Gaza: How Starvation Acts As A Weapon Of War

In the Shati Refugee Camp in Gaza city, two-year-old Yazan Abu Ful’s mother, Naima, pulled off his clothes to show his emaciated body. The toddler's vertebrae, ribs and shoulder-blades jutted out sharply. His buttocks were shriveled. His face expressionless 

This image of a Gazan mother cradling her severely malnourished child has come to symbolise the deepening hunger crisis in Gaza. The child with emaciated limbs and visible ribs and spine is the stark evidence of widespread starvation plaguing all the people in Gaza. 

Francesca Albanese, the United Nations Special Rapporteur for the West Bank and Gaza, is a member of a group of experts chosen by the 47-member U.N. Human Rights Council in Geneva tasked with probing human rights abuses in the Palestinian territories. She has been vocal about what she has described as the “genocide” by Israel against Palestinians in Gaza. 

Albanese noted a recent shift in perceptions in Europe and around the world following an outcry over images of emaciated children in Gaza and reports of dozens of hunger-related deaths after nearly 22 months of war, reported AP.

While Michael Fakhri, UN special rapporteur on the right to food, had sounded the alarm in early 2024, US President Donald Trump, who has been allied with Israel, broke his silence on the starvation crisis in Gaza on August 28.

"Those children look very hungry... that's real starvation stuff" and “that kind of stuff can’t be faked,” he said after Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu insisted there was no such thing.  

Gazans are starving to death. The United Nations has said the strip is in the middle of a starvation scenario—a famine, which is the "worst case scenario". The health ministry in Gaza reported that 154 people have died of hunger since the start of the war, including 89 children.

“It's clearly a disaster unfolding in front of our eyes, in front of our television screens,” said Ross Smith, UN World Food Programme (WFP) director of emergencies. 

The Worst-Case Scenario 

According to Integrated Food Security Phase Classification (IPC), a UN-backed food security expert, the worst-case scenario of famine is currently playing out in the Gaza Strip.   

The ongoing conflict and displacement, coupled with the Israeli military targeting aid sites and not allowing aid to enter certain areas, has caused the starvation crisis in Gaza to plummet to unprecedented levels. IPC pointed out that widespread starvation, malnutrition, and disease are driving a rise in hunger-related deaths.  

More people in Gaza died of starvation in just over 11 days than in the previous 21 months of conflict. The Guardian reports that humanitarian experts and doctors are warning that children, elderly people and those with pre-existing health conditions are most at risk of famine in Gaza. 

Severity of the Crisis 

A formal famine declaration, which is rare, requires the kind of data that is impossible to collect given the lack of access to Gaza and mobility within the strip.

IPC said Gaza has teetered on the brink of famine for two years, but recent developments have “dramatically worsened” the situation, including “increasingly stringent blockades” by Israel. Their recent report is just short of a formal famine declaration, said AP. 

A famine situation is confirmed if all three core thresholds are breached: plummeting food consumption, acute malnutrition and starvation-related deaths.  

The IPC has classified famine situations into a 5-tier scale, which is widely followed. 

The stages range from ‘Phase 1: None/ Minimal’, where Households are able to meet essential food needs without engaging in atypical and unsustainable strategies, to ‘Phase 5: Catastrophe/ Famine’, where households experience an extreme lack of food with predominant starvation, death, destitution and acute malnutrition. For Famine Classification, an area needs to have extreme critical levels of acute malnutrition and mortality. 

Latest data indicates the severity of the situation. Gaza is currently in the last phase of this scale. Famine thresholds have been reached for food consumption in most of the Gaza Strip and for acute malnutrition in Gaza City. 

The IPC noted that Rafah, Khan Younis, Deir Al-Balah, Gaza City and North Gaza are all currently at the risk of a full-blown famine.

Aid not entering Gaza  

According to The Guardian, Gaza is currently receiving every calorie of food from outside the strip. The conflict ended farming and herding. Israel has banned fishing in Gaza. Thus, the major source of food comes from aid.  

While the world is witnessing the starvation of Gaza, Israeli officials maintain their denial of the existence of mass starvation. They claim that Hamas steals and hoards aid and have repeatedly blamed the UN for distribution failures from their aid teams. 

In March and April, Gaza was under total siege, with no food entering. After facing international backlash, Netanyahu resumed shipments in mid-May to resolve the “starvation crisis.”

However, despite Israel claiming to have resumed aid, UN aid workers have reported being stopped or delayed multiple times from reaching their designated aid sites by the Israeli military.  

