Astrid Essed

Israeli forces have killed at least 82 people in Gaza, medical sources told Al Jazeera, including at least 30 people in Gaza City in the hours since Hamas and Israel announced they had reached a ceasefire agreement.

One attack on a house near the Engineers Union Building in Gaza City in the north of the Gaza Strip on Wednesday night killed at least 18 people, Al Jazeera Arabic’s correspondent reported.

The Palestinian Civil Defence also said it retrieved the bodies of 12 people from Gaza City’s Sheikh Radwan neighbourhood.

In central Gaza, five people were killed in an Israeli drone strike that targeted a gathering of people in the Karaj area in the Bureij camp.

The death toll, which was counted from dawn on Wednesday, continued to rise as Palestinians returned to shelter in their tents after briefly celebrating news of a ceasefire deal that was reached between Israel and Hamas on Wednesday evening.

“For a couple of hours, people turned this whole area into a stage of celebration, something we are not used to seeing here as this area used to be a stage for funerals for the victims of the war and a space filled with agony and sadness,” said Al Jazeera’s Hani Mahmoud, reporting from Deir el-Balah in central Gaza.

But the ceasefire does not start until Sunday and people in Gaza fear worse is to come before the Israeli bombing stops, Mahmoud said.

“We are expecting a surge in attacks by drones and heavy artillery, and that’s what caused people to end the celebrations after two hours,” he said.

Al Jazeera’s Anas al-Sharif, reporting from Gaza City, said intense Israeli attacks there had “extinguished” the joy people felt at the initial announcement of the ceasefire.

“Just hours ago there was an atmosphere of joy and relief among residents here when the ceasefire announcement was made from Doha, stating that it would take effect in the coming days,” al-Sharif said.

“However, immediately after the announcement, Israeli warplanes extinguished that joy for the people – striking hospitals, shelters and homes with direct air strikes.”

Both Israel and Hamas have publicly acknowledged a ceasefire and captive exchange deal has been reached, although Israel has said some final details are still to be hashed out before the agreement is sealed.

In a statement, the office of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said he had spoken with Israel’s negotiating team in Doha at dawn on Thursday, who briefed him on disagreements with Hamas related to which Palestinian prisoners will be released in exchange for captives during the first phase of the deal.

As of January 1, 2025 there are at least 10, 221 Palestinian prisoners in Israeli jails, excluding the unknown numbers of Palestinians taken from Gaza and detained by the military, including Dr Hussam Abu Safia, the director of north Gaza’s Kamal Adwan Hospital, which was destroyed by Israeli forces.

Izzat al-Risheq, a member of Hamas’s political bureau, earlier said the ceasefire deal met all of the Palestinian group’s conditions including the full withdrawal of Israeli forces from Gaza, the return of displaced people to their homes and a permanent end to war in the enclave.

The exact time the ceasefire is due to start on Sunday is not yet known, though the entire process will be implemented in three phases.

END

BTSELEM.ORG

OUR GENOCIDE

JULY 2025

https://www.btselem.org/sites/default/files/publications/202507_our_genocide_eng.pdf

BTSELEM.ORG

OUR GENOCIDE

https://www.btselem.org/publications/202507_our_genocide

Since October 2023, Israel has shifted its policy toward the Palestinians. Its military onslaught on Gaza, underway for more than 21 months, has included mass killing, both directly and through creating unlivable conditions, serious bodily or mental harm to an entire population, decimation of basic infrastructure throughout the Strip, and forcible displacement on a huge scale, with ethnic cleansing added to the list of official war objectives.

This is compounded by mass arrests and abuse of Palestinians in Israeli prisons, which have effectively become torture camps, and tearing apart the social fabric of Gaza, including the destruction of Palestinian educational and cultural institutions. The campaign is also an assault on Palestinian identity itself, through the deliberate destruction of refugee camps and attempts to undermine the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees (UNRWA).

An examination of Israel’s policy in the Gaza Strip and its horrific outcomes, together with statements by senior Israeli politicians and military commanders about the goals of the attack, leads to the unequivocal conclusion that Israel is taking coordinated, deliberate action to destroy Palestinian society in the Gaza Strip. In other words: Israel is committing genocide against the Palestinians in the Gaza Strip. 

The term genocide refers to a socio-historical and political phenomenon involving acts committed with intent to destroy, in whole or in part, a national, ethnic, racial or religious group. Both morally and legally, genocide cannot be justified under any circumstance, including as an act of self-defense.

Genocide always occurs within a context: there are conditions that enable it, triggering events, and a guiding ideology. The current onslaught on the Palestinian people, including in the Gaza Strip, must be understood in the context of more than seventy years in which Israel has imposed a violent and discriminatory regime on the Palestinians, taking its most extreme form against those living in the Gaza Strip. Since the State of Israel was established, the apartheid and occupation regime has institutionalized and systematically employed mechanisms of violent control, demographic engineering, discrimination, and fragmentation of the Palestinian collective. These foundations laid by the regime are what made it possible to launch a genocidal attack on the Palestinians immediately after the Hamas-led attack on 7 October 2023.

