In a grave and unprecedented development in the Middle East, the United Nations has officially declared the outbreak of famine in the Gaza Strip, confirming that more than half a million people are facing hunger and death as a result of a deliberate policy pursued by the occupation.
This announcement comes after months of repeated warnings, confronting the international community with an undeniable truth: what is happening in Gaza is not a natural disaster but a man-made crime.
Specialised UN agencies reported that the number of people suffering from food shortages has tripled in a short period, and that famine has spread across all areas of the Strip. They further warned that the worsening situation could lead to more deaths, given the continuing restrictions on the entry of aid.
In recent hours, five-month-old infant Ghadeer Brikeh lost her life in Khan Younis due to malnutrition, adding to the list of starvation victims, which has now reached 272 deaths, including 113 children, according to the Gaza Ministry of Health.
For his part, UNRWA Commissioner-General Philippe Lazzarini described the situation as deliberate starvation, caused by the occupation’s prevention of food and essential supplies from entering for months. Meanwhile, UN Secretary-General António Guterres affirmed that famine is a crime against humanity that cannot be tolerated.
What the people of Gaza are enduring clearly falls within the definition of genocide under international law, as civilians face direct killings, resulting in more than 62,000 deaths and 157,000 injuries, the majority of them women and children, alongside the systematic use of starvation as a method of slow killing, in stark violation of international humanitarian law, which explicitly prohibits the use of hunger as a weapon of war.
This is compounded by forced displacement, which has driven hundreds of thousands of families from their homes, and the large-scale destruction of civilian infrastructure, including hospitals, schools, and water and electricity networks. The picture could not be clearer: Gaza is facing a full-scale crime of genocide.
Although international law prohibits the denial of humanitarian assistance to civilians, considering it a form of collective punishment, the occupation has, since overturning the ceasefire agreement in March, tightened restrictions on aid and tied it to external entities. This has led to repeated massacres around relief distribution centres, killing more than 2,000 Palestinians and injuring around 15,000 others.
While international statements continue to warn of the worsening famine, the global community remains paralysed, taking no practical steps to halt the genocide and limiting itself instead to political declarations that do nothing to change the grim reality endured by over two million besieged people.
The official declaration of famine places a heavy responsibility on the world. History will record that starvation, killing, destruction, and displacement are unfolding before everyone’s eyes, while Gaza is abandoned to a fate of slow death in one of the most harrowing manifestations of genocide in modern times.
