According to Gaza’s Health Ministry, out of more than 55,000 people killed since the war began in October 2023, at least 111 — most of them children — have died from malnutrition. Over 40 of those deaths occurred in just the past week. The head of the UN agency for Palestinian refugees has reported that aid workers, including doctors, are collapsing from hunger while on duty. For months, UN officials, humanitarian groups, and independent experts have been flagging that Gaza’s more than two million residents stand on the brink of famine. This catastrophe is neither natural nor inevitable — it is man-made and entirely preventable. A joint letter signed this week by 109 aid agencies, including Doctors Without Borders, Oxfam and Amnesty, has accused the Israeli government of deliberately obstructing the flow of aid. The only aid points now operating in Gaza are four militarised hubs run by the US- and Israeli-backed Gaza Humanitarian Foundation. These replaced the 400 UN-run sites shut down by Israel over unproven claims that aid is being diverted by Hamas. In the past month, more than 1,000 Palestinians have been killed while trying to access food at these sites due to shelling and firing. Gazans are being forced to make a choice between starving to death and risking being shot in a desperate attempt to feed themselves and their families. This, while Israeli air strikes continue unabated.
Israel’s military objective is evidently to defeat Hamas. But the most vulnerable in Israel’s war, and on whom it is inflicting the greatest suffering, are the innocent men, women and children of Gaza. Deliberately inflicting starvation on a people does much more than violate international law — Israel is obligated to ensure that aid reaches the population. If it continues its starvation policy with impunity, it will be a severe blow to the rules-based global order, its legitimacy.
International condemnation against Israel is rising, albeit belatedly. Earlier this week, 28 countries, including staunch allies like the UK, Australia, Canada and France, issued a statement that deemed its “denial of essential humanitarian assistance” to be “unacceptable”. US Special Envoy to the Middle East Steve Witkoff is in Italy this week, and will perhaps fly to Qatar as well, in a renewed push for a ceasefire. But the world must do more. Notwithstanding geopolitical rivalries over trade or territory, the international community must urgently unite to put pressure on Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to open Gaza’s border crossings, and allow aid in.