The assault on Palestinians in Gaza cannot be separated from the escalating violence being inflicted, at varying levels and in different forms, on Palestinians living under Israeli rule in the West Bank and within Israel. The violence and destruction in these areas is intensifying over time, with no effective domestic or international mechanism acting to halt them. We warn of the clear and present danger that the genocide will not remain confined to the Gaza Strip, and that the actions and underlying mindset driving it may be extended to other areas as well. 

The recognition that the Israeli regime is committing genocide in the Gaza Strip, and the deep concern that it may expand to other areas where Palestinians live under Israeli rule, demand urgent and unequivocal action from both Israeli society and the international community, and use of every means available under international law to stop Israel’s genocide against the Palestinian people. 

END

AMNESTY INTERNATIONAL INVESTIGATION CONCLUDES ISRAEL

IS COMMITTING GENOCIDE AGAINST PALESTINIANS IN GAZA

5 DECEMBER 2024

https://www.amnesty.org/en/latest/news/2024/12/amnesty-international-concludes-israel-is-committing-genocide-against-palestinians-in-gaza/

Amnesty International’s research has found sufficient basis to conclude that Israel has committed and is continuing to commit genocide against Palestinians in the occupied Gaza Strip, the organization said in a landmark new report published today.

The report, ‘You Feel Like You Are Subhuman’: Israel’s Genocide Against Palestinians in Gaza, documents how, during its military offensive launched in the wake of the deadly Hamas-led attacks in southern Israel on 7 October 2023, Israel has unleashed hell and destruction on Palestinians in Gaza brazenly, continuously and with total impunity.

“Amnesty International’s report demonstrates that Israel has carried out acts prohibited under the Genocide Convention, with the specific intent to destroy Palestinians in Gaza. These acts include killings, causing serious bodily or mental harm and deliberately inflicting on Palestinians in Gaza conditions of life calculated to bring about their physical destruction. Month after month, Israel has treated Palestinians in Gaza as a subhuman group unworthy of human rights and dignity, demonstrating its intent to physically destroy them,” said Agnès Callamard, Secretary General of Amnesty International.

“Our damning findings must serve as a wake-up call to the international community: this is genocide. It must stop now.

“States that continue to transfer arms to Israel at this time must know they are violating their obligation to prevent genocide and are at risk of becoming complicit in genocide. All states with influence over Israel, particularly key arms suppliers like the USA and Germany, but also other EU member states, the UK and others, must act now to bring Israel’s atrocities against Palestinians in Gaza to an immediate end.”

Over the past two months the crisis has grown particularly acute in the North Gaza governorate, where a besieged population is facing starvation, displacement and annihilation amid relentless bombardment and suffocating restrictions on life-saving humanitarian aid.

“Our research reveals that, for months, Israel has persisted in committing genocidal acts, fully aware of the irreparable harm it was inflicting on Palestinians in Gaza. It continued to do so in defiance of countless warnings about the catastrophic humanitarian situation and of legally binding decisions from the International Court of Justice (ICJ) ordering Israel to take immediate measures to enable the provision of humanitarian assistance to civilians in Gaza,” said Agnès Callamard.

“Israel has repeatedly argued that its actions in Gaza are lawful and can be justified by its military goal to eradicate Hamas. But genocidal intent can co-exist alongside military goals and does not need to be Israel’s sole intent.”

Amnesty International examined Israel’s acts in Gaza closely and in their totality, taking into account their recurrence and simultaneous occurrence, and both their immediate impact and their cumulative and mutually reinforcing consequences. The organization considered the scale and severity of the casualties and destruction over time. It also analysed public statements by officials, finding that prohibited acts were often announced or called for in the first place by high-level officials in charge of the war efforts.

“Taking into account the pre-existing context of dispossession, apartheid and unlawful military occupation in which these acts have been committed, we could find only one reasonable conclusion: Israel’s intent is the physical destruction of Palestinians in Gaza, whether in parallel with, or as a means to achieve, its military goal of destroying Hamas,” said Agnès Callamard.

“The atrocity crimes committed on 7 October 2023 by Hamas and other armed groups against Israelis and victims of other nationalities, including deliberate mass killings and hostage-taking, can never justify Israel’s genocide against Palestinians in Gaza.”

International jurisprudence recognizes that the perpetrator does not need to succeed in their attempts to destroy the protected group, either in whole or in part, for genocide to have been committed. The commission of prohibited acts with the intent to destroy the group, as such, is sufficient.

