Israel Is Using Starvation as a Weapon of War. Where Is the Outrage?

When starvation first started to spread in Gaza at the end of October 2023, the international community expressed alarm. The World Food Programme warned that “People in Gaza are starving to death right now. The speed at which this man-made hunger and malnutrition crisis has ripped through Gaza is terrifying.” The EuropeanUnion and the United States released statements urging Israel to open crossings and let in thousands of aid trucks. The argument then was that starvation should never be used as a weapon of war. Palestinians should not be starved for political reasons, or as a mechanism to push them out of Gaza. Israel, as the occupying power, has an obligation to ensure an adequate supply of crucial goods.

That was months ago. The humanitarian crisis in Gaza has only gotten worse by every measure. And the starvation of Palestinians has become normalized.

Today, starvation is spreading both in the north and south of Gaza, with little outcry from the international community. Despite a ruling from the International Court of Justice affirming that Israel’s actions are plausibly genocidal, Israel has faced no material consequences. How long will we allow these atrocities to continue?

The organization I work for, the American Friends Service Committee, still has staff on the ground in Gaza. We have continued to provide food, hygiene kits, and other forms of aid despite tremendous personal hardship. We’ve served food to over half a million people, but the aid we can provide is severely limited by what Israel allows into Gaza, and by the constant threat of Israel’s military operations.

Our ability to provide aid at all is due to the commitment and courage of our staff on the ground, who are local to Gaza and have connections to organizations and communities that make their work possible. It is now extremely difficult for international aid workers to get into Gaza, and many large organizations can’t provide aid because they lack local connections. It is only by chance that our staff are still alive—each have had dozens of family members killed by Israeli airstrikes.

When Israeli forces stormed Al-Shifa Hospital on November 15, 2023, there was unprecedented international outrage. But when Israel realized the international community would not go beyond words of condemnation, soldiers stormed the hospital again, killing hundreds, including patients and doctors. Hundreds more were arrested. Then, the Israeli military burned the hospital to the ground. When Israel saw that it could get away with its destruction of Al-Shifa, it did the same to many other hospitals in Gaza.

In April, three mass graves were uncovered at Al-Shifa; the dead included people with medical bandages and crutches. Others were executed with their hands tied behind their backs.

We see a similar escalation with Israel’s limitations on food aid and the spread of starvation in Gaza.

Palestinians were already familiar with the weaponization of hunger. Since 2007, Gaza has been under a tight Israeli siege, and the Israeli military limited the amount of food they allowed to cross the border based on the minimum number of calories Palestinians needed to avoid malnutrition. At the time, leaders in the international community mostly looked the other way. Palestinians in Gaza learned years ago that their death is acceptable.

Soon after October 7, 2023, Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Galant infamously said, “There will be no electricity, no food, no fuel—everything is being blocked off.” Tali Gottlieb, a member of the Knesset, said Palestinians in Gaza need to be “thirsted and starved.” Even when international pressure resulted in sending aid trucks to Gaza, Israel’s National Security Minister Itmar Ben Gvir sent his militias to block their entry. On May 1, one of AFSC’s aid trucks was in a convoy that was attacked by Israeli settlers.