Press Release: Veritas Press C.I.C.
Author: Kamran Faqir
Article Date Published: 25 July 2025 at 19:33 GMT
Category: Middle East | Palestine-Gaza | US-Israel At War
Source(s): Veritas Press C.I.C. | Multi News Agencies
Israeli National Security Minister Itamar Ben Gvir’s recent claim that “there is no real hunger in Gaza” is not a mistake. It is the latest in a series of calculated denials by senior Israeli officials designed to mask what human rights experts, aid organisations, and international legal bodies increasingly describe as the deliberate starvation of a civilian population, a war crime and potential component of genocide.
Ben Gvir, leader of the ultra-nationalist Jewish Power party, went further than denial. “If they were hungry,” he posted on X, “they would have returned the hostages home. I support starving Hamas in Gaza.” The comments align with the ideological line of the far-right Israeli coalition government, which openly calls for the re-occupation of Gaza, the expulsion of its residents, and the replacement of its population with illegal Israeli settlers.
But experts say that such declarations amount to more than extremist posturing. They form part of what the UN’s top humanitarian official, Martin Griffiths, has called a “coherent pattern of inhumanity.” Amnesty International, Human Rights Watch, and multiple UN agencies have warned that Israel’s actions and rhetoric point to the weaponisation of hunger as a method of warfare, explicitly prohibited under international humanitarian law.
Famine By Design:
Israel’s closure of all border crossings into Gaza since March 2, combined with the bombing of bakeries, food warehouses, and water tanks, has created what the World Health Organisation (WHO) now calls “man-made mass starvation.”
“The starvation of Gaza is not the result of a natural disaster or logistical failure. It is engineered,” said Jan Egeland, Secretary-General of the Norwegian Refugee Council. “When you deny food, block medicine, and kill aid workers, you are not just violating the laws of war; you are breaking the spine of a society.”
The Palestinian Ministry of Health reports that at least 115 people, including 81 children, have died from hunger or related complications. More than 1,000 civilians have been killed by Israeli fire at or near aid distribution points, according to Euro-Med Human Rights Monitor and Doctors Without Borders (MSF).
Eyewitnesses describe nightmarish scenes.
“I watched my 6-year-old nephew die in my arms last month,” said Um Mahmoud, a displaced mother in Jabalia. “His body stopped growing. He cried for water, but we had none. Not even for washing. We buried him wrapped in plastic, like garbage.”
Such stories are echoed across Gaza. Basem Munir al-Hinnawi, displaced in Gaza City’s Sheikh Radwan neighbourhood, told Middle East Eye: “A woman collapsed from hunger in the middle of the street yesterday. People are not just starving; they are collapsing in front of you. This is beyond war. This is extermination.”
Israel’s Denial Strategy: Blame, Obscure, Repeat.
Israeli officials continue to publicly deny responsibility, attempting to reframe the famine as a public relations problem.
“Let the world worry about it,” declared Israeli Heritage Minister Amichai Eliyahu last week. “There’s no hunger in Gaza.” He accused the international community of waging a “smear campaign” against Israel.
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, while more guarded, has made similarly vague assurances that “there will be no starvation”, while refusing to lift the siege or restore access for UN aid agencies.
David Mencer, an Israeli government spokesperson, told Sky News: “There is no famine in Gaza – there is a famine of the truth.”
But the facts are overwhelming. The UN’s Integrated Food Security Phase Classification (IPC) reported in May that over half a million Gazans face IPC Phase 5 hunger, famine conditions. The entire population of Gaza, over 2.2 million people, is now classified as experiencing acute food insecurity.
Even Israel’s primary deflection, that Hamas steals food, has collapsed under scrutiny. A leaked US government review, seen by Reuters, found “no evidence of systematic theft”of aid by Hamas. It reviewed 156 incidents involving lost or stolen humanitarian supplies and concluded that none indicated diversion by Hamas.
Obstructing The Lifelines:
Israel has not only choked off Gaza’s food supply; it has dismantled the very infrastructure meant to deliver aid.
Its campaign to shut down UNRWA, the main humanitarian agency operating in Gaza, has paralysed aid logistics. UNRWA Commissioner-General Philippe Lazzarini revealed this week that the agency has 6,000 truckloads of aid stranded in Jordan and Egypt, blocked by Israeli restrictions.