Amnesty International’s report examines in detail Israel’s violations in Gaza over nine months between 7 October 2023 and early July 2024. The organization interviewed 212 people, including Palestinian victims and witnesses, local authorities in Gaza, healthcare workers, conducted fieldwork and analysed an extensive range of visual and digital evidence, including satellite imagery. It also analysed statements by senior Israeli government and military officials, and official Israeli bodies. On multiple occasions, the organization shared its findings with the Israeli authorities but had received no substantive response at the time of publication.

Unprecedented scale and magnitude

Israel’s actions following Hamas’s deadly attacks on 7 October 2023 have brought Gaza’s population to the brink of collapse. Its brutal military offensive had killed more than 42,000 Palestinians, including over 13,300 children, and injured over 97,000 more, by 7 October 2024, many of them in direct or deliberately indiscriminate attacks, often wiping out entire multigenerational families. It has caused unprecedented destruction, which experts say occurred at a level and speed not seen in any other conflict in the 21st century, levelling entire cities and destroying critical infrastructure, agricultural land and cultural and religious sites. It thereby rendered large swathes of Gaza uninhabitable.

Mohammed, who fled with his family from Gaza City to Rafah in March 2024 and was displaced again in May 2024, described their struggle to survive in horrifying conditions:

“Here in Deir al-Balah, it’s like an apocalypse… You have to protect your children from insects, from the heat, and there is no clean water, no toilets, all while the bombing never stops. You feel like you are subhuman here.”

Israel imposed conditions of life in Gaza that created a deadly mixture of malnutrition, hunger and diseases, and exposed Palestinians to a slow, calculated death. Israel also subjected hundreds of Palestinians from Gaza to incommunicado detention, torture and other ill-treatment.

Viewed in isolation, some of the acts investigated by Amnesty International constitute serious violations of international humanitarian law or international human rights law. But in looking at the broader picture of Israel’s military campaign and the cumulative impact of its policies and acts, genocidal intent is the only reasonable conclusion.

Intent to destroy

To establish Israel’s specific intent to physically destroy Palestinians in Gaza, as such, Amnesty International analysed the overall pattern of Israel’s conduct in Gaza, reviewed dehumanizing and genocidal statements by Israeli government and military officials, particularly those at the highest levels, and considered the context of Israel’s system of apartheid, its inhumane blockade of Gaza and the unlawful 57-year-old military occupation of the Palestinian territory.

Before reaching its conclusion, Amnesty International examined Israel’s claims that its military lawfully targeted Hamas and other armed groups throughout Gaza, and that the resulting unprecedented destruction and denial of aid were the outcome of unlawful conduct by Hamas and other armed groups, such as locating fighters among the civilian population or the diversion of aid. The organization concluded these claims are not credible. The presence of Hamas fighters near or within a densely populated area does not absolve Israel from its obligations to take all feasible precautions to spare civilians and avoid indiscriminate or disproportionate attacks. Its research found Israel repeatedly failed to do so, committing multiple crimes under international law for which there can be no justification based on Hamas’s actions. Amnesty International also found no evidence that the diversion of aid could explain Israel’s extreme and deliberate restrictions on life-saving humanitarian aid.

In its analysis, the organization also considered alternative arguments such as ones that Israel was acting recklessly or that it simply wanted to destroy Hamas and did not care if it needed to destroy Palestinians in the process, demonstrating a callous disregard for their lives rather than genocidal intent.

However, regardless of whether Israel sees the destruction of Palestinians as instrumental to destroying Hamas or as an acceptable by-product of this goal, this view of Palestinians as disposable and not worthy of consideration is in itself evidence of genocidal intent.

Many of the unlawful acts documented by Amnesty International were preceded by officials urging their implementation. The organization reviewed 102 statements that were issued by Israeli government and military officials and others between 7 October 2023 and 30 June 2024 and dehumanized Palestinians, called for or justified genocidal acts or other crimes against them.

Of these, Amnesty International identified 22 statements made by senior officials in charge of managing the offensive that appeared to call for, or justify, genocidal acts, providing direct evidence of genocidal intent. This language was frequently replicated, including by Israeli soldiers on the ground, as evidenced by audiovisual content verified by Amnesty International showing soldiers making calls to “erase” Gaza or to make it uninhabitable, and celebrating the destruction of Palestinian homes, mosques, schools and universities.

Killing and causing serious bodily or mental harm

Amnesty International documented the genocidal acts of killing and causing serious mental and bodily harm to Palestinians in Gaza by reviewing the results of investigations it conducted into 15 air strikes between 7 October 2023 and 20 April 2024 that killed at least 334 civilians, including 141 children, and wounded hundreds of others. Amnesty International found no evidence that any of these strikes were directed at a military objective.

In one illustrative case, on 20 April 2024, an Israeli air strike destroyed the Abdelal family house in the Al-Jneinah neighbourhood in eastern Rafah, killing three generations of Palestinians, including 16 children, while they were sleeping.

