Eurasia Press & News
The Israeli regime has been blocking critical humanitarian aid, especially food, to the war-ravaged Gaza Strip for over 52 days, marking the longest aid blockade since the onset of the genocidal war more than 18 months ago.
The deprivation of the besieged Palestinian territory of essential resources, leading to catastrophic shortages of food, safe water, shelter, and medical supplies, has exacerbated the already dire humanitarian crisis there, as reported by various local and international aid and rights groups.
While the indiscriminate Israeli bombardment of Gaza has claimed the lives of over 51,000 Palestinians so far, more than 2.3 million inhabitants of the narrow strip now face an even greater threat—a famine that could lead to the imminent death of the entire population, with the most vulnerable groups, such as the elderly and children, at the highest risk.
Last week, pediatricians at the Nasser Medical Complex, one of the largest last-functioning hospitals in southern Gaza, raised alarms about the life-threatening danger posed to newborn babies, primarily due to severe shortages of baby food and medicine caused by the Israeli blockade.
The UN’s Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) reported a staggering 80 percent increase in acute malnutrition cases among children from February to March, with 3,696 children newly admitted for treatment.
“Food consumption in Gaza has sharply deteriorated due to the blockade on the entry of humanitarian aid and other critical supplies now in its seventh week,” OCHA said in a report.
The UN World Food Programme (WFP) has been forced to shut down all the bakeries it ran throughout the Strip due to a severe lack of fuel and flour, leaving most residents reliant on a single daily meal provided by UN-run kitchens.
The majority of Gaza’s population today has no access to fresh food, including meat, dairy products, eggs, vegetables, or fruit, pushing them to the brink of malnutrition.
Palestinians, aid agencies, and rights groups warn that Israel is using bombings and starvation to pressure people into leaving—a plan reminiscent of US President Donald Trump’s controversial proposal for the forcible displacement of Gazans to neighboring Arab countries.
During a joint press conference with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in early February, the real estate tycoon-turned-president said he would “take over” and “own” the Gaza Strip, implying permanent displacement of Palestinians from the war-torn territory.
Backed by the US, its staunchest ally under the Trump administration, Israel is confident it can maintain the siege with minimal international pushback, according to experts.
A timeline of Israel’s weaponization of aid to Gaza
Over the past 565 days of its devastating war on the Gaza Strip, Israel has consistently weaponized food and humanitarian aid as a means of exerting collective pressure on the Palestinian population.
On October 9, 2023, just two days after the genocidal war on Gaza commenced, the Zionist regime announced a “total blockade” on the Gaza Strip, effectively halting the entry of vital resources such as food, water, medicine, fuel, and electricity.
At the time, then Israeli minister of military affairs Yoav Gallant pledged to take action against “human animals” and ordered a “complete siege,” effectively dehumanizing all Palestinians in Gaza.
While the Israeli military was later compelled to permit a limited number of aid trucks to enter Gaza following international pressure, the United Nations and international aid agencies continued to report that the quantity of aid entering Gaza remained woefully inadequate to meet the needs of its predominantly youthful population.
The temporary truce reached between Israel and Hamas in late November 2023 allowed for a slight increase in humanitarian aid entering Gaza, though it was still considered insufficient.
Moreover, the Israeli military carried out numerous genocidal attacks on aid convoys, often claiming to target “terrorists” without providing evidence. In the assaults, countless Palestinians waiting to receive aid were killed with sheer impunity.
On February 29, 2024, Israeli occupation forces opened fire on Palestinians awaiting food aid southwest of Gaza City, resulting in the killing of at least 112 Palestinians and leaving over 750 wounded in what has since been dubbed the “flour massacre.”
According to the UN Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees (UNRWA), the war has led to a “total breakdown of civil order” in Gaza, with the dire conditions caused by Israeli ground offensives and widespread destruction across the region leading to aid convoys being attacked and looted.
