Yara
M. Asi
(The
Conversation) – After 18 months of punishing airstrikes, raids and an
increasingly restrictive siege in Gaza, the United Nations on May 20, 2025,
issued one of its most urgent warnings yet about the ongoing humanitarian
crisis: an estimated 14,000 babies were at risk of death without an immediate
influx of substantial aid, especially food.
The
assessment came a day after Israel allowed the first trickle of aid back into
Gaza following its nearly three-month total blockade imposed on March 2. But on
the first day of that resumption, the U.N. Office for the Coordination of
Humanitarian Affairs reported that only nine trucks were allowed into Gaza,
when around 500 are required every day. The U.N. called it “a drop in the ocean
of what is urgently needed.”
As
an expert in Palestinian public health, I and others have long warned about the
potentially devastating humanitarian consequences of Israel’s military response
to the Hamas attacks of Oct. 7, 2023, given the preexisting fragility of the
Gaza Strip and Israel’s history of controlling humanitarian aid into the
territory. Many of those worst-case humanitarian predictions have now become
reality.
Israel’s
control of food and aid into Gaza has been a consistent theme throughout the
past 18 months. Indeed, just two weeks after Israel’s massive military campaign
in the Gaza Strip began in late 2023, Oxfam International reported that only
around 2% of the usual amount of food was being delivered to residents in the
territory and warned against “using starvation as a weapon of war.”
Yet
aid delivery continues to be inconsistent and well below what was necessary for
the population, culminating in a dire warning by U.N. experts in early May that
“the annihilation of the Palestinian population in Gaza” was possible without
an immediate end to the violence.
Putting
Palestinians ‘on a diet’
Already,
an estimated near 53,000 Palestinians have died and some 120,000 have been
injured in the conflict. Starvation could claim many more.
Amid
the broader destruction to lives and infrastructure, there is now barely a food
system to speak of in Gaza.
Since
October 2023, Israeli bombs have destroyed homes, bakeries, food production
factories and grocery stores, making it harder for people in Gaza to offset the
impact of the reduced imports of food.
But
as much as things have worsened in the past 18 months, food insecurity in Gaza
and the mechanisms that enable it did not start with Israel’s response to the
Oct. 7 attack by Hamas.
A
U.N. report from 2022 found that 65% of people in Gaza were food insecure,
defined as lacking regular access to enough safe and nutritious food.
Multiple
factors contributed to this preexisting food insecurity, not least the blockade
of Gaza imposed by Israel and enabled by Egypt since 2007. All items entering
the Gaza Strip, including food, became subject to Israeli inspection, delay or
denial.
Basic
foodstuff was allowed, but because of delays at the border, it could spoil
before it entered Gaza.
A
2009 investigation by Israeli newspaper Ha’aretz found that foods as varied as
cherries, kiwi, almonds, pomegranates and chocolate were prohibited entirely.
At
certain points, the blockade, which Israel claimed was an unavoidable security
measure, has been loosened to allow import of more foods. In 2010, for example,
Israel started to permit potato chips, fruit juices, Coca-Cola and cookies.
By
placing restrictions on food imports, Israel has claimed to be trying to put
pressure on Hamas by making life difficult for the people in Gaza. “The idea is
to put the Palestinians on a diet, but not to make them die of hunger,” said
one Israeli government adviser in 2006.
To
enable this, the Israeli government commissioned a 2008 study to work out
exactly how many calories Palestinians would need to avoid malnutrition. The
report was released to the public only following a 2012 legal battle. Echoes of
this sentiment can be seen in the Israeli decision in May 2025 to allow only
“the basic amount of food” to reach Gaza to purportedly ensure “no starvation
crisis develops.”
The
long-running blockade also increased food insecurity by preventing meaningful
development of an economy in Gaza.
The
U.N. cites the “excessive production and transaction costs and barriers to
trade with the rest of the world” imposed by Israel as the primary cause of
severe underdevelopment in the occupied territories, including Gaza. As a
result, in late 2022 the unemployment rate in Gaza stood at around 50%. This,
coupled with a steady increase in the cost of food, made affording food
difficult for many Gazan households, rendering them dependent on aid, which
fluctuates frequently.
Hampering
self-sufficency
More
generally, the blockade and the multiple rounds of destruction of parts of the
Gaza Strip have made food sovereignty in the territory nearly impossible.
Even
prior to the latest war, Gaza’s fishermen were regularly shot at by Israeli
gunboats if they ventured farther in the Mediterranean Sea than Israel permits.
Because the fish closer to the shore are smaller and less plentiful, the
average income of a fisherman in Gaza has more than halved since 2017.
Much
of Gaza’s farmland has been rendered inaccessible to Palestinians as a result
of post-October 2023 actions by Israel.
And
the infrastructure needed for adequate food production – greenhouses, arable
lands, orchards, livestock and food production facilities – has been destroyed
or heavily damaged. International donors hesitate to rebuild facilities,
knowing they cannot guarantee their investment will last more than a few years
before being bombed again.
The
latest ongoing siege has only further crippled the ability of Gaza to be food
self-sufficient. By May 2025, nearly 75% of croplands had been destroyed, along
with significant amounts of livestock. Less than one-third of agricultural
wells used for irrigation remain functional.
Starvation
as weapon of war
The
use of starvation as a weapon is strictly forbidden under the Geneva
Conventions, a set of statutes that govern the laws of warfare. Starvation has
been condemned by U.N. Resolution 2417, which decried the use of deprivation of
food and basic needs of the civilian population and compelled parties in
conflict to ensure full humanitarian access.
Human
Rights Watch has already accused Israel of using starvation as a weapon of war,
and Amnesty International called the most recent siege evidence of genocidal
intent.
The
Israeli government in turn continues to blame Hamas for any loss of life in
Gaza and has increasingly made clear its aim for Palestinians to leave Gaza
entirely.
Israeli
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has said publicly that Israel was permitting
aid now only because allies were pressuring him over “images of mass famine.”
This stance suggests that Israel will not soon increase aid beyond what his
government deems politically acceptable.
While
there is more evidence than ever before that Israel is using food as a weapon
of war, there is also, I believe, ample evidence that this was the reality long
before Oct. 7, 2023.
In
the meantime, the implications for Palestinians in Gaza have never been more
dire.
Already,
the World Health Organization estimates that 57 children have died from
malnutrition just since the beginning of the March 2, 2025, blockade.
More
death is certain to follow. On May 12, the Integrated Food Security Phase
Classification, a global system created to track food insecurity, released an
alarming report on projections of food insecurity in Gaza.
It
warned that by September 2025, half a million people in Gaza – 1 in 5 of the
population – will be facing starvation and that the entire population will
experience acute food insecurity at crisis level, or worse.
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