While these represent just a fraction of Israel’s aerial attacks, they are indicative of a broader pattern of repeated direct attacks on civilians and civilian objects or deliberately indiscriminate attacks. The attacks were also conducted in ways designed to cause a very high number of fatalities and injuries among the civilian population.

Inflicting conditions of life calculated to bring about physical destruction

The report documents how Israel deliberately inflicted conditions of life on Palestinians in Gaza intended to lead, over time, to their destruction. These conditions were imposed through three simultaneous patterns that repeatedly compounded the effect of each other’s devastating impacts: damage to and destruction of life-sustaining infrastructure and other objects indispensable to the survival of the civilian population; the repeated use of sweeping, arbitrary and confusing mass “evacuation” orders to forcibly displace almost all of Gaza’s population; and the denial and obstruction of the delivery of essential services, humanitarian assistance and other life-saving supplies into and within Gaza.

After 7 October 2023, Israel imposed a total siege on Gaza cutting off electricity, water and fuel. In the nine months reviewed for this report, Israel maintained a suffocating, unlawful blockade, tightly controlled access to energy sources, failed to facilitate meaningful humanitarian access within Gaza,  and obstructed the import and delivery of life-saving goods and humanitarian aid, particularly to areas north of Wadi Gaza. They thereby exacerbated an already existing humanitarian crisis. This, combined with the extensive damage to Gaza’s homes, hospitals, water and sanitation facilities and agricultural land, and mass forced displacement, caused catastrophic levels of hunger and led to the spread of diseases at alarming rates. The impact was especially harsh on young children and pregnant or breastfeeding women, with anticipated long-term consequences for their health.

Time and again, Israel had the chance to improve the humanitarian situation in Gaza, yet for over a year it has repeatedly refused to take steps blatantly within its power to do so, such as opening sufficient access points to Gaza or lifting tight restrictions on what could enter the Strip  or their obstruction of aid deliveries within Gaza while the situation has grown progressively worse.

Through its repeated “evacuation” orders Israel displaced nearly 1.9 million Palestinians – 90% of Gaza’s population – into ever-shrinking, unsafe pockets of land under inhumane conditions, some of them up to 10 times. These multiple waves of forced displacement left many jobless and deeply traumatized, especially since some 70% of Gaza’s residents are refugees or descendants of refugees whose towns and villages were ethnically cleansed by Israel during the 1948 Nakba.

Despite conditions quickly becoming unfit for human life, Israeli authorities refused to consider measures that would have protected displaced civilians and ensured their basic needs were met, showing that their actions were deliberate.

They refused to allow those displaced to return to their homes in northern Gaza or relocate temporarily to other parts of the Occupied Palestinian Territory or Israel, continuing to deny many Palestinians their right to return under international law to areas they were displaced from in 1948. They did so knowing that there was nowhere safe for Palestinians in Gaza to flee to.

Accountability for genocide

“The international community’s seismic, shameful failure for over a year to press Israel to end its atrocities in Gaza, by first delaying calls for a ceasefire and then continuing arms transfers, is and will remain a stain on our collective conscience,” said Agnès Callamard.

“Governments must stop pretending they are powerless to end this genocide, which was enabled by decades of impunity for Israel’s violations of international law. States need to move beyond mere expressions of regret or dismay and take strong and sustained international action, however uncomfortable a finding of genocide may be for some of Israel’s allies.

“The International Criminal Court’s (ICC) arrest warrants for Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and former Defense Minister Yoav Gallant for war crimes and crimes against humanity issued last month offer real hope of long-overdue justice for victims. States must demonstrate their respect for the court’s decision and for universal international law principles by arresting and handing over those wanted by the ICC.

“We are calling on the Office of the Prosecutor of the International Criminal Court (ICC) to urgently consider adding genocide to the list of crimes it is investigating and for all states to use every legal avenue to bring perpetrators to justice. No one should be allowed to commit genocide and remain unpunished.”

Amnesty International is also calling for all civilian hostages to be released unconditionally and for Hamas and other Palestinian armed groups responsible for the crimes committed on 7 October to be held to account.

The organization is also calling for the UN Security Council to impose targeted sanctions against Israeli and Hamas officials most implicated in crimes under international law.

Background

On 7 October 2023 Hamas and other armed groups indiscriminately fired rockets into southern Israel and carried out deliberate mass killings and hostage-taking there, killing 1,200 people, including over 800 civilians, and abducted 223 civilians and captured 27 soldiers. The crimes perpetrated by Hamas and other armed groups during this attack will be the focus of a forthcoming Amnesty International report.

