before the war and especially after Oct 7, 2023,” emphasised Shama.
But just the way it did with everything else, Israel deprived Palestinians of this support as well. On January 30, Tel Aviv banned the UNRWA, months after the Israeli parliament passed two bills[27]: one, barring the agency from activity within Israel and the second banning Israeli authorities from any contact with it, essentially breaking a 1967 treaty[28] that allowed the agency to provide services to Palestinian refugees in areas under Israel’s control.
The action was taken after Israel accused 18 UNRWA employees of participating in the Oct 7 attack on Israel. Subsequently, a probe was launched by the UN, which found that nine workers of the agency “may have” been involved in the attack and no longer work for it. But UNRWA has maintained that Israel never presented any evidence supporting its allegations, adding that it regularly provided Tel Aviv with a full list of its staff members.
The agency has also accused Israel of detaining and torturing some of its staffers, pressurising them into making false confessions about ties with Hamas. But Netanyahu and his government were adamant on dismantling UNRWA, something they have been advocating for a long time. Israel claims that the UN body “perpetuated” the issue of Palestinian refugees because it allows Palestinians to transfer refugee status[29] across generations, which Tel Aviv refuses to accept.
It is also not a mere coincidence that Israel’s allegations came the same day the International Court of Justice ordered[30] it to prevent genocidal acts and scale up aid to Gaza.
Soon after the Israeli allegations were aired, the US became the first country to announce the suspension of funding to the agency. Canada, Australia, Britain, Germany, Italy, the Netherlands, Switzerland, Finland, Estonia, Japan, Austria and Romania soon followed.
What happened next looks like this: Israel made UNRWA vacate all premises in occupied East Jerusalem, cease its operations by Jan 30, and cut short the validity of all visas for UNRWA’s international staff. Basically, the agency was evicted[31].
“Stopping the UNRWA’s work and placing obstacles in the way of its continued presence in Palestine — especially in Gaza — is effectively a death sentence for large numbers of refugees who have lost everything, including the ability to secure food,” said Shama.
A month later, in February 2025, the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation[32] — backed by the very powers accused of engineering the starvation — was born. It promised relief. What it delivered, many in Gaza say, was something else entirely.
Dr Sami Alastal, a writer and political analyst based in Gaza, has lost 20 kilos since October 7, 2023. “We do not have any food, and if it is available, it is in very small quantities,” he rued. Yet, he refuses to visit the GHF aid distribution centres.
“It is a scam,” he said. “It is a killing and torture squad disguised as a humanitarian organisation.”
Dr Sami’s sentiments were echoed by a majority of Palestinians Dawn.com spoke to, who, despite the catastrophic levels of starvation and hunger in the enclave, refuse to visit the GHF-run stations. They see the distribution process as “humiliating to our humanity and dignity”.
“We live near the Netzarim area, from where we see people heading to aid distribution sites,” said Nour Abu Shammala, a Palestinian human rights activist. “The process of entry and aid distribution is manipulated by the [Israeli] occupation to create chaos, and so for us it is unacceptable.” She shared how these aid distribution sites were located in areas described as “execution grounds” for civilians.
“I heard about the crimes in Netzarim on television, watched them unfold from my house, but never went there myself.”
Qusay Qasem, who has no choice but to visit the GHF centres, calls them traps. “It is akin to walking into your death … at any time, the Israeli military starts indiscriminately firing at us, there are bullets everywhere,” he recalled. “I have seen fellow aid seekers fall dead or wounded as I duck to the ground.”
But even as bullets rain down on him, the 22-year-old Palestinian strives to reach the gates of the centre, his family’s shrunken faces flashing before his eyes. “I have to do it; they wait for a single piece of bread all day.”
This is exactly how Israel plays its game — it’s either death from guns or death from hunger. Here is how it is done:
The journey begins hours before the aid site is set to open, often in early morning hours. The aid seekers are only allowed to bring their vehicles up to a certain point, which is at least 1.5km (a 12-20 minute walk) from the centre, and then cover the remaining distance on foot. This means that once — and if — they manage to secure sacks or boxes of aid, it must be carried back on foot. As the crowd keeps getting bigger, everyone is glued to their spots — unflinching for fear of losing out — waiting for the go-ahead signal, usually the buzz of drones.
As soon as the signal rings through the now flattened Gaza, the walk begins, and, with that, the fear of death fills the air.
“These centres are heavily guarded by the Israeli military, who encircle them with sniper nests, tanks and drones,” said Khalil Abu Shama. “The Israeli military monitors the movement of the crowd, sometimes opening fire even before the go-ahead signal.”
“Every day between 10 and 50 civilians are killed without any clear explanation as to why, except that the occupation wants to slaughter as many people as possible in Gaza,” he added.
On July 19, Israel killed[33] at least 32 Gazans seeking aid near Rafah. According to an eyewitness, the shooting took place near a GHF aid distribution centre, adding that gunfire erupted from soldiers and tanks “as if they were in a battle with us”. Doctors who treated the wounded said they had severe gunshot wounds to the head and torso. The Israeli military, on the other hand, failed to provide any reason for the live fire.
This is not something new for the Israeli military. They have been targeting aid coming into Gaza since the first month of the war. From October 2023 to 2024, Forensic Architecture has documented more than 322 attacks on aid, including workers and civilians, as well as 22 attacks on convoys transporting aid.
Separately, during March and August this year, 64 incidents of the Israeli army opening fire on aid seekers were reported, of which 25 were around GHF centres, 19 in proximity to aid routes and seven during aid diversion.
The vast majority of these shootings weren’t merely a mistake or misunderstanding. A report[34] by Israeli newspaper Haaretz found that Israeli soldiers deliberately shot at unarmed Palestinians seeking aid in Gaza after being “ordered” to do so by their commanders. “We fire machine guns from tanks and throw grenades,” it quoted one soldier as saying.