“Families are no longer coping,” he warned. “They are breaking down. Their existence is threatened.”
UN officials now report daily rejection of aid convoys. On July 24 alone, Israel denied eight out of 16 UN requests to transport food and medicine, according to UN spokesperson Stéphane Dujarric. Two other convoys were approved but blocked on the ground by Israeli forces.
Jonathan Whittall, the top UN humanitarian official in Gaza, was recently denied a visa extension by Israeli authorities, a move seen as retaliatory. Human Rights Watch called the targeting of aid officials a “systematic attempt to obstruct and criminalise humanitarian work.”
International Outcry, No Consequences:
Despite mounting evidence of starvation crimes, international responses remain largely rhetorical.
A joint statement by 28 countries, including the UK, last week declared: “The Israeli government’s aid delivery model is dangerous, fuels instability, and deprives Gazans of human dignity. We condemn the drip-feeding of aid and the inhumane killing of civilians, including children, seeking to meet their most basic needs.”
The UN Human Rights Council and multiple special rapporteurs have called for an arms embargo on Israel and sanctions for war crimes, including the use of starvation as a weapon.
But meaningful action remains elusive. The United States continues to fund and arm Israel’s military while publicly expressing “concern.” The Biden administration has neither conditioned aid nor taken steps to enforce international humanitarian law.
Legal Reckoning: Genocide, War Crimes, And The ICC.
Israel’s conduct in Gaza is the subject of two landmark international legal cases.
In The Hague, the International Court of Justice is investigating Israel for genocide following South Africa’s application. In a provisional ruling in January, the court ordered Israel to “prevent genocidal acts”, including obstruction of humanitarian aid. Since then, the humanitarian crisis has only worsened.
Meanwhile, the International Criminal Court has issued arrest warrants for Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and former defence Minister Yoav Gallant for alleged war crimes and crimes against humanity in Gaza.
“The denial of famine in the face of mounting starvation is not just cruel, it’s legally incriminating,” said Dr. Francesca Albanese, UN Special Rapporteur for Palestine. “When state officials call for mass displacement, the use of hunger as a weapon, and total siege, they are no longer hiding their intent. They are advertising it.”
Conclusion: Starvation Behind A Smokescreen.
Israel’s repeated denials of hunger in Gaza are not accidental misstatements; they are the scaffolding of a state-led propaganda campaign designed to obfuscate a grim truth: Palestinians are being deliberately starved, displaced, and erased behind a smokescreen of lies, deflection, and dehumanisation.
Far-right Israeli ministers like Itamar Ben Gvir and Amichai Eliyahu are not outliers; they are spokesmen for a policy that systematically uses famine as a weapon. In Gaza, food is not a humanitarian necessity; it is a tool of political coercion. The siege is not simply about security; it is about domination, submission, and ultimately, ethnic cleansing.
Behind the cruel logic of “no real hunger in Gaza” lies a chilling calculation: starve them into surrender or annihilate them if they refuse. And while Israeli officials mouth empty assurances of “no starvation,” they are blocking aid convoys, shooting civilians at food lines, and strangling the delivery mechanisms of international relief.
But Israel does not act alone. Western governments are complicit, not just through silence, but through active collaboration. The United States, United Kingdom, Germany, and others continue to supply Israel with weapons, diplomatic cover, and economic incentives. American arms are used in airstrikes that destroy food infrastructure. British companies win postwar reconstruction bids while their government abstains from even symbolic accountability. European leaders decry the deaths of Palestinian children while fast-tracking military technology exports to the very regime killing them.
Even the hollow condemnations of some Arab and Muslim-majority governments ring false; many have secured quiet deals with Israel for gas, weapons, and trade, all while paying lip service to Palestinian suffering. These regimes act not as defenders of the oppressed but as collaborators in regional power games, abandoning Gaza’s civilians to die in silence.
The starvation in Gaza is not a failure of policy. It is the result of policy. And the global response is not a failure of leadership; it is a performance of concern, carefully calibrated to protect power, profit, and impunity.
Behind every empty stomach in Gaza is a world full of full plates and full coffers, a world that sees starvation and calls it “security,” sees genocide and calls it “self-defence,” sees Palestinian death and calls it silence.
The smokescreen is thick. But the truth is clearer than ever: this is a war of erasure, waged by Israel, armed by the West, and betrayed by the very governments that claim to speak for justice.
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