Since October 2023, Amnesty International has conducted in-depth investigations into the multiple violations and crimes under international law committed by Israeli forces, including direct attacks on civilians and civilian objects and deliberately indiscriminate attacks killing hundreds of civilians, as well as other unlawful attacks on and collective punishment of the civilian population. The organization has called on the Office of the ICC Prosecutor to expedite its investigation into the situation in the State of Palestine and is campaigning for an immediate ceasefire.

END

REPORT

AMNESTY INTERNATIONAL

ISRAEL/OCCUPIED PALESTINIAN TERRITORY:

”YOU FEEL YOU ARE SUBHUMAN”:

ISRAEL’S GENOCIDE AGAINST PALESTINIANS IN GAZA

5 DECEMBER 2024

https://www.amnesty.org/en/documents/mde15/8668/2024/en/

file:///C:/Users/Eigenaar/Downloads/MDE1586682024ENGLISH%20(5).pdf

According to the 1977 Protocol II, “objects indispensable to the survival of the civilian population” are protected and attacks against them are prohibited.[3]

The Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court includes starvation as a war crime when committed within an international armed conflict.

WIKIPEDIA

STARVATION (CRIME)

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Starvation_(crime)#:~:text=According%20to%20the%201977%20Protocol,within%20an%20international%20armed%20conflict

ARTICLE 14,  PROTOCOL ADDITIONAL TO THE GENEVA CONVENTIONS OF 12 AUGUST 1949, AND RELATING TO THE PROTECTION OF VICTIMS OF NON-INTERNATIONAL ARMED CONFLICTS (PROTOCOL II), OF 8 JUNE 1977

Article 14 — Protection of objects indispensable to the survival of the civilian population Starvation of civilians as a method of combat is prohibited. It is therefore prohibited to attack, destroy, remove or render useless, for that purpose, objects indispensable to the survival of the civilian population, such as foodstuffs, agricultural areas

for the production of foodstuffs, crops, livestock, drinking water installations and supplies and irrigation works.

https://www.un.org/en/genocideprevention/documents/atrocity-crimes/Doc.35_AP-II-EN.pdf

THE ROME STATUTE QUALIFIES STARVATION AS

A WARCRIME

ARTICLE 8

WARCRIMES

ROME STATUTE

https://www.icc-cpi.int/sites/default/files/2024-05/Rome-Statute-eng.pdf

Article 8 War crimes

1. The Court shall have jurisdiction in respect of war crimes in particular when committed as part of a plan or policy or as part of a large-scale commission of such crimes.

2. For the purpose of this Statute, “war crimes” means:

….

…..

xxv) Intentionally using starvation of civilians as a method of warfare by depriving them of objects indispensable to their survival, including wilfully impeding relief supplies as provided for under the Geneva Conventions;

Since October 2023, the Israeli regime has been committing genocide in the Gaza Strip. This includes the killing of tens of thousands, bodily and mental harm to hundreds of thousands, massive destruction of homes and civilian infrastructure, starvation, displacement and obstruction of humanitarian aid – all carried out systematically, as part of a coordinated attack designed to destroy living conditions in the Gaza Strip. Israel is continuing the onslaught despite countless warnings, and mounting evidence on the ground, of its lethal consequences. Together with many public clarifications by policymakers that the target is the entire population, this proves the political and military leadership’s intent to eradicate the continuation of Palestinian existence in Gaza.

Immediately after the Hamas-led attack on 7 October 2023, Israel imposed a total blockade on Gaza. In the months that followed, it intermittently barred entry of food, water, fuel and medicine through land crossings under its control. The aid it did allow in, following international pressure, was severely inadequate for the population’s needs. Within a short time, Israel also destroyed the civilian infrastructure for producing and distributing food. These measures left hundreds of thousands of people entirely dependent on humanitarian aid. The shortages also led to sharp price hikes across the Strip, further limiting access to food for most of the population. Aid organizations warned in the early stages of the fighting of a steep drop in food security. In April 2024, UN bodies declared that “without massive and consistent food assistance that can be delivered freely and safely, famine thresholds in Gaza will be breached within the next six weeks.”

Israel has also waged an unprecedented assault on Gaza’s civilian and social order. Throughout the months of fighting, Israeli forces have methodically targeted all law enforcement actors in the Strip, including police officers and commanders, as well as civil defense units. The resulting law enforcement vacuum was filled by armed criminal gangs, which operate across the Strip and have gained power thanks to Israel.

At the same time, Israel has painted a false picture that there is no severe hunger crisis in Gaza, accusing Hamas of stealing UN aid in areas where shortages existed. This allegation was denied by aid agencies on the ground. In a New York Times investigation published in late July 2025, senior Israeli military officials even admitted the military had never provided evidence of Hamas systematically stealing aid. Contrary to Israel’s claims, numerous reports and policy statements indicate that one of the main reasons Israel blocked aid into Gaza was to pressure Hamas, including by fomenting internal unrest among the civilian population. Two US government agencies responsible for aid distribution determined that Israel deliberately blocked and delayed humanitarian aid, and that it is primarily responsible for the hunger ravaging the Strip. In January 2024, UN experts concluded: “Israel is […] using food as a weapon against the Palestinian people.”