Reaching these aid sites has become a futile attempt as Israeli forces have targeted these locations. The UN said in July that nearly 800 aid-seekers had been killed since late May, including on the routes of aid convoys. 

Israel’s military claimed that they only fired at aid sites "to remove an immediate threat posed to them" The army says it works to avoid harm to civilians, and that it issued new instructions to its troops on the ground "following lessons learned" from a spate of similar incidents, according to AFP.  

On 24 June, the UN openly condemned Israel’s actions at aid trucks. Calling it an inhuman “abomination”, the UN demanded that Israeli troops "stop shooting at people trying to get food". 

Labelling it as a “war crime”, UN human rights office spokesman Thameen Al-Kheetan, spoke strongly about Israel restricting and preventing Palestinian’s access to life-sustaining services. 

“Israel's militarised humanitarian assistance mechanism is in contradiction with international standards on aid distribution," he added with regard to the UN aid present in Gaza.  

The Gaza Humanitarian Fund (GHF), a US-funded aid facility, has come under the scanner for furthering Israel’s initial starvation of Gaza. 

AP reported that the UN refused to collaborate with GHF, claiming the funding behind the organisation is “an opaque death trap” and is being used to further Israel’s agenda, as said by Philippe Lazzarini, the head of the UN agency for Palestinian refugees. 

The Famine Review Committee (FRC), an independent group of experts that scrutinises IPC alerts, said food shipments “have been highly inadequate”, and singled out the GHF. 

An "analysis of the food packages supplied by the GHF shows that their distribution plan would lead to mass starvation, even if it were able to function without the appalling levels of violence that have been reported,” the FRC has said. 

To continue providing aid, the UN has recently begun air-dropping aid missions in Gaza “a last resort where there are no other logistics or transport options."

Air drops are also “far too expensive and inefficient”, carrying “extreme risks” for populations living in overcrowded conditions, Smith said, amid reports of injuries to at least 11 Gazans on Sunday. 

Aid convoys are regularly blocked or looted, and humanitarian access is still extremely limited. Israel declared on Sunday that it would start implementing daily humanitarian pauses in Gaza. Despite reports that over 100 trucks of supplies arrived on Sunday, the UN maintains that Gaza still needs to be flooded with food, gasoline, and medication. 

“The trickle of aid must become an ocean,” said António Guterres the UN Secretary-General, in a statement which called for a ceasefire.  

“This nightmare must end,” Guterres said, adding that, “Ending this worst-case scenario will take the best efforts of all parties now.” 

UN aid agencies have insisted on the need for full access across Gaza to reach vulnerable populations, over and above the Israeli military’s announcement of week-long humanitarian pauses from 10 AM to 8 PM. 

Children Dying of Hunger 

AP reported that Mahmoud, father of Yazan Abu Ful, the starving two-year-old child, was also skinny and said they took his son to the hospital several times. “Doctors just say you should feed him. I tell the doctors, ‘You see for yourself, there is no food,’” he said. 

Naima, Yazan's mother, who is pregnant, prepared a meal: Two eggplants they bought for $9, cut up and boiled in water. They will stretch out the pot of eggplant-water – not even a real soup – to last them a few days, they said. Several of Yazan’s four older siblings also looked thin and drained. 

Holding him in his lap, Mahmoud Abu Ful lifted Yazan’s limp arms. The boy lies on the floor most of the day, too weak to play with his brothers. “If we leave him, he might just slip away from between our fingers, and we can’t do anything.” 

“Symptoms are getting worse, with children too weak to cry or move,” said Dr. Rana Soboh, a nutritionist who works with the U.S.-based aid organisation Medglobal at the Patient’s Friends Hospital, as per AP reports. 

“There are no words in the face of the disaster we are in. Kids are dying before the world... There is no uglier and more horrible phase than this,” said Soboh. 

Staff members are also plagued by hunger. According to Soboh, two nurses put themselves on intravenous infusions in order to survive. "We are exhausted. We are dead in the shape of the living," she declared. 

Health Impact of Starvation  

Dr. Asna Urooj, former Chairperson and Professor of Food Science and Nutrition at the University of Mysore, expanded on the long-term implications of a “man-made” famine like that of Gaza. 

Urooj said that famine and war are complex syndromes involving multiple interacting causes, diverse manifestations, and wide-ranging impacts on individuals and communities. The demographic consequences include increased mortality, declining fertility rates, and forced migration. Wars also alter the population structure and demographic patterns of affected countries. 

