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New testimonies provide compelling evidence that Israel’s starvation of Palestinians in Gaza is a deliberate policy

Israel is carrying out a deliberate campaign of starvation in the occupied Gaza Strip, systematically destroying the health, well-being and social fabric of Palestinian life, Amnesty International said today as it published chilling new testimonies of starved displaced civilians. Their accounts underscore the organization’s repeated findings that the deadly combination of hunger and disease is not an unfortunate byproduct of Israel’s military operations. 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.

“As Israeli authorities threaten to launch a full-scale ground invasion of Gaza City, the testimonies we have collected are far more than accounts of suffering, they are a searing indictment of an international system that has granted Israel a license to torment Palestinians with near-total impunity for decades,” said Erika Guevara Rosas, Senior Director for Research, Advocacy, Policy and Campaigns at Amnesty International. 

“To even begin reversing the devastating consequences of Israel’s inhumane policies and actions, which have made mass starvation a grim reality in Gaza, there must be an immediate, unconditional lifting of the blockade and a sustained ceasefire. The impact of Israel’s blockade and its ongoing genocide on civilians, particularly on children, people with disabilities, those with chronic illnesses, older people and pregnant and breastfeeding women is catastrophic and cannot be undone by simply increasing the number of aid trucks or restoring performative, ineffective and dangerous airdrops of aid. 

“Healthcare facilities must be equipped with the supplies and equipment they need to function. Civilians must be freed from the constant threat of mass displacement. Trusted humanitarian organizations must be allowed to deliver aid and shelter safely and without arbitrary restrictions, in a way that respects the dignity and humanity of the civilian population. Most urgently, any plan to entrench the occupation of Gaza or escalate the military offensive must be halted.

“While millions around the world continue to take to the streets in protest and world leaders engage in rhetorical posturing, Israel’s deliberate and systematic campaign of starvation continues to inflict unbearable suffering on an entire population. Palestinian children are being left to waste away, forcing families into an impossible choice: helplessly hearing the cries of their emaciated children pleading for food, or risking death or injury in a desperate search for aid.” 

Over the last few weeks, Amnesty International interviewed 19 Palestinians, who are now residing in three makeshift camps for internally displaced people (IDPs) , as well as two medical staff members treating malnourished children in two hospitals in Gaza City. 

As of 17 August, the Ministry of Health in Gaza recorded the deaths of 110 children from malnutrition-related complications.

In an alert published on 29 July 2025, the Integrated Food Security Phase Classification (IPC) stated that famine thresholds had been reached for food consumption in most of Gaza, concluding that the worst-case scenario for famine is already playing out and the number of people, including children, dying from starvation will continue to increase. This alarming reality was reflected in data collected by the Nutrition Cluster, according to which nearly 13,000 cases of acute malnutrition admissions for treatment among children were recorded in July, the highest monthly figure since October 2023. Of those, at least 2,800 (22%) were cases of severe acute malnutrition.

Israeli authorities have further exacerbated the inhumane conditions that their policies have created by continuing to obstruct the work of most major humanitarian organizations and UN agencies inside Gaza, including by repeatedly rejecting their requests to bring in lifesaving aid into Gaza. These arbitrary restrictions have been accompanied by the introduction of new rules on the registration of international NGOs, which, if implemented, will prohibit these organizations from operating in the Occupied Palestinian Territory (OPT) entirely. 

“Most families in Gaza are beyond breaking point. They have already exhausted whatever scant resources they had and are entirely dependent on humanitarian aid. The restrictions that the Israeli authorities impose on the work of major humanitarian organizations and their threats to ban them effectively cut off these families from their only lifeline,” said Erika Guevara Rosas.

“I feel like I failed as a mother”: The impact of starvation on pregnant women and breastfeeding mothers

The combined impact of Israel’s policies of mass starvation, multiple forced displacements and restrictions on access to life-saving aid has been particularly devastating for pregnant and breastfeeding women. Of the 747 pregnant and breastfeeding women that Save the Children screened in its clinics during the first half of July, 323 (43%) were malnourished. 

Pregnant and breastfeeding women interviewed by Amnesty International spoke about the extreme scarcity of items indispensable to their survival, the agonizing reality of being a pregnant or new mother while living in a tent in the extreme summer heat, and the desperate daily struggle to secure food, baby formula and clean water. They also shared feelings of guilt for failing to provide for their children, fears over who would care for their children if they were killed, and anxiety over the impact of malnutrition on the growth and wellbeing of their children. 