The deliberate starvation of Gaza, which branches of the UN designated “the hungriest place on Earth” in May 2025, is one means of destruction Israel is using in the genocide it is committing in Gaza. With every passing day, the hunger in Gaza deepens and more people, including children, die from causes related to hunger and malnutrition. Yet Israel continues its attempts to suppress the reality of the hunger crisis in Gaza.

This document presents Israel’s system of starvation in the Gaza Strip, which includes destroying food and means of food production, preventing food from entering, undermining existing aid systems and creating deadly conditions for obtaining food.

Starvation in figures

The latest analysis of food security (according to the IPC Famine Classification) found that about 2.1 million residents – almost the entire population of the Gaza Strip – are experiencing varying degrees of acute food insecurity. Roughly 37% of the population, about 775,000 people, are in “Crisis” (Phase 3), while more than 1,169,000 people (54%) are in Phases 4 and 5, classified as “Emergency” and “Catastrophe.”

At the end of July 2025, IPC experts issued their most severe famine warning to date, stating that “the worst-case famine scenario is now unfolding in Gaza.” According to the warning, about 500,000 people – a quarter of Gaza’s population – are currently experiencing daily famine. Indeed, throughout July, daily reports began emerging of people dying in Gaza from causes related to hunger and malnutrition. As of 21 August 2025, the Gaza Ministry of Health reported 271 deaths related to hunger and malnutrition, including 112 minors.

Israel’s system of starvation in Gaza

Withholding food and Destroying food production infrastructure

Blockade: Preventing the entry of aid

Even before the current Israeli offensive, about 64% of Gaza’s residents suffered from food insecurity, and around 80% required some form of humanitarian assistance. As soon as the attack on the Gaza Strip began, Israel declared a total blockade on the Strip, which led to a growing shortage of food products. That blockade lasted until 21 October 2023. At that point, Israel allowed in a very limited amount of humanitarian aid, and only through the Rafah Crossing on the border with Egypt. From 21 October to 23 November 2023, a total of 1,554 aid trucks entered through Rafah, 927 of them carrying food – compared with about 360 food trucks that had entered the Strip every day prior to the attack, when 20%–30% of food consumption was based on local production. During the first ceasefire, from 24 to 30 November 2023, a total of 1,209 aid trucks entered the Strip, 851 of them carrying food. On 17 December 2023, Israel began permitting aid in through the Kerem Shalom Crossing, as well. From 1 December 2023 to 18 January 2024, a total of 5,917 aid trucks entered, 4,048 of them carrying food.

Throughout 2024, some 41,000 aid trucks entered the Strip – an average of about 90 trucks a day, the vast majority carrying food. Almost all were sent to the southern Strip, where most of the population was concentrated at that stage, and the amount of aid that entered was far from sufficient. At the same time, only minimal amounts of food reached the northern Strip, via deliveries from the south, limited airdrops and a handful of trucks that entered directly.

* Trucks with general items, not only food

After the second ceasefire was declared on 19 January 2025, Israel permitted relatively broad entry of aid: about 600 trucks a day, including some 50 fuel trucks. Some of the trucks entered northern Gaza directly through Zikim Crossing. However, on 2 March 2025, Israel again imposed a total blockade on the Strip, and on 18 March it violated the ceasefire and resumed fighting. For the next 77 days, Israel completely blocked aid from entering Gaza. According to the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA), only in mid-May 2025 was the Kerem Shalom Crossing partially reopened. Over three days, 198 trucks entered, some intended for the northern Strip, but were delayed by logistical disruptions, gunfire, looting and access blockages, and not all reached their destination. OCHA reported that these trucks were merely a drop in a bucket compared to actual needs: 60–64 trucks a day, at a time when at least 500–600 were required. Direct truck entry to the north via Zikim was restored only on 12 June.

On 27 July 2025, following international pressure, Israel announced it would allow more aid trucks in and establish humanitarian corridors and pauses for distribution. OCHA reported that about 100 trucks entered the Strip that day, but added that moving the aid to its intended destinations within Gaza remained extremely difficult even during pauses in fighting, and medical workers feared that the meager aid would arrive too late to save those already starving. That day, the Israeli military also carried out the first airdrop of food into Gaza – a practice that experts criticized as ineffective and that had caused fatalities when undertaken by the US and other countries during an earlier phase of the attack on Gaza. The amount of food dropped, equivalent to a single truckload, was negligible compared to the need.