She narrowed down the elements impacting starvation in children to two factors. She noted that “Starvation is a harsh situation wherein food intake is grossly affected both in terms of quality and quantity. The duration of starvation and the stage of life are two major determinants influencing the impact of starvation on a child’s health”. 

Conflict leads to a breakdown in access to food, clean water, sanitation, and healthcare, resulting in increased malnutrition, water-borne diseases, and disruptions in childhood immunisation.  

While short-term and medium-term health effects are documented due to rich research for World War II, the long-term and intergenerational impacts, particularly on unborn children, are less understood.  

Urooj stated that health consequences are also gendered: “Men often suffer injuries and disabilities, while women face reproductive health risks. Babies born during conflict are more likely to experience premature birth, low birth weight, and perinatal complications. In-utero infections can lead to miscarriage, congenital defects, and long-term developmental issues”.  

The Professor explained the complete health cycle and breakdown of internal systems in the human body when starved for a prolonged period.  

“In the initial stage, the body exhausts its immediate energy reserves, i.e., glycogen, stored in the liver and muscles, then turns to fat stores for energy, which may result in significant weight loss. Next, the body enters a state of ketosis, depending on ketones produced from the breakdown of fats, as a primary source of energy. This can lead to muscle wasting and a decrease in metabolic rate to conserve energy. In the final stage, the body moves into a catabolic stage. It breaks down its tissues to sustain crucial functions, which can result in permanent organ damage and be fatal,” she said. 

Long-term effects of starvation are stunted growth, lifelong disability, developmental delays, mental disorders, and increased risk of infections due to lowered immunity. 

Starvation as a Weapon 

A report by The Guardian revealed that Israel had been calibrating hunger as a tool of war in Gaza for decades before the ongoing conflict. 

Ehud Olmert, who served as a senior advisor to the then Prime Minister of Israel, said in 2006, “The idea is to put the Palestinians on a diet, but not to make them die of hunger.” An Israeli court ordered the release of documents showing the details of those macabre sums two years later. 

The Israeli organisation that oversees assistance deliveries to Gaza, Cogat, estimated at the time that the average daily calorie requirement for Palestinians was at least 2,279 calories, which could be met by 1.836 kg of food. 

Today, humanitarian organisations are asking for an even smaller minimum ration to be allowed: 62,000 metric tonnes of dry and canned food to meet basic needs for 2.1 million people each month, or around 1kg of food per person per day. Between March and June, Israel allowed just 56,000 tonnes of food to enter the territory, Cogat records show, less than a quarter of Gaza’s minimum needs for that period. 

Albanese's reports stated that, “Israel is using thirst as a weapon to kill Palestinians." She added that, “cutting off water and food is a silent but lethal bomb that kills mostly children and babies. The sight of infants dying in their mothers’ arms is unbearable. How can world leaders sleep while this suffering continues?” 

The International Court of Justice in its Advisory Opinion of July 9, 2024, confirmed Israel’s obligation, as the occupying power, to ensure that the local population has an adequate supply of foodstuffs, including water. However, Israel has reduced the amount of water allowed to enter the Gaza Strip, including emergency water deliveries, which has resulted in water shortages and rationing, forcing residents to rely on unsafe and contaminated water sources. 

“Depriving people of food, water and dignity has been a serious and recurring violation of this war, and it must end. The risk of all-out famine must be averted,”the UN Special Rapporteur on torture Alice Jill Edwards said, 

“The psychological impact of being deprived of food and water is inherently cruel,” Edwards added. “Constantly changing rules, militarised distributions, and daily and hourly uncertainty about when one is going to access these basic necessities is causing utter despair, stress, and trauma.” 

“No one should have to suffer the humiliation of being forced to beg for food, and especially not when there are ample supplies waiting to be provided,” she said. 

Albanese expressed grave concern in the UN report, over the GHF operations, saying Palestinians are paying the ultimate price of the international community’s legal, political and moral failure. 

Hamas Releases video of starved Israeli Hostage 

In the most recent development in the conflict, the family of an Israeli hostage held in Gaza said Hamas is starving him after the release of a video in which he appeared emaciated and weak. 

In the video, Evyatar David is seen speaking in what appears to be a Hamas tunnel in Gaza, which was made public on Saturday.  He is seen excavating what he claims is his own “grave”. 

“Today is 27 July, at noon, I don’t know what I’m going to eat. I haven’t eaten for a few days in a row,” David says in a weak, slurred voice while walking away from the camera, revealing his emaciated body. 

This video is the latest in hunger being used against the people of Gaza.