INVESTIGATION | “Deliberate Starvation”: Israel Accused Of Weaponising Hunger Against Gaza’s Civilian Population.

One million children at risk as UNRWA, doctors, and human rights groups warn of famine crimes and deliberate aid denial.

The charge is simple but devastating: Israel is starving Gaza. In a damning statement issued on Sunday, the United Nations Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA) declared that Israeli authorities are deliberately using starvation as a weapon of war, a grave violation of international humanitarian law.

“The Israeli Authorities are starving civilians in Gaza. Among them are 1 million children,” said UNRWA on X.

“Lift the siege: allow UNRWA to bring in food and medicines.”

Behind these words lies a humanitarian collapse so profound that doctors now speak of children arriving hourly at hospitals in critical condition from malnutrition. Health workers, eyewitnesses, and rights groups paint a chilling picture: this is not a byproduct of war. It is a strategy, systematic, prolonged, and intentional.

“No More Room In The Morgue”: Famine Stalks Gaza’s Children.

At the al-Aqsa Martyrs Hospital in Deir al-Balah, a four-year-old girl named Razan Abu Zaher became the latest child to die from hunger. Her body weighed just 7kg. Doctors say she suffered organ failure brought on by severe acute malnutrition. Her mother, in tears, kept whispering:

“I’m sorry. I couldn’t feed you.”

The tragedy is far from isolated. According to Gaza’s Ministry of Health, at least 71 children have died of starvation and dehydration since Israel’s full siege began in March. Health authorities now warn of hundreds of thousands more at risk.

“Malnutrition cases are increasing by the hour,” said Dr. Khaled Ali, a paediatrician in Deir al-Balah. “We see infants with sunken eyes, no muscle tone, weak cries. We have no therapeutic milk, no fortified formula. We are losing them, one by one.”

UNRWA data from March to June shows 5,500 children under five have been diagnosed with severe acute malnutrition, over 800 of them in critical condition. “This is famine in slow motion,” warned Juliette Touma, UNRWA’s communications director. “And it’s man-made.”

A Siege On Life: Aid Blocked, Supplies Rotting At Border.

Despite having over 6,000 aid trucks loaded with food and medical supplies waiting in Egypt and Jordan, UNRWA says it has been systematically denied entry by Israeli authorities. Most of the agency’s stockpiled aid is now at risk of spoiling.

“We have the food. We just need access,” said Touma. “But Israel is blocking UN agencies while allowing aid only through the GHF, a body we and others have warned is militarised and politicised.”

The Gaza Humanitarian Foundation (GHF), backed by Israel and the U.S., assumed control of aid distribution in late May, replacing traditional UN channels. Since then, more than 891 Palestinians have been killed and 5,754 wounded while trying to access food, according to Gaza health officials.

On Sunday, 25 Palestinians were killed, including 19 waiting for aid in the al-Sudaniya district. Eyewitness Abdul Aziz Abed, 37, described the chaos:

“We go to the aid sites for food, and we get bullets instead. Every day, we return with empty hands and more funerals.”

Eyewitnesses, Bodies, And Denials: What Happens At GHF Aid Sites?

The Israeli military insists that its soldiers do not intentionally fire on civilians. In a statement, it claimed that troops had fired “warning shots” at individuals approaching during “operational activity,” approximately one kilometre away from a Rafah aid site, “at a time when it wasn’t active.”

But civil defence agencies and local witnesses tell a different story.

Mahmoud Bassal, Gaza’s civil defence spokesman, said that 39 people were killed and over 100 wounded on Saturday near aid distribution points, not by crossfire, but direct Israeli gunfire.

“I saw people fall dead beside me,” said Khaled Shabir, 29, who had queued for hours at an aid station in Khan Younis. “There were no militants. Just hungry people. Some holding ID cards, others with children on their shoulders.”

The UN says that since GHF took over aid management, 674 people have been killed near GHF sites alone. Yet the foundation continues to deflect responsibility, blaming “agitators” linked to Hamas and claiming it warned people not to gather at night.

“This is state-sanctioned starvation,” said Sarah Leah Whitson, executive director of Democracy for the Arab World Now (DAWN). “Israel replaced neutral UN aid agencies with a weaponised outfit and now uses aid as bait, luring starving civilians into kill zones.”

Deliberate Starvation: A War Crime Under Investigation.

Legal scholars and human rights groups are unequivocal: the intentional starvation of civilians is not merely immoral, it is criminal.

According to Article 8(2)(b)(xxv) of the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court, “intentionally using starvation of civilians as a method of warfare” constitutes a war crime. The Israeli government, however, denies such allegations, accusing critics of echoing Hamas propaganda.

But human rights groups and international experts remain undeterred. A growing body of evidence, from satellite imagery showing aid convoys bombed, to firsthand accounts of food denial, and to malnutrition data from UN and WHO sources, has prompted renewed calls for international accountability.

“Israel has turned starvation into a weapon,” said Michael Lynk, former UN Special Rapporteur on human rights in the Palestinian Territories. “And the international community is complicit if it continues to supply arms while children die from hunger.”

