Famine by design: How Israel ignored warnings over hunger and starved Gaza
Distribution of food in Gaza City on 28 July 2025
Nir Hasson writes in Haaretz on 29 July 2025:
At 4:30 P.M. last Sunday, Gaza’s Hamas-run Health Ministry issued a grim update: 18 people had died of hunger in the previous 24 hours. Until that point, a total of 86 people had been documented as dying of hunger during the 21-month war. In other words, more than 20 percent of all famine-related deaths in Gaza had occurred in a single day.
This marked the beginning of a new, deadly wave of starvation that has yet to subside. In the nine days since, another 61 people have died of hunger – 14 of them in the past 24 hours alone.
For anyone following the situation in Gaza closely, the surge in hunger-related deaths was not unexpected. Just weeks after the war began, international experts, aid organizations and foreign governments began issuing increasingly urgent warnings to Israel about the risk of famine.
Israel, however, adopted policies that defied those warnings. The famine now unfolding in Gaza is one that was foreseen. “I’ve worked on this issue for four decades, and since World War II there has been no case of famine as carefully planned and controlled as this one. Every stage was foreseeable,” said global famine expert Alex de Waal.
When the war began in October 2023, the general health of Gaza’s population was relatively stable. While some had already faced food insecurity due to poverty and the years-long blockade, the majority were in good health. Gaza had agriculture, a fishing industry and millions of chickens, sheep and goats. Thousands of food trucks entered each month from Israel and Egypt.
Chronicle of a Famine – 2024
January 16
UN experts: “All children under the age of 5 are at high risk of malnutrition”
February 18
UNICEF report: “90% of children are suffering from food shortages”
March 25
UN Security Council calls for a cease-fire and the renewal of humanitarian aid deliveries to Gaza
April 2
Group of Biden administration experts: “The spread of famine is unprecedented”
May 20
International Criminal Court issues arrest warrants for Netanyahu and Gallant over “starvation of civilians as a method of warfare”
May 24
International Court of Justice orders Israel to “ensure the flow of food and humanitarian aid into Gaza”
June 3
Independent expert group publishes report: “Famine has likely begun in northern Gaza”
Today, according to UN data, only a single percent of Gaza’s egg-laying chickens remain, along with 6 percent of its livestock. Fish caught off Gaza’s coast now amount to less than 7 percent of prewar levels. The most devastating blow came from the disruption of internal food distribution within Gaza under orders from the Israeli army.
By December 2023, just 100 days into the war, a UN panel warned that one-quarter of Gaza’s population was already struggling to access food and clean water. By February 2024, UNICEF reported that 90 percent of Gaza’s children lacked food.
As homes were destroyed, families were forced to live in tents without electricity, gas for cooking or refrigeration. The collapse of water, sewage and sanitation systems led to widespread disease. Children and adults began falling ill due to a combination of poor hygiene and lack of nutrition. UNICEF estimated that 70 percent of children were suffering from diarrhea.
Warnings from international agencies continued throughout the spring and summer. In May 2024, Israel’s capture of Rafah and the destruction of its border crossing with Egypt cut off a major humanitarian corridor.
That same month, both the International Court of Justice (ICJ) and the International Criminal Court (ICC) in The Hague addressed the issue of famine in Gaza. The ICC cited starvation as the first charge in its arrest warrants against Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and then-Defense Minister Yoav Gallant. The ICJ, responding to a petition by South Africa, ordered Israel to allow the unrestricted entry of food and humanitarian aid. Israel ignored both courts’ rulings.
Within Israeli discourse, the notion of starving Gaza as a legitimate wartime tactic gained ground. An activist group called Tzav 9 repeatedly blocked aid convoys while police stood by. Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich said in August 2024 that “perhaps it’s moral to starve two million Gazans.” A group of retired generals proposed a plan to use famine to push northern Gaza residents to flee. What was once unthinkable became policy.
In early 2025, during a cease-fire, food aid resumed. Dozens of clinics began measuring the upper-arm circumference of children – a key indicator of acute malnutrition. A measurement under 12.5 cm (about 5 inches) in a child under three signals severe malnutrition. In February, 2 percent of children under five in Gaza met that criterion.