Footage captured at checkpoints in the occupied West Bank depicted groups of illegal Israeli settlers obstructing aid trucks en route to the war-ravaged Gaza Strip, with scenes showing them throwing food packets onto the road, tearing open bags of grain, and even setting fire to vehicles.
In May 2024, dozens of settlers were seen in viral videos at the Tarquimya checkpoint, west of al-Khalil in the occupied West Bank, pillaging trucks loaded with aid packages sent from Jordan, with opened cartons of food materials scattered along the road.
This incident marked the third occurrence of its kind in that month alone.
Furthermore, the numerous Israeli strikes that have targeted aid convoys and resulted in the deaths of hundreds of aid workers have led many international aid organizations to either temporarily suspend or permanently halt their assistance to Palestinians.
On April 1, 2024, an aid convoy from the World Central Kitchen (WCK) was intentionally struck by Israeli drone strikes, leading to the tragic deaths of six international aid workers and a Palestinian driver.
Throughout the previous winter, as temperatures plummeted, the entry of humanitarian aid into Gaza was severely restricted by Israel. Concurrently, the military initiated a massive siege on northern Gaza, designating the entire area as a combat zone and issuing forced evacuation orders to hundreds of thousands of Palestinians.
In January, the Israeli regime was compelled to agree to a ceasefire with Hamas, having failed to achieve any of its war objectives, including the elimination of the Gaza-based resistance group.
The implementation of the ceasefire allowed for a significant increase in humanitarian aid entering Gaza. Relief organizations emphasized that this level of aid would need to be sustained over an extended period to restore a semblance of normality to life in the region.
While more trucks were permitted entry into Gaza following the ceasefire’s implementation, the volume of aid fell short of the agreed-upon levels.
On March 2, for the second time since the war began, Israel imposed a complete halt on the entry of all humanitarian aid into Gaza. This order remains in effect to this day.
This latest development occurred just over two weeks before the Israeli regime violated the two-month Gaza ceasefire, resuming air and ground attacks on the territory.
The renewed aggression resulted in the deaths of hundreds more Palestinians and left thousands injured.
‘No deal, no ceasefire, no aid’
Since the onset of the devastating war, the UN and other international agencies, along with aid workers, have persistently reported that Israeli authorities are deliberately obstructing numerous aid trucks intended for entry into Gaza.
Starvation has become an overtly declared policy among Israeli officials. Key regime figures such as ministers Bezalel Smotrich and Itamar Ben-Gvir have repeatedly advocated for the complete blockage of all humanitarian aid and a military occupation of Gaza, favoring this option over a potential ceasefire.
Earlier this month, Smotrich asserted that he would continue the total blockade of aid entering the Gaza Strip.
Speaking at a conference hosted by the Israeli outlet Yedioth Ahronoth, he declared that “not even a grain of wheat will enter Gaza.”
Last week, in a post on X, Ben-Gvir called for the prevention of “a gram of food or aid” from entering the blockaded Gaza Strip as Tel Aviv persisted with its bloody onslaught in Gaza.
In a subsequent post, he stated that no ceasefire deal would be reached with Hamas, nor would any humanitarian aid be permitted into Gaza, until the Palestinian group was defeated.
“No deal, no ceasefire, no aid – just continued fighting until [Hamas] are defeated in Gaza,” he wrote.
On Wednesday, Israeli minister of military affairs Israel Katz described the blockade as a “main pressure lever” against Hamas to surrender.
“No one is currently planning to allow any humanitarian aid into Gaza, and there are no preparations to enable such aid,” said Katz.
In response, Hamas denounced Katz’s remarks as “a public admission of committing a war crime.”
Israel is “depriving innocent civilians of basic necessities of life, including food, medicine, water and fuel, for the seventh consecutive week”, the group said in a statement posted to Telegram on Thursday.
“We renew our calls for the international community to take action to stop the starvation and blockade imposed on the Gaza Strip,” it added.
On Monday, Trump’s ambassador to the Israeli regime, Mike Huckabee, a radical Christian Zionist, publicly expressed his support for Israel’s aid blockade of Gaza in a video statement.