Destroying food production infrastructure

Until October 2023, between 20% and 30% of food consumption in the Gaza Strip was based on agricultural produce grown within its territory. Yet, already in the first months of the assault, Israel disabled all local food production systems. According to analyses by FAO and UNOSAT, the Israeli assault has destroyed 75% of Gaza’s farmland, about 96% of livestock have died, more than 80% of the wells used for irrigation and over 70% of the greenhouses have been damaged, and the fishing industry has almost entirely shut down. Residents’ livelihoods have collapsed, and local food production has ceased to exist. The onslaught has not only caused the total collapse of food sources available in Gaza, but also inflicted severe, long-term damage that is likely to undermine the population’s ability to produce food in the future.

Undermining existing aid systems

International organizations, most notably UNRWA and the World Central Kitchen (WCK), as well as local initiatives such as community kitchens, have made dedicated efforts to prevent the starvation of the population from the beginning of the attack, striving to provide food. Yet Israel has continuously worked to thwart their operations:

UNRWA

Since the beginning of the attack, Israel has restricted the entry of aid into the Strip and in many cases refused to allow UNRWA convoys to transport aid from the south to the north.

The Israeli government, which has long sought to undermine and even eliminate UNRWA’s operations as part of its efforts to erase the Palestinian refugee status, exploited the Hamas-led 7 October attack to escalate its campaign against the agency, based on unproven allegations that some of its employees participated in the attack. In 2024 and early 2025, Israel passed legislation banning UNRWA’s activity inside Israel, as well as in the West Bank and the Gaza Strip. By January 2025, reports already indicated that UNRWA was preparing to halt its operations in these areas. According to UNRWA’s official reports, international staff have been barred from entering Gaza since late March 2025, and limited operations have continued only through local staff.

Israel’s forced shutdown of UNRWA, with full knowledge that no other body in Gaza can replace its wide range of civil functions, is expected to worsen the already severe hunger crisis and further undermine healthcare services. In addition to the political aim of dismantling UNRWA, Israel is seeking to deprive residents of any aid source not under its control, thereby increasing their dependence on the Israeli military and its affiliated aid mechanisms.

Community kitchens

As early as October 2023, a network of community kitchens was established in the Gaza Strip, initiated by the WCK in cooperation with UN agencies and Palestinian aid organizations. Community kitchens distributed hot meals to Gaza’s residents while suffering from a shortage of ingredients, as well as water and cooking gas, and often forced to use wood as fuel. They frequently had to suspend operations due to evacuation orders issued by the Israeli military or fighting nearby, and faced looting by desperate residents and organized gangs.

In three documented incidents, the military attacked WCK workers: on 1 April 2024, Israeli forces killed seven WCK staff members when they attacked an aid convoy near Deir al-Balah in central Gaza. Following the incident, the organization suspended its operations in the Strip for about a month. Prime Minister Netanyahu described the attack as tragic and unintentional.  On 30 November 2024, the military attacked WCK aid vehicles again, this time in Khan Yunis, killing three staff members. On 27 March 2025, Israeli forces killed a WCK volunteer while he was distributing food near a community kitchen in Gaza City.

By May 2025, most WCK kitchens had either closed or been transferred to local partner organizations, due to the severe shortage of food supplies after the blockade was reimposed in March 2025. On 21 June 2025, WCK resumed partial operations, distributing about 10,000 hot meals that day – compared with the 133,000 hot meals it distributed daily in the early months of 2025.

Alongside the WCK kitchens, grassroots initiatives were launched, first in the north and center of the Strip and later also in the south, to operate civilian aid kitchens (tiqiyeh). These kitchens were set up by residents and maintained partly by volunteers, with funding and coordination from international aid agencies, chiefly the UN World Food Programme (WFP), in cooperation with local NGOs. They were often established in ruined buildings or open areas, without access to electricity or water. Even so, they succeeded in distributing hundreds of thousands of meals daily.

According to OCHA, in January 2025, during the second ceasefire, 170 kitchens operated in the Strip, distributing about 600,000 meals per day. In April 2025, after aid shipments resumed during the ceasefire, the kitchens provided a record one million meals. However, by May 2025, the impact of the full blockade Israel imposed in March was felt, with the number of meals dropping to 249,000. On 4 August, OCHA reported that 259,000 meals had been provided since 20 July 2025, 98 in northern Gaza and 161,000 in the center and south.

Making food seeking lethal

Shooting at people seeking food in the northern Gaza Strip

According to UN experts, between mid-January and the end of February 2024, at least 14 incidents were documented in which Israeli forces opened fire or carried out airstrikes against civilians who had gathered in different areas of the Strip to receive aid. In a particularly grave incident on 29 February 2024, soldiers fired at a crowd that had rushed flour trucks on a-Rashid Street in Gaza City. More than 100 people were killed and about 760 injured – some directly by military gunfire, others trampled by the panicked crowd. Later that month, Euro-Med Human Rights Monitor documented eight more incidents of Israeli forces shooting at people seeking food, including an incident on 14 March in which the military fired at a crowd of thousands of civilians gathered near a square on Salah a-Din Road in southern Gaza City. The shooting – carried out with tanks, attack helicopters, and drones – killed more than 80 people and injured around 200 others. Nine days later, on 23 March, the army again fired on a crowd that had gathered at the same square, killing at least 30 people and wounding 80 more.

