Since 2 March 2025, Israeli forces have maintained a total closure of all of Gaza’s border crossings, prevented the entry of life-saving humanitarian aid, and have deliberately destroyed essential infrastructure necessary for survival. As a result, food insecurity, malnutrition, and famine have reached unprecedented levels. Live footage continues to show children and patients dying from hunger in real time, as families are unable to access basic food supplies. Simultaneously, Israeli forces continue to target civilians awaiting humanitarian aid at distribution points with shelling and live fire.

In the past 24 hours alone, Gaza hospitals have reported nine new deaths due to starvation and malnutrition, raising the total death toll from famine to 127, including 85 children. The ongoing crisis has also severely impacted 100,000 pregnant and lactating women, affecting 1,556 premature births, 3,120 miscarriages and intrauterine deaths, as well as 159,409 elderly persons and 18,000 wounded individuals who are vulnerable to complications. Over 28,677 cases of severe malnutrition have been documented, and 260,000 children under five are in urgent need of food. If infant formula is not delivered immediately, the world will witness the mass death of at least 100,000 children.

According to the World Food Programme (WFP), hunger in Gaza has reached catastrophic levels, with people dying due to the lack of humanitarian assistance. Malnutrition is escalating, affecting 90,000 women and children in desperate need of treatment. One in every three people in Gaza goes days without eating.

In parallel with its ban on food, Israel continues to prevent the entry of medical supplies, exacerbating the famine crisis and impeding treatment for malnourished children. According to the Palestinian Ministry of Health, children in Gaza are experiencing extreme levels of malnutrition, yet medical assistance is nearly impossible to attain due to shortages of therapeutic drugs and infant formula. Similarly, the lack of adequate nutrition and medication for pregnant women is critically impacting newborns, especially premature infants.

As the starvation campaign deepens, civilians are forced to gather at what are now known as Israeli-American "distribution points." They are promoted as humanitarian access routes but effectively function as engineered death traps. These sites are repeatedly the scene of mass killings, revealing a deliberate strategy by Israel to use hunger as a tool of control and humiliation. According to the Palestinian Ministry of Health, the death toll from attacks at food distribution points has reached 1,092 people, with over others 7,320 injured.

Commenting on the deteriorating humanitarian conditions, Stéphane Dujarric, Spokesperson for the UN Secretary-General, stated:

“The Secretary-General is appalled by the rapidly worsening humanitarian situation in Gaza, where the last lifelines of survival are collapsing. He expresses deep concern over the growing reports of children and adults suffering from malnutrition, and the continuing violence, including the shooting of people seeking food for their families.”

The UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) reports that a staggering 96% of households in northern Gaza, 81% in Gaza City, 68% in Deir al-Balah, and 82% in Khan Younis are struggling to obtain food. Over 95% of households suffer from extreme financial hardship, and two-thirds of families cannot afford basic necessities, with prices soaring by 700% since the February 2025 closure, and by 1,208% compared to pre-crisis levels in September 2023.

Israeli forces have turned to airdropping as an alternative mechanism, a publicity stunt to falsely portray that aid is being allowed into Gaza. However, this tactic has proven entirely ineffective in meeting the immense humanitarian needs of Gaza’s population, which requires the entry of hundreds of aid trucks daily to ensure basic survival. The airdrops not only fall short of alleviating the crisis, they also violate human dignity, further entrenching the policy of engineered starvation and chaos. For instance, multiple falling parcels and overcrowding have led to civilian deaths, adding to the ongoing suffering of Palestinians in Gaza, rather than reducing it.

(Z.A.), a father of three, recounts:

“We are truly starving to death. There is nothing left to eat. My family and I have survived the past three days on a small amount of lentil soup. I’ve been to the so-called Israeli-American distribution points four times and returned each time without aid, only hearing gunfire and seeing people fall. I cannot afford flour even if it's available in the market; the prices are astronomical due to the scarcity. Like all the hungry, I keep hearing about these airdrops of aid, but in reality, we see nothing. My children now fall asleep groaning from hunger. My wife and I no longer have the strength to cope, how then can our children? Our bodies are weak. I’m constantly dizzy. My wife and I drink water with salt just to keep going. But what frightens me most is what’s happening to my children. I don’t know what else to do”

UNRWA Commissioner-General Philippe Lazzarini stated:

“The people in Gaza are neither alive nor dead. With rising child malnutrition, failing coping mechanisms, and no access to food or care, famine is silently emerging. Most children seen by our teams are emaciated and weak, at risk of dying without urgent treatment. Our frontline health workers survive on a single small meal per day, often just lentils, if anything at all.”

Al Mezan strongly condemns the ongoing acts of mass killing carried out by Israel, including their policy of starvation, dehydration, and their medical and fuel blockade of Gaza. These practices form part of a wider systematic campaign of killing, starvation, siege, displacement, and destruction aimed at exterminating Gaza’s civilian population. What is happening in Gaza constitutes an ongoing genocide, unfolding under disgraceful international silence and complicity.

We stress that time is running out, and the delay in international intervention implies a tacit acceptance of mass death that is now measured in hours, not days. Immediate and urgent international intervention is required to halt Israeli attacks, lift the siege, and ensure the unrestricted flow of humanitarian aid.

Al Mezan reiterates its call to the international community to fulfil its legal obligations under the Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide, to compel Israel to cease its genocidal policies, enforce an immediate ceasefire, end the use of collective punishment and starvation as a weapon of war, and ensure the protection of civilians. This includes lifting the blockade, enabling full access to humanitarian aid through all crossings, rejecting performative airdrop solutions, and the enforcement of arrest warrants issued by the International Criminal Court against Netanyahu and Gallant, in connection with the crime of starvation and its use as a method of extermination against the civilian population.