Another soldier said that between “one and five people were killed every day” where he was stationed in Gaza. “It’s a killing field,” he added.
One of the authors of the Haaretz report, in an interview[35] with Al Jazeera, said that the Israeli military’s orders to open fire on civilians were part of a method to “control” the aid seekers. “It’s actually a practice of … controlling the crowd by fire, like if you wanted the crowd to run off [from] a place, you shoot them at them, even though you know they are unarmed … You use fire to move people from one point to another,” Nir Hasson said.
It almost translates to making Palestinians move to the tune of Israeli gunshots — not just a violation of their humanity but also of their dignity. “It is deliberate … Israel uses food as a tool of pressure,” Nour, the Palestinian human rights activist, pointed out. Meanwhile, Dr Alastal said: “Israel is using the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation to establish a military model of aid distribution wherein food is used as a weapon of war.”
The same was also highlighted in the Forensic Architecture report. It explained how, for years, aid in Gaza was distributed through experienced humanitarian organisations such as the UNRWA, equipped to meet the needs of the enclave’s population. But after the war, just like every living thing in the Gaza Strip, these agencies too came under attack.
Between March 2 and May 29, 2025, no aid was allowed to enter Gaza. During this period, Israel attacked aid warehouses and community kitchens, exacerbating the conditions of starvation. When aid trucks were finally permitted to re-enter Gaza at the end of May, ending the nearly three-month blockade, efforts to deliver supplies to warehouses faced significant challenges. To make matters worse, Cogat announced[36] in July that Israel will gradually permit the entry of goods into the Strip under a new “private commercial sector” mechanism, in a bid to “increase the volume” of aid, while reducing reliance on aid collection by the UN and other international organisations.
Simply put, Israel wanted complete control over the enclave. And this is how it was able to weaponise food distribution, ergo: The Gaza Humanitarian Foundation. Per the FA’s findings, the previous UN-led distribution network in Gaza operated nearly 400 sites, whereas the GHF has only four of what it calls “mega sites”, a majority of which are located in the south, which the UN says is an attempt to relocate Palestinians from the north and depopulate it.
“The military model dismantles the social fabric. In restricting the reach of any form of aid administration to the confines of the four ration stations, this model designates the remainder of the territory as something akin to a governance wilderness.
“In this ungoverned territory, Israel promotes the lawlessness of criminal gangs and proxy forces. The attacks on aid workers, health workers, and community leaders are part of this,” the report noted.
A method of war
In this war, hunger is not incidental — and aid, under the GHF, is not compassionate. A report[37] by the Jewish Voice for Peace lays it bare: from day one, GHF aid sites became kill-zones; “shoot at the crowds to communicate” were the instructions; distribution was concentrated in militarised zones and managed under Israeli oversight.
This is aid designed to humiliate, corral, and control. And so we arrive at the darkest logic: to deliver bread is to own life. Gaza’s hunger cannot be undone by more trucks or rations — it must be undone by undoing the system that made hunger the weapon in the first place.
Starvation in Gaza is not a byproduct of war — it is the method. This isn’t just the story of the last two years — the policy and actions go back two decades. What began as a blockade of goods has become a blockade of existence.
Israel has built a system where food is not distributed but dispensed; where hunger is not a crisis to be solved but a condition to be managed. The Gaza Humanitarian Foundation is the clearest example of this — aid designed not to relieve suffering but to regulate it. Every grain of wheat, every loaf of bread, is counted, rationed, and handed out under watchtowers and rifles.
And still, the Palestinians resist. They refuse to let the act of eating become a performance of gratitude. In their hunger, they assert the one thing Israel cannot occupy — their humanity.
In Gaza today, starvation has a geography, a policy, and an administration. It has checkpoints and drones, and waiting lines. It has signatures and seals. And that is the real tragedy — that the world has watched hunger become a bureaucracy.
History will remember this war not just for the bombs that fell, but for the bread that didn’t.
References
- ^ Hunger as policy (www.dawn.com)
- ^ The death trap (www.dawn.com)
- ^ Oct 7, 2023, (www.dawn.com)
- ^ declared (www.who.int)
- ^ warning (www.bbc.com)
- ^ passed (news.un.org)
- ^ written (www.refugeesinternational.org)
- ^ data compiled by the organisation (www.savethechildren.net)
- ^ total siege (www.un.org)
- ^ research (www.medicalnewstoday.com)
- ^ malnutrition (www.who.int)
- ^ host of infectious diseases (www.thelancet.com)
- ^ bombing of the beachfront Al-Baqa cafe (www.dawn.com)
- ^ said (www.aa.com.tr)
- ^ thundered (middleeasteye.net)
- ^ said (www.theguardian.com)
- ^ needs (www.nhs.uk)
- ^ report (www.hrw.org)
- ^ more than 62,000 metric tonnes (www.nhs.uk)
- ^ allowed (news.un.org)
- ^ fell to just 1,400 calories (news.un.org)
- ^ admitted (www.aljazeera.com)
- ^ reported (www.haaretz.com)
- ^ described (www.thenewhumanitarian.org)
- ^ dismantling (www.dawn.com)
- ^ established (www.un.org)
- ^ passed two bills (www.dawn.com)
- ^ 1967 treaty (www.un.org)
- ^ transfer refugee status (www.aljazeera.com)
- ^ ordered (www.dawn.com)
- ^ evicted (www.unrwa.org)
- ^ Gaza Humanitarian Foundation (www.aljazeera.com)
- ^ killed (www.theguardian.com)
- ^ report (www.haaretz.com)
- ^ interview (www.aljazeera.com)
- ^ announced (www.reuters.com)
- ^ report (www.jewishvoiceforpeace.org)