In July 2025, two incidents were reported in which the Israeli army opened massive fire and killed dozens of people seeking food as they tried to reach aid trucks that had entered through the “Zikim” crossing in the northern part of the Strip. In the incident on 20 July, around 79 people were killed, and in the incident on 30 July, at least 48 people were killed.

According to the Gaza Health Ministry, as of 20 August 2025, Israeli forces had killed 2,018 people in the Strip while they were attempting to obtain food and injured 14,947 others – most of them near GHF distribution centers.

GHF food distribution centers in southern and central Gaza: Death traps disguised as aid

In February 2025, amid mounting international criticism over the situation in the Gaza Strip, the US announced the establishment of the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation (GHF). Israel did not officially admit to co-founding the initiative but acknowledged transferring funds to cover the cost of building the sites, claiming they were intended to enable the direct distribution of food, water and medicine.

On 27 May 2025, GHF began operating four distribution centers through private American contractors and in coordination with the Israeli military: three in the southern Strip (two west of Rafah and one in Khan Yunis) and one in the center, in the “Netzarim Corridor.”

In their first days of operation, a UN representative already described these compounds as “death traps” where masses of hungry, exhausted people were forced to crowd together, inevitably leading to clashes over aid packages.

Since the opening of these centers, lethal shooting has regularly been documented inside and around them, including tank fire and, according to witnesses, quadcopter attacks, directed at unarmed people seeking food, killing and wounding many every day the centers were open.

On 3 June 2025, in response to a query by Haaretz, the Israeli military admitted that troops had fired at civilians approaching an aid compound, adding that it is “aware of reports regarding casualties, and the details of the incident are being looked into.” The military claimed that the fire was meant as deterrence, for example against “identified suspects who breached the designated access routes” to obtain food. Yet numerous testimonies contradict this claim.

In testimonies given to Haaretz in June 2025, soldiers and officers said they had been ordered to shoot directly at unarmed Palestinians gathered around distribution centers, both before and after the food was handed out, in order to drive them away. According to these accounts, the armored corps shot live ammunition and tanks fired shells at civilians waiting for aid – not as warning shots, but as targeted fire, although they posed no threat.

Anthony Aguilar, a former US Army officer who worked as a security contractor for GHF, described what he saw at the centers to Israeli TV Channel 13 on 26 July 2025: “IDF soldiers firing live ammunition at the Palestinians […] I saw artillery rounds being used. I saw machine gun fire being used, mortar fire being used, tank rounds, main tank rounds from the Merkava tanks.”

A month earlier, an American security contractor employed by GHF in Gaza gave an account of the systematic violence around these centers to the news site Zeteo. He described heavily armed soldiers working alongside young, untrained civilian workers, and said he never saw shooting coming from the people receiving aid. He reported the Israeli fire was often indiscriminate, targeting even those quietly waiting in line, which made the access to food dangerous, chaotic and violent.

UN agencies, including the Center for Constitutional Rights (CCR), OCHA and UNRWA, as well as human rights organizations such as Gisha, Médecins Sans Frontières, CCR and al-Haq, issued an official call to end the initiative. They argued that combining aid distribution with military control is not humanitarian, and that shootings occurring at aid sites may constitute war crimes or crimes against humanity.

From the outset, the UN and other aid organizations refused to participate in the GHF centers, arguing that concentrating a limited number of mass distribution points mostly in the southern Strip would force starving residents to move with their families toward the area near the Egyptian border, “indicat[ing] a deliberate policy of forcing residents from the north – a pattern observed previously in the conflict.” UN Under-Secretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs Tom Fletcher called the initiative a “cynical sideshow. A deliberate distraction. A fig leaf for further violence and displacement.” He said the project aimed to create military buffer zones, especially in the north, while pushing the population southward. An Israeli official involved in planning the project admitted that its goal was to present the world with a “show” of aid distribution to ease international pressure on Israel.

Despite mounting reports, Prime Minister Netanyahu and members of his government refrained from publicly addressing the casualties at these centers.

Taken together, these facts indicate that the GHF centers were designed, in part, to serve Israel’s plan to forcibly transfer Gaza’s population, in the spirit of the Trump Plan, rather than to provide access to aid that would actually help the starving population, while further worsening living conditions. In other words, these so-called aid centers are in fact another tool for implementing Israel’s policy of starvation as an instrument of ethnic cleansing.

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