The horror of hunger in Palestine

Published at: 15/08/2025 02:30 PM

Palestine is going through the toughest phase of the Israeli genocide: they are being starved to death. If strong and sufficient humanitarian aid does not enter the Gaza Strip , unfortunately, we will see the greatest crime of mass death in human history.

For several weeks now, there has been a famine that has led the Palestinian people to severe malnutrition. Bodies are weakening due to more than a year and a half of deprivation, almost more than 2 months of starvation, surviving on the bare minimum of bread without any nutritional value. This was described last July 19 by the representatives of the Committee for Solidarity with Palestine and it was released by the Palestinian Organization Cry for Freedom. “Now, there's nothing left to buy or eat, there's literally nothing left, I have money, but I'm looking and I can 't find anything edible,” said a Gazan citizen.

Palestine has entered the fifth phase of famine, a deadly and irreparable phase: malnutrition, regardless of whether food is available again, cannot reverse the consequences of malnutrition.

Thousands of people in Gaza die of hunger daily, the hunger crisis has caused people to collapse in the street, reporters can't report, doctors don't have the strength to treat the wounded, it's a horror. Who's going to treat the injured? Who is going to rescue people after a bombing? What forces can they work with?

Israel is most responsible for the lack of food because its military controls much of Gaza, including its borders.

Now, what is famine and when does it come to be? Famine is the worst level of hunger, where people face severe food shortages, widespread malnutrition, and high levels of death from starvation.

According to United Nations (UN) criteria, famine is declared when:

• At least 20% (one-fifth) of households face extreme food shortages
• More than 30% of children suffer from acute malnutrition
• At least two out of 10,000 people or four out of 10,000 children die every day from hunger or from hunger-related causes.

Famine isn't just hunger; it's the worst humanitarian emergency that indicates a total collapse of access to food, water and systems necessary for survival .

According to the World Health Organization (WHO), since the total blockade of Israel began on March 2, at least 57 children have died from the effects of malnutrition. The effect of malnutrition on children varies, but the first 1,000 days of a child's life, including pregnancy up to two years of age, are critical to their healthy development. Malnutrition results in an imbalance between height and weight, stunted growth and, eventually, death.

At the beginning of July, at the Kamal Adwan Hospital in Beit Lahiya, in northern Gaza, Dr. Ahmed Abu Nasir said that the situation has worsened more than ever due to the blockade: “children are growing and are in urgent need of certain nutrients, such as proteins and fats”, the pediatrician told the news portal Al Jazeera. “These are not available in the Gaza Strip , especially in the north, pregnant and lactating women will also need treatment for malnutrition and 17,000 women are at risk,” he stressed.

Regarding the famine created by Israel in Palestine, the Israeli Prime Minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, stated at a Christian conference in Jerusalem, last Sunday, July 27, that “there is no policy of starvation or famine in Gaza, what happens is the responsibility of Hamas, which steals the humanitarian aid that we allow to pass through.”

“They want to present Israel as if we were carrying out a hunger campaign in Gaza, we received humanitarian aid during the war, and Gazans received it, and what is prohibiting the supply of that aid is a force: Hamas. Once again they hide the truth, Hamas steals this humanitarian aid and then accuses Israel of not providing it.”

From the heart of horror, journalists Plestia Alaqad and Rahma Zein denounce the genocide in Palestine with their own narrative, and detailed that “in the midst of the humanitarian crisis, Netanyahu maintains an unlikely and forceful version: THERE IS NO FAMINE. In a speech that could be described as self-confidence, he dismissed the accusation as a “ blatant lie” to any accusation about the existence of a campaign aimed at condemning the Gazan population to hunger.

The journalists add that Netanyahu stated that Israel does not apply any blockade with that intention, and that, in fact, it has allowed humanitarian aid to enter throughout the conflict, seeking to prevent the population from disappearing due to lack of food.

In the Israeli Prime Minister's speech, the allegations that speak of hunger and malnutrition are nothing more than a propaganda device by Hamas, which diverts humanitarian aid while unjustly blaming Israel.

However, the reality contradicts the official narrative. International organizations, humanitarian agencies and the Palestinian Ministry of Health register more than 2 million people living in extreme conditions of food insecurity. It is estimated that nearly 900,000 children suffer from hunger and suffer from irreversible malnutrition, which means that, even if they eventually feed again, organ damage caused by a lack of nutrients is already irreparable. Hundreds of daily deaths due to starvation that accumulate in a context marked by restrictions on access to basic foods.

The voice of the Palestinians suffering from this crisis clashes with the official Israeli version, revealing a profound contrast between political denial and the palpable suffering in the streets and homes that still remain in Gaza. And this reality gets cruder; because the longer a problem is denied, the further away is the solution to it.

It seems that the world can see and report a problem, but until Netanyahu sees it, such a problem does not exist. Someone must stop this genocide.

AMELYREN BASABE/Mazo News Team