The Euro-Mediterranean Human Rights Monitor has warned of the resurgence of the specter of famine in the Gaza Strip, stressing that Israeli authorities continue to employ starvation as a systematic weapon and a tool to carry out the crime of genocide against more than two million Palestinians besieged and deprived of the most basic elements for survival. These warnings come in the shadow of the persistent and suffocating blockade and the planned destruction of the remnants of food and agricultural production sources, as the Monitor's field teams have documented a severe and unprecedented scarcity of vegetables, fruits, and basic commodities, accompanied by record price hikes that completely exceed the purchasing power of a population exhausted after long months of aggression.
The extreme fuel crisis and the depletion of flour supplies have had a catastrophic impact on the food production system, leading to the paralysis of several bakeries, including two central bakeries, depriving thousands of families of receiving their daily bread. Another seven remaining bakeries, operating with the support of the World Food Programme, face the risk of completely halting their operations within forty-two hours due to the ongoing Israeli ban on the entry of flour trucks, plunging residents into a state of growing collective panic since October 20, pushing families to reduce their rations and resort to harsh austerity measures in the face of the impossibility of obtaining infant formula and nutritional supplements for infants.
On the ground and at the border crossings, Israeli authorities disrupted the coordination movement for the entry of commercial goods for several consecutive days, maintaining the flow of very scarce and limited quantities through passages that are also periodically closed on Fridays and Saturdays. The goods currently permitted to enter do not exceed thirty-seven percent of the actual humanitarian needs of the population in the Strip, amidst a deliberate policy of restrictions that allows the passage of secondary goods while preventing access to basic and vital food, leaving vulnerable groups, such as the elderly and diabetes patients, facing a complex health reality. Field testimonies documented the inability of these patients to obtain food consistent with their medical conditions, with many of them forced to make do with a single, meager meal a day.
These field measures coincide with a drastic decline in the international response, following the World Food Programme's announcement to suspend its assistance to some five hundred thousand people inside the Strip due to funding shortfalls, which has deepened the food gap and driven food security indicators to unprecedented levels. Data from the Integrated Food Security Phase Classification confirms that one million four hundred thousand people in Gaza suffer from severe food insecurity. According to documentation from the Ministry of Health in the Strip, malnutrition and starvation policies have caused the death of four hundred and sixty-six Palestinians since the beginning of 2024, including one hundred and fifty-seven children who lost their lives due to dehydration, lack of adequate food, and medical care.
The occupation's persistence in subjecting the population to lethal living conditions and deliberately depriving them of food and medicine constitutes an explicit element of the crime of genocide and a flagrant violation of the provisional measures issued by the International Court of Justice. In view of this rapid deterioration toward widespread famine, the international community is called upon to act immediately to compel Israel to halt the genocide, lift the blockade, and open all land crossings for the flow of commercial and humanitarian supplies, as well as to impose international sanctions and a total arms export embargo on this country, in addition to urging donor countries to cover the financial deficit of UN agencies and reverse cuts in food support directed at more than five hundred thousand beneficiaries, and to document all violations related to the interception of aid convoys to hold the perpetrators accountable.
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