Israel Turns Starvation in Gaza into a Strategy of Subjugation

“No voice today is louder than the rumble of empty stomachs, no story precedes the scream of hunger in Gaza’s streets. Hunger has wounded the old before the young. We, and our people, are not living—we are simply waiting to die: by airstrikes, starvation, or thirst.”

With these haunting words, Palestinian journalist and Al Jazeera correspondent Anas Al-Sharif described the catastrophic conditions endured by the people of Gaza.

Bodies collapse, flowers wither, lives are extinguished. Skeletons pierce through skin. Hunger fills homes, and silent screams rise from empty stomachs. Life writes its final chapters as a people teeter on the edge of an abyss, while the world watches from afar—hands on cheeks, shedding fleeting tears to soothe a comatose conscience.

Humanity’s heart has stopped beating; justice is gasping its last breath on a ventilator. The world suffers from a swelling of failure, paralysis of empathy, and a grotesque inflation of betrayal.

Two million people in Gaza are facing one of the most egregious acts of genocide in modern history—a systematic starvation campaign that transforms the human right to food and water into a weapon of collective punishment. An entire population has been placed on a slow-moving death list. If not killed by bombardment, they will surely perish from hunger.

Those desperate enough to risk their lives for a bag of flour or a scrap of bread often return as corpses, victims of so-called “aid distribution points” that are, in reality, death traps.

What is happening in Gaza defies all expectations and transcends every historical record of racism and brutality. An entire nation is being driven to death by starvation. The scenes are horrifying—images that shatter the foundations of moral conscience and expose the fragility of so-called civilization. This is not a film; it is a real-time broadcast of suffering, a dystopian documentary more visceral than The Great Famine of Mao, Mr. Jones, or Black ’47.

Official Famine Declaration Looms

Israel has engineered hunger and thirst as a primary weapon in its war against Gaza, especially since the resumption of hostilities on March 18. The starvation campaign has escalated through a tightly coordinated strategy: sealing border crossings, blocking aid convoys, and replacing them with what are now called “death points.”

Over 100 people are dying each day in Gaza, either from starvation itself or from attacks at these deadly aid distribution centers. All indicators suggest Gaza meets the criteria for a formal famine declaration: 20% of the population facing extreme hunger, and 30% of children suffering from acute malnutrition and wasting.

According to Gaza’s Government Media Office, 650,000 children—out of the 2.4 million living in the Strip—are at risk of dying from hunger-related causes. Around 60,000 pregnant women face critical risks due to lack of food and medical care. UNICEF reports that 112 children are hospitalized daily with severe malnutrition, while 620 people have already died of hunger—70 of them since June alone.

Since October 2023, Israel has waged a comprehensive campaign of genocide in Gaza—combining bombing, starvation, destruction, and forced displacement. The toll: over 199,000 Palestinians killed or injured, the majority being women and children. More than 9,000 remain missing. Hundreds of thousands are displaced. Starvation has claimed countless lives.

The Architecture of Starvation

Israel’s starvation campaign is not haphazard. It is deliberate, calculated, and racist. Each step is meticulously planned and timed. This is not merely a blockade or a refusal to allow food aid into Gaza. It is a multi-layered assault on every facet of survival.

Hospitals have no fuel. Bakeries lack subsidized flour. There are no tents for the displaced, no clean water, no safe zones, and not even shrouds for the dead. Economic lifelines have been severed—banks are shut, salaries frozen, and financial aid blocked. Crisis profiteers run amok under Israeli protection, exploiting a defenseless population with no accountability.

Once starvation became an effective pressure tool, Israel escalated it into a strategy of humiliation. Aid centers, managed by U.S.-linked institutions under Israeli control, have become instruments of submission. Media platforms have circulated images of people reduced to desperation at these sites, now infamous as death traps.

Meanwhile, UNRWA has been restricted. The agency declared that it holds enough food in Egyptian warehouses near the Rafah crossing to feed Gaza’s population for three months, and urged Israel to lift the blockade. In a post on X, UNRWA warned: “Lift the siege. Allow us to deliver food and medicine. One million Palestinian lives hang in the balance.”

A Catastrophe Beyond Words

In Gaza, hunger now wields the power of the Angel of Death. It devours children, breaks women, and hollows men’s bones. Life has completely collapsed under the weight of a genocidal war and the moral decay of a silent world—neighbors and kin, not just enemies, are complicit.

“We learned to live with hunger two or three months ago, but now it’s unbearable. There’s nothing left in the house to ration. Over a month has passed, and I haven’t had a piece of bread for my sick child,” said Palestinian journalist Mohammed Khalil, breaking down in tears.

In an interview with Noon Post, Khalil added, “We’re dying slowly. Death is closer than life. If Israeli drones don’t kill us, hunger and thirst will. Our strength is gone. We’ve endured a 20-month genocide unlike anything in recent human history.”

He condemned the “war profiteers” who worsen the crisis by charging up to 45% on money transfers. “If I try to withdraw $1,000, I only get $550,” he said. Food prices have skyrocketed: flour now costs $50 per kilo (once $2), tomatoes jumped from 1 to 70 shekels ($20.80), lentils from 1 to 60 shekels ($17.80).

Another journalist, Basheer Abu Al-Shaar, driven by starvation, offered his only source of income—his Canon D80 camera—in exchange for a bag of flour. In a desperate Facebook post, he wrote, “I just want one bag of flour. I can’t watch my children sleep on empty stomachs anymore.”

His plea was not an isolated cry, but a thunderous scream that echoes the pain of an entire population. The images speak louder than words: skeletal children, frail elderly collapsing from hunger, and women lining up outside soup kitchens, pleading: “We’re suffocating, moving from one charity to another, and we still find nothing. What did we do to deserve this?”

From Weapon to Strategy

Gaza’s hunger is no longer a tool for negotiation—it is a strategy of domination. What Israel is doing transcends any traditional notion of political pressure. Starving a population into submission, with no avenue of survival, defies even the cruelest interpretations of war conduct.

The real aim is not just to pressure Hamas, but to collectively punish all Palestinians—to “recondition their consciousness” after October 7. Scenes of humiliation serve Israeli psychological satisfaction, healing the trauma inflicted by the Al-Aqsa Flood operation.

Israel’s cruelty now exceeds that of Nazi leader Adolf Hitler, who used starvation as a control mechanism without pushing his people to the brink of death. He believed if people were too full, they’d demand political rights; if too starved, they’d revolt. He sought a middle ground. Netanyahu and his generals, however, are embracing utter annihilation—unrestrained and intentional.

As the world stands by, watching this grotesque crime, the silence is deafening. Statements of concern ring hollow. The international community is complicit through inaction, stained by the disgrace of duplicity.

But if this is the position of the so-called global order, what of the Arab and Muslim nations? The supposed defenders of Palestine? No political rationale, no strategic justification, can excuse their shameful paralysis.

The borders remain sealed, ears turned deaf. If this atrocity doesn’t stir them to action—what will? Whose hands will carry the blood of Gaza’s starving children? Justice may be delayed, but retribution, as history teaches, is inevitable.