INTRODUCTION “Women and girls in Gaza are facing the impossible choice of starving to death at their shelters, or venturing out in search of food and water at the extreme risk of being killed. Their children are starving to death before their eyes. This is horrific, unconscionable and unacceptable. It is inhumane.” --Sima Bahous, UN Under-Secretary-General and UN Women Executive Director1 Gaza is enduring a man-made famine in plain sight. The Integrated Food Security Phase Classification (IPC) warns that the entire population of Gaza is facing acute food insecurity, with 100 percent of households living in Crisis (IPC Phase 3), including over 1.1 million people in Emergency (IPC Phase 4). By the end of September 2025, more than 640,000 people – nearly one in three Gazans – will be in Catastrophic levels of food insecurity (IPC Phase 5), meaning that, without immediate and sustained aid, they face starvation, destitution, and death.2 3 4 The ever-increasing risk of famine in Gaza is not a new phenomenon, but a recurring and expanding reality, directly linked to policies restricting the entry of aid into Gaza. In the immediate aftermath of Hamas’ October 7, 2023 attack on Israel, Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant announced a “full siege” on Gaza, stating, “No electricity, no food, no water, no fuel… everything is closed.”5 This declaration set the stage for months of severe restrictions on humanitarian access, effectively cutting off civilian access to essential supplies across Gaza. International humanitarian law (IHL) mandates that parties to an armed conflict allow the rapid and unimpeded passage of humanitarian relief for civilians.6 In August 2025, the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights affirmed that Israel’s use of starvation as a method of warfare constitutes a war crime.7 This position has also been supported by the International Association of Genocide Scholars (IAGS), which highlighted starvation in its determination of genocide in Gaza, stating: “Recognising that the deliberate destruction of agricultural fields, food warehouses, and bakeries and other violence that prevents food production, in conjunction with denial and restriction of humanitarian aid, indicate the intentional infliction of unlivable conditions resulting in starvation of Palestinians in Gaza.”8 Indeed, restrictions on food aid are compounded by the near total destruction of Gaza’s food and agricultural system. As of April 2025, over 98 percent of cropland is inaccessible or destroyed, while damage to wells, orchards, and greenhouses exceeds 80 percent.9 This destruction has crippled local food production, leaving families entirely dependent on disrupted humanitarian assistance. Markets and bakeries are inoperative; community kitchens operate sporadically.10 Support systems in Gaza have also been decimated, with 94 percent of hospitals and clinics damaged or destroyed and only half remaining operational.11 Water and sanitation systems have collapsed; families are surviving on just three liters of water per day, far below humanitarian standards, and sanitation infrastructure is largely nonexistent.12 With fuel and clean water cut, there has been a surge in preventable disease and infection, including diarrhea, dysentery, and acute jaundice, as well as respiratory illness caused by cooking over open flames.13 6