The Israeli occupation forces continue their military campaign against the Gaza Strip, where famine has emerged as a defining feature of the deepening humanitarian crisis, with civilians particularly children bearing the brunt of an ongoing blockade and the systematic denial of basic humanitarian aid.
Since March, the siege has tightened further following Israel’s breach of a ceasefire agreement, leading to the complete halt of humanitarian supplies through Gaza’s crossings, including shipments intended for the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA).
According to UNRWA, field indicators reveal a sharp rise in malnutrition, especially among children, as the healthcare system collapses and restrictions on the entry of food and medicine continue. Severe shortages of medical supplies have forced remaining medical teams to triage patients, prioritising only the most critical cases as stocks of essential medicines, diagnostic tools, and treatment equipment run dangerously low.
Emergency departments and clinics have effectively become makeshift relief centres, overwhelmed by the rising number of malnourished patients. Many, particularly infants, present with acute wasting, severe anaemia, and stunted growth, reflecting the scale of deprivation now gripping the population.
The health system’s near-total collapse has been exacerbated by repeated targeting of hospitals and medical centres by the Israeli occupation forces and a catastrophic shortage of fuel, which has rendered generators at remaining facilities inoperable.
The Israeli occupation has used the spread of famine in Gaza as a central tactic to weaken and exhaust the civilian population, in clear violation of international law, which prohibits the use of starvation as a weapon of conflict and obliges all parties to ensure unimpeded humanitarian relief.
Since 7 October 2023, the Israeli occupation’s military campaign has resulted in the deaths of approximately 195,000 Palestinians, the majority of them children and women, with over 10,000 missing and hundreds of thousands displaced from their homes. The offensive has extended beyond military objectives to target every aspect of civilian life, including mass killings, forced displacement, destruction of homes, and attacks on healthcare and civilian infrastructure.
Amid the absence of any effective international response, the Israeli siege and use of starvation continue to threaten the very existence of the Palestinian population in Gaza, under a global silence that amounts to complicity — if not indirect participation — in one of the most clear-cut mass atrocities of the modern era.