But on March 2, during the cease-fire, the Israeli government abruptly reversed course. “Prime Minister Netanyahu has decided that as of this morning, all entry of goods and supplies into Gaza will be halted,” the government announced. The siege lasted 78 days, during which Gaza’s food supplies were entirely depleted.
Two months in, the last communal bakery shut down. Two weeks later, the rate of acute malnutrition among children had risen to 4 percent. Israel continued restricting aid. At the end of March, nearly four weeks into the blockade, Israel’s High Court rejected a petition by human rights groups demanding the policy be overturned.
Chronicle of a Famine – 2025
April 2
The World Food Programme announces that the last bakery it operated has shut down due to a lack of flour and cooking gas
April 25
The World Food Programme reports that its food stocks in Gaza have run out
May 8
The UN warns that distributing food through GHF aid centers “increases the risk that large segments of the population will be left without essential supplies”
May 26
GHF opens its food distribution centers
Rate of children suffering from acute malnutrition in Gaza February-July 2025, UN Office for Co-ordination of Humanitarian Affairs
In late April, the UN World Food Programme announced its Gaza warehouses were empty. In early May, the Israeli government unveiled an alternative plan: contracting private American firms to distribute dry food packages directly to families. The stated goal was to feed civilians without aiding Hamas, despite no evidence that Hamas had diverted UN food aid. A New York Times investigation later revealed that senior IDF officers admitted the narrative of Hamas stealing aid was fabricated.
Once again, aid experts issued warnings. This time about Israel’s plan to outsource food distribution to the U.S.-funded Gaza Humanitarian Foundation (GHF). On May 8, the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) sent a memo to the UN Security Council outlining risks associated with the plan.
The memo raised concerns that the plan would sharply limit the number of food distribution sites, making it far more difficult for large segments of the population to access aid. It warned that displaced Gazans would be forced to carry 20-kilogram (about 45 lbs) food packages over long distances – an unreasonable burden for women, the elderly and the injured. The memo also cautioned that Israeli soldiers might open fire on crowds. Within a week of OCHA’s warning, 4.7 percent of Gaza’s children were suffering from acute malnutrition.
Despite the warnings, Israel opened the distribution centers under GHF. Disaster struck almost immediately. Tens of thousands of starving Gazans surged toward the centers. With no crowd-control measures in place, the army responded with live fire.
Hundreds were killed on the way to or near distribution points. The amount of food delivered was inadequate and distributed unevenly, mainly to young men who were able to physically access it. Every warning had come true. The famine deepened.
By mid-June, 6 percent of Gaza’s children were acutely malnourished. Still, the Israeli government continued to obstruct aid. The Customs Authority required NGOs to register before transferring goods from Jordan or the West Bank.
Diaspora Affairs Minister Amichai Chikli, who was put in charge of issuing visas to humanitarian organizations, added layers of bureaucratic hurdles. Foreign Minister Gideon Sa’ar announced that he would revoke the visa of Jonathan Whittall, the head of OCHA operations in Gaza and a key coordinator of aid deliveries.
The biggest challenge was not just bringing food into Gaza, but distributing it once inside. All internal movement required prior IDF approval – granted only sparingly. Between June 11 and 17, the UN submitted 100 movement requests. Just 23 were completed. The rest were either denied, canceled by the IDF or withdrawn due to logistical breakdowns stemming from Gaza’s social collapse.
Humanitarian agencies were increasingly unable to deliver food to population centers. Desperation led to widespread looting of aid convoys. The army continued issuing evacuation orders, forcing the closure of child nutrition centers, either because they were located in evacuation zones or had run out of food and medicine.
On June 9, just 11 days before the current wave of starvation deaths began, a girl named Salam arrived at a UNRWA clinic. Her arm circumference measured just 8.3 cm, nearly 4 cm below the severe malnutrition threshold. She died that day.
Six days later, the rate of acute malnutrition among Gaza’s children had risen to 8.8 percent. And then, they began to die.
This article is reproduced in its entirety