Humanitarian System Hijacked, Gaza Left To Starve:

The World Food Programme reports that one in three Gazans now go entire days without eating. Doctors Without Borders says its clinics are “overwhelmed by skeletal children.” And UNRWA has warned of an “imminent famine” if the siege is not lifted.

According to Dr. Fadel Naim, chief of surgery at al-Shifa Hospital in Gaza City:

“This isn’t just a crisis. It’s a policy. Starvation here is systematic, planned, calculated, and enforced.”

Hamas, in a statement on Sunday, called for global protests against what it described as “systematic starvation and ongoing genocide” in Gaza. Thousands took to the streets in Istanbul, Amman, London, and Kuala Lumpur to demand an end to the blockade.

Despite mounting international pressure, including warnings from UN Secretary-General António Guterres that “Gaza has become a graveyard for children,” no serious measures have yet been taken to enforce aid access.

Conclusion: Manufactured Famine, Genocide By Siege And Global Complicity.

The starvation of Gaza is not a humanitarian crisis born of war; it is a deliberate and systematic policy of extermination. What UNRWA, the World Food Programme, and Gaza’s exhausted medical corps are now describing amounts to a war crime unfolding in real time: the weaponisation of hunger against an entire civilian population. Over one million children face starvation. More than 100,000 Palestinians have been killed, including at least 891 murdered at food distribution points, most under the administration of the Israeli- and U.S.-backed Gaza Humanitarian Foundation. And dozens more die each week from dehydration and malnutrition, many in their mothers’ arms.

These atrocities are not isolated incidents. They are the inevitable consequence of Israel’s scorched-earth military campaign, total blockade, and open defiance of international law. According to Michael Fakhri, the UN Special Rapporteur on the Right to Food, “This is the first instance in modern history where starvation is being used openly and explicitly as a tool of warfare in such a sustained and public way.” In Gaza, famine is not an unintended consequence; it is a deliberate tactic.

Yet while the Israeli state tightens the noose around Gaza’s neck, the international community has not merely stood by. It has armed the executioner.

The United States, United Kingdom, and several EU nations continue to provide military aid and diplomatic cover to Israel, even as credible evidence accumulates of war crimes and genocide. According to Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch, Israel’s systematic targeting of civilians, aid infrastructure, and medical facilities “meets the threshold of crimes against humanity.” However, Western powers have blocked ceasefire resolutions at the UN, suspended funding to UNRWA under Israeli pressure, and handed over humanitarian coordination to the opaque and unaccountable GHF, an entity aligned with Israel’s military objectives.

Meanwhile, the so-called Arab and Muslim world, despite its rhetorical condemnations, has failed to take meaningful action. Neither Egypt nor Jordan has opened its borders for mass refugee evacuation. Gulf monarchies continue lucrative trade and security partnerships with Israel and its Western allies. The Organisation of Islamic Cooperation (OIC) has issued statements, but not sanctions. And while Iran and Turkey issue threats or call for boycotts, few have provided the level of sustained material aid or protection required to avert this catastrophe.

“If Gaza starves, it is not just Israel’s crime, it is the world’s,” said Dr. Maha Nassar, a Palestinian-American academic and author. “The Arab regimes, Muslim-majority states, and the so-called international community are not bystanders. They are accomplices.”

This complicity extends beyond inaction. Its connection to a broader geopolitical strategy of ethnic cleansing is steadily strengthening. The considerable impact of President Trump on the present administration’s policies is undeniable and openly acknowledged. In June, aides close to Trump confirmed that his team is drafting plans to “clear out” the Occupied Palestinian Territories (OPT), a direct violation of international law, including the Fourth Geneva Convention, which prohibits forcible transfer and population displacement.

According to a New York Times report, Trump’s advisers are exploring ways to incentivise third countries to absorb Palestinian refugees and to condition aid on Arab states’ cooperation with a mass population transfer plan. These ideas, which have long circulated in the Israeli far right, are now being mainstreamed into U.S. electoral politics. Legal experts warn that this constitutes a blueprint for ethnic cleansing under the guise of “regional security.”

This genocidal trajectory has been facilitated by a media landscape that consistently normalises reporting, dehumanises Palestinians, and minimises the significance of their deaths; a United Nations system rendered ineffective by United States veto power; and a humanitarian system currently constrained by political considerations rather than humanitarian principles.

As Gaza starves, the question is no longer whether the world knows. It does.

The question is whether it will continue to allow one of the most documented, televised, and admitted genocides of the 21st century to proceed in plain sight, under the watchful eyes of international law, protected by the shields of Western democracies, and accompanied by the silence or cowardice of Arab and Muslim states.

The message from Palestinians in Gaza is simple, and increasingly desperate:

“Don’t bring us your sympathy. Bring us food. Bring us justice. Or bring us nothing at all.”

Key Figures:

• 100,000+ Palestinians killed since October 2023 (Gaza Health Ministry)
• Since October 2023, there have been 377,000 Palestinian casualties, including those with severe injuries.
• The number of child fatalities resulting from starvation exceeds 16,000.
• 891 killed, 5,754 wounded seeking food at aid sites
• Recently 71 children dead from hunger and dehydration
• 6,000 trucks of aid blocked at Rafah and Kerem Shalom crossings
• 5,500+ children diagnosed with severe acute malnutrition

Over 1 million children at risk of starvation