Nearly two months after the ceasefire collapsed, Israeli forces tightened the blockade on Gaza, sealing border crossings and halting all entry of food, water, medicine, and fuel. According to the World Food Program (WFP), food stocks had already run out by April 2024, and conditions have worsened significantly since March. Even modest charity kitchens that once served over a million meals daily have now ceased operations. WFP reported that the prices of the few remaining food items have surged by over 1,400%.
This crisis is affecting everyone, but children are paying the heaviest price. UNICEF reported that over 60,000 children are suffering from severe malnutrition. As a result, thousands face imminent death. Most children survive on a single meal a day—or less. The lack of proper nutrition is damaging their bodies and minds in ways that may never be reversed. Satellite footage shows infants drinking water instead of milk. Many have withered to skeletons.
It is crucial to underline that this man-made hunger is not accidental. It is the explicit outcome of political decisions targeting civilians.
On Nov. 21, 2024, the International Criminal Court issued arrest warrants for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and former Defense Minister Yoav Gallant, accusing them of war crimes, including the use of starvation as a method of warfare—characterized as a war crime. This came after a unanimous order by the International Court of Justice on March 28, 2024 in the genocide case brought by South Africa against Israel. The ICJ ordered Israel to take all necessary and effective measures without delay to ensure the unhindered, large-scale provision of urgently needed services and humanitarian aid—food, water, electricity, fuel, shelter, clothing, hygiene, sanitation, and medical care—to Palestinians throughout Gaza. Yet Israel continues to act as if it were above the law.
Today, Gaza’s food system is completely destroyed: bakeries bombed, farms bulldozed, fishing boats burned, livestock killed, warehouses flattened, shops emptied, and aid trucks blocked or turned away. OCHA warns that famine is either imminent or already unfolding. And yet, the siege continues—on top of systematic daily bloodshed.
The coming months and years will reveal the far-reaching consequences of the famine that struck Gaza in full view of world leaders—some of whom encouraged or were complicit in the starvation of 2 million innocent civilians. The world—particularly Europe and the Arab nations—can, if it chooses, put an end to these genocidal acts against children, the elderly, the sick, and the exhausted.
It is unimaginable. How is it possible that in the 21st century—an age of smartphones and social media—the international community watches a live-streamed famine unfold and does nothing? What has brought us to this moral and legal vacuum? If famine is tolerated this time, it will be normalized and replicated elsewhere. That would mean the erosion of values humanity has struggled for centuries to uphold.
Source: Anadolu Agency
