More and more people in Gaza are dying from a man-made famine caused by Israel’s blockade on essential food supplies.
Starvation deaths are climbing daily in Gaza, as Israel’s 22-month blockade and relentless attacks drive a man-made famine into homes and tents.
As of August 17, the known number of people who have starved to death in Gaza, according to the Palestinian Health Ministry there, reached at least 263 people, including 112 children.
Why is there not enough food in Gaza?
Between March and mid-May, Israel fully sealed Gaza’s crossings, preventing food, water, and humanitarian aid from entering. The blockade created extreme shortages, pushing Gaza’s already fragile population into severe hunger and dehydration.
On August 14, more than 100 aid organisations, including prominent groups such as Oxfam, Doctors Without Borders (MSF), Amnesty International, and the Norwegian Refugee Council (NRC), condemned Israel’s weaponisation of aid, saying it was obstructing life-saving assistance from entering Gaza.
Vast quantities of relief supplies are stranded in warehouses across Jordan and Egypt while Palestinians continue to starve.
On Monday, rights group Amnesty International accused Israel of enacting a “deliberate policy” of starvation in Gaza and of “systematically destroying the health, wellbeing and social fabric of Palestinian life”.
“It is the intended outcome of plans and policies that Israel has designed and implemented, over the past 22 months, to deliberately inflict on Palestinians in Gaza conditions of life calculated to bring about their physical destruction – which is part and parcel of Israel’s ongoing genocide against Palestinians in Gaza,” Amnesty said.
Gaza has always been dependent on aid, given an Israeli blockade that has been imposed since 2007.
Before October 7, 2023, about 500 aid trucks entered daily, nearly 15,000 a month. Since then, deliveries have fluctuated drastically, rarely reaching pre-war levels needed to sustain the territory’s 2.3 million residents.
When does malnutrition become deadly?
The human body relies on glucose from food to survive. When food is scarce, it first burns fat to keep the heart beating, but prolonged hunger eventually causes organ failure, which can lead to death.
Prolonged malnutrition also causes brain fog and difficulty thinking or speaking, affecting daily functioning.
Children are most at risk because starvation quickly damages their growing bodies and organs.
The first 1,000 days of a child’s life, which include during pregnancy up to two years of age, are critical for a child’s development.
Malnutrition, especially during this time, can have devastating long-lasting effects that hinder cognitive development, physical development and, in some cases where nutrition treatments and therapies are not administered, can prove fatal.
In Gaza, where food shortages have been severe for months, more and more images are emerging of children in the “red” zone on MUAC tapes, which measure the circumference of the upper arm to assess malnutrition.
A measurement below 11.5 cm signals severe acute malnutrition. These children require emergency treatment, and without it, they face a high risk of death.
Other than the visible signs of extreme thinness, children suffering from severe malnutrition may show physical traits such as sunken, pale eyes, flaky skin, loss of hair, and a swollen belly caused by oedema – fluid buildup in the body due to severe protein deficiency.
How is famine measured?
Famine is the worst level of hunger, where people face severe food shortages, widespread malnutrition and high levels of death due to starvation.
Assessing the situation in Gaza is difficult because access to the ground is severely restricted, and Israel has destroyed nearly all the health facilities. According to the Integrated Food Security Phase Classification (IPC), famine is when:
- At least 20 percent of households face extreme food shortages.
- Acute malnutrition affects more than 30 percent of the population.
- Death rate exceeds 2 deaths per 10,000 people per day.