Huckabee asserted that Israel is justified in cutting off aid to 2.3 million Palestinians to “pressure Hamas” into releasing 24 Israeli captives held in Gaza, most of whom are soldiers in the Israeli army.
General’s Plan
Certain Israeli occupation officials have openly acknowledged that the goal of starving the people of Gaza is to drive Palestinians out of the territory, a strategy that human rights organizations have condemned as an attempt at ethnic cleansing.
Palestinians, along with the UN and relief agencies, fear that the Israeli regime is gradually implementing aspects of a so-called tactic known as the “Generals’ Plan” to clear Gaza.
This plan was initially proposed by a group of retired Israeli officers led by retired General Giora Eiland.
The core premise of this plan is that Israel can coerce Hamas and its leaders into surrender by intensifying pressure on the entire northern population, including through starvation.
Eiland said that Hamas would “either have to surrender or to starve,” saying that “it will not be necessary” for the Israeli military to kill everyone in northern Gaza as “people will not be able to live there. The water will dry up.”
Since October 2024, the Israeli military has implemented elements of the General’s Plan, particularly during the siege of northern Gaza. This approach aligns with Trump’s plan to “take over Gaza.”
Palestinians have a long history of being displaced by Israel, dating back to 1948 when at least 750,000 Palestinians were forcibly removed from their homes and villages by Zionist forces to make way for the illegal establishment of Israel in Palestinian territories.
‘Legitimization of starvation’
At the end of March, the so-called Israeli supreme court unanimously voted to dismiss a petition filed by several human rights organizations calling for the resumption of humanitarian aid delivery to Gaza.
The Euro-Mediterranean Human Rights Monitor, in a statement released on March 28, asserted that the ruling serves as “a crucial component of a well-functioning colonial system,” intentionally designed to perpetuate the crime of genocide against the people of Gaza and effectively legitimizing the illegal blockade of the Strip.
“The ruling made yesterday (Thursday 27 March) is further evidence that the Israeli judiciary—which has never served as a tool of justice for Palestinians—functions as a part of a system in which all state institutions participate, whether Israel’s [cabinet], army and other forces, military prosecution, courts, or media,” it said.
The statement further emphasized that all these institutions blatantly violate international legal and humanitarian norms by committing crimes against Palestinians, coordinating their activities in support of such crimes, and/or providing a false legal cover.
‘Fastest campaign of starvation’
Under the Rome Statute, a treaty that established the International Criminal Court, intentionally starving a population constitutes a war crime when committed during an armed conflict.
In March 2024, the International Court of Justice (ICJ), a principal judicial organ of the United Nations, ruled that Israel must ensure the delivery of essential aid, including food, water, fuel, and medical supplies, into Gaza.
Israel has persistently defied this legally binding order, falsely claiming that Hamas misappropriates aid without providing any substantial evidence.
As a result, 2.3 million people in Gaza, more than half of whom are children, have been deprived of essential aid, including food.
After months of prolonged deliberations, the International Criminal Court (ICC) issued an arrest warrant in November 2024 against Gallant and Netanyahu on charges that include the “war crime of starvation as a method of warfare.”
Since the early days of the genocidal war, international aid organizations have been raising alarms over the dire humanitarian consequences of the blockade—a crisis further compounded by the resumption of war in Gaza last month.
According to residents, medics, and humanitarian workers, Gaza has been plunged into new depths of despair due to the unparalleled Israeli military blockade, which is now entering its eighth week.
Michael Fakhri, the UN special rapporteur on the right to food, warned last month that Israel is conducting a rapid campaign of starvation in Gaza, referring to it as “the fastest in modern history.”
In a joint press briefing alongside other UN special rapporteurs in Geneva, Fakhri questioned, “How is Israel able to starve 2.3 million people so quickly and so completely?”
“This is the fastest starvation campaign in modern history,” Fakhri said.
