17/08/2025
As of August 4, more than 175 people have died from starvation, 93 of them children. 89 of these deaths occurred in the past two weeks. Over 1,487 people have been killed and more than 10,578 injured while trying to obtain food at "aid centers."
After launching its assault in October 2023, Israel imposed a complete blockade on the Gaza Strip, including a sweeping ban on the entry of goods – both humanitarian and commercial. At a later stage, Israel began to allow the limited entry of aid trucks, but the quantities remained significantly below what is needed for the population’s survival.
This has led to acute shortages and soaring food prices that have left most of Gaza’s residents without access to sufficient food.
Israel has also deliberately destroyed Gaza’s capacity to produce food. It bombed the only wheat mill, forced nearly all bakeries to shut down, killed most livestock, and devastated Gaza’s farmland, greenhouses, and wells. The fishing industry, once a vital food source, has been nearly wiped out.
This destruction is not incidental. Israel is targeting the systems that once sustained Gaza’s food supply and undermining the population’s ability to recover and produce food in the future.
International experts, including UN officials, have stated unequivocally: Israel is using starvation as a method of warfare. While Israel denies the existence of a food shortage and blames Hamas for diverting aid, these claims have been refuted by the agencies delivering assistance. Two US government bodies confirmed that Israel is deliberately obstructing aid and bears primary responsibility for the widespread hunger in Gaza.
This policy is not only collective punishment, but a means of exerting political pressure by inflicting unbearable conditions on the civilian population.
In May 2025, after Israel shut down and destroyed the humanitarian aid system that had previously enabled food distribution in Gaza, the Israeli military and the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation (GHF), a private entity linked to the Israeli and U.S. governments, began operating four “aid centers” for food distribution.
From the outset, UN representatives described the centers as “death traps,” where hungry civilians are forced to wait for many hours in extreme overcrowding. Israeli soldiers testified they were ordered to fire at civilians, even when they posed no threat. All major aid agencies, including the UN, refused to cooperate with the initiative and warned that the location of the centers primarily in southern Gaza, are intended to push the population toward the Egyptian border. A senior Israeli official involved in the project admitted that the centers were meant to create a façade of aid “to deflect international pressure.”
Consequently, the scope of famine has reached catastrophic levels. Nearly 2 million people – 93% of Gaza’s population – are suffering severe food insecurity. Hundreds of thousands are facing catastrophic hunger – the most severe classification of famine. These figures, based on international assessments, are expected to rise.
Israel’s deliberate, systematic, extreme starvation policy leaves no room for doubt. This is genocide. It is happening now, and it must be stopped.
Read the full report in the link in the first comment.