WFP announced on March 31 that its aid supplies to Gaza have been completely exhausted. The closure of crossings has rendered resupply efforts impossible, leading to catastrophic outcomes, according to the WFP.
Current market prices for goods in Gaza have skyrocketed to 1,400% above the ceasefire levels, as per the latest assessment from the World Health Organization.
Philippe Lazzarini, the head of UNRWA, condemned Israel’s illegal “weaponization of humanitarian aid” last week, emphasizing the exacerbation of the already “hellish” situation in the Gaza Strip following the collapse of the ceasefire.
“When it comes to the distribution of humanitarian aid, there is no humanitarian aid to be distributed anymore, and the crossing has been sealed for now for a month, so the assistance within the Gaza Strip has been almost completely depleted,” he said.
In an update last Monday, OCHA stated that the humanitarian situation in Gaza is the worst it has been since the start of the war, amid Israel’s halting of essential supplies into the besieged territory.
“The humanitarian situation in Gaza is now likely the worst it has been in the 18 months since the outbreak of hostilities,” the UN agency said, referring to the Israeli genocidal crimes.
‘Deliberate assault on survival’
According to an urgent warning by the leaders of 12 major aid groups in Gaza, Israel’s total siege and bombardment of the Gaza Strip have left Palestinian children struggling to survive on less than one meal per day.
The joint statement, released on Thursday, highlighted that the humanitarian aid system in Gaza is on the verge of “total collapse” after 18 months of Israeli aggression and the imposition of a full blockade last month.
An estimated 95 percent of the 43 international and Palestinian aid groups have suspended or reduced their services in Gaza, as the “widespread and indiscriminate bombing makes it extremely dangerous to move around”, the statement added.
Bushra Khalidi, policy head of the aid group Oxfam, emphasized that “Kids are eating less than a meal a day and struggling to find their next meal.”
She further noted that “everyone is purely eating canned food,” and that “malnutrition and pockets of famine are definitely occurring in Gaza.”
Amande Bazerolle, emergency coordinator in Gaza for Doctors Without Borders, stated that aid workers have been forced to witness people, many of whom are women and children, suffer and perish while bearing “the impossible burden of providing relief with depleted supplies.”
“This is not a humanitarian failure – it is a political choice, and a deliberate assault on a people’s ability to survive, carried out with impunity,” she said.
‘Famine in Gaza becoming a reality’
Dr. Muneer Alboursh, Director-General of the Palestinian Health Ministry in Gaza, stated on Monday that the children of Gaza are not only dying from bombings but also from starvation and untreated illnesses.
Alboursh reported that 53 children have tragically lost their lives due to malnutrition in Gaza. He recounted a recent incident in Deir al-Balah, where a child succumbed to starvation due to the lack of therapeutic milk.
“A child died just yesterday in Deir al-Balah from starvation and pre-existing illness, after lacking therapeutic milk,” he said.
“Everyone is pale. Even blood donors are anemic.”
Alboursh warned of an impending societal collapse as mass malnutrition takes its toll, particularly affecting vulnerable groups such as pregnant women, children, and dialysis patients.
“This is a dangerous, urgent reality,” he noted.
In a statement released on Tuesday, the Hamas resistance movement strongly condemned the Gaza siege as an “unjustifiable international failure.”
“This situation is pushing the entire population to the brink of famine and spiraling health disaster, compounded by daily massacres against innocent civilians in neighborhoods, shelters, and tents, alongside the systematic destruction of hospitals and civilian facilities,” read the statement.
The Gaza-based movement underscored that the use of starvation as a weapon is “committed with premeditation by the criminal occupation leaders.”
The Geneva-based Euro-Med also cautioned on Friday that the “risk of famine in Gaza has become a reality rather than a mere threat.”
“This is a tactic of war: Destroy food systems. Bomb aid centers. Block relief. Starve the population. The most devastating effects are on women and children,” it said.
“This crisis is reaching a point of no return,” the rights group warned.