S, (full name withheld upon her request) a nurse displaced from Jabalia to al-Taqwa camp for IDPs in Sheikh Radwan, Gaza City, recounted the daily struggle she faces in caring for her two-year-old boy and seven-month-old girl. She fled to save her children’s lives; it was a choice between displacement and death. She said that hunger became palpable by late April, compelling her to save the meagre food portions for her children while she remained hungry. Her supply of breastmilk began to be severely reduced at the end of April, and with no access to breast pumps and extremely limited access to maternal supplements, she stressed the physical and emotional pain of trying for hours to breastfeed her infant but “milk would just not come out.” The family’s daily meal, when available, consists of one shared plate of lentils or eggplants with water, with S prioritizing her toddler. Her children fall asleep “weeping out of sheer hunger.” Infant formula, scarce across Gaza, costing around 270 shekels ($79) for a three-day supply, is unaffordable. Her seven-month-old daughter is the weight of a four-month-old. Even at this exorbitant price, families described shortages of infant formula at the market.

When the community kitchen in the camp, their sole source of food, stopped providing food for three straight days, S could only give her children water. Her husband was injured while seeking aid near the Zikim crossing, leading her to beg him not to go again. Her son, weakened by hunger, would “walk and fall.” “I feel like I failed as a mother; your children’s hunger makes you feel like you are a bad mother.”

The struggle for basic needs extends beyond food. Diapers are unattainable, forcing S to tear her clothes for makeshift ones, which are impossible to wash due to lack of clean water – the result of the destruction or severe damage of Gaza’s water and sanitation systems. The tent in which she lives with her husband and two children is infested with rats, mosquitoes and cockroaches. Her baby daughter developed a bacterial skin infection, which she is unable to treat because antibiotics and ointments are unavailable.

 Humanitarian workers at two organizations who spoke to Amnesty International on conditions of anonymity mentioned that their organizations’ requests to bring in antibiotics were rejected by the Coordinator of Government Activities in the Territories (COGAT), a unit at Israel’s Ministry of Defense tasked with processing requests for the coordination and approval of entry of supplies.

The mental harm of starvation, including trauma, guilt, and shame, are also shared by pregnant women interviewed by Amnesty International. Hadeel, 28, a four-months pregnant mother of two, described her fear for her fetus as she barely feels its movement or heartbeat inside her. She feels guilt for her pregnancy, knowing that she cannot feed herself: “I fear miscarriage, but I also think about my baby: I panic just thinking about the potential impact of my own hunger on the baby’s health, its weight, whether it will have [birth defects], and even if the baby is born healthy, what life awaits it, amidst displacement, bombs, tents…” 

She dreads giving birth under these conditions, recalling the comprehensive prenatal care, vitamins, and medical tests that United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA) provided during her previous pregnancies, which are now completely absent. Hadeel’s children constantly ask for food, a place to play, and school. Several other women interviewed by Amnesty International for this and previous investigations explained that they took the decision not to conceive, even though they had desperately wanted a child, as a result of the conditions of life and the bombardments in Gaza. 

Amnesty International’s interviews with displaced Palestinians across three IDP encampments in Gaza City revealed that the dire situation is uniform across the population. None of them had consumed any eggs, fish, meat, tomatoes, or cucumbers for at least a month; most had not had any such food for several months. This widespread scarcity of fresh and nutritious food is a result of both Israel’s suffocating blockade and its systematic destruction of food production sources, including large swathes of agricultural land, poultry and other livestock farms, during military operations, through shelling, bombardment or destruction by manually laid explosive. 

An assessment conducted by UNOSAT, the UN satellite center, and the UN Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO ) published on 31 July, found that 86% of Gaza’s permanent crop fields significantly declined in health and density, as a result of conflict-related activities, including razing, bombing, shelling and heavy machinery. 

In May 2025, Amnesty International documented the total razing of what had remained of Khuza’a, east of Khan Younis, which contains some of Gaza’s most fertile agricultural lands. Lack of access to cropped lands or their severe damage and destruction have meant that crop yield is scarce and vegetables, if available at all, are now sold at astronomical prices, leaving residents almost entirely dependent on the very limited supplies Israel allows in. OCHA noted on 13 August that prices of many goods continue to fluctuate based on speculations rather than actual availability. One kilogram of tomatoes cost nearly 80 shekels, (or $23) as of 14 August, a twentyfold increase compared to pre-7 October 2023 prices. Following the Israeli authorities’ approval of a mechanism for the limited entry of some commercial goods into Gaza, through vetted merchants, the prices of some goods, like sugar, dates, some canned food and flour, declined but remain nearly ten times more expensive than pre-7 October prices. 

Fishermen, too, are restricted to a small, dangerous area near the port, risking shelling or arrest when they go fishing.

“I have become a burden on my family”: Impact on older people

Abu Alaa, a 62-year-old displaced man from Jabalia refugee camp, shared his experience of receiving lentil soup from the community kitchen as his only meal for a whole day. He said that bread is distributed only one day a week, forcing the family to ration it and that he has not tasted anything sweet, even fruit, in months. “I can tolerate the hunger, but children cannot,” he said. 

Abu Alaa longs for UNRWA to resume aid distribution, which he trusts for its equitable and  fair system based on family size. He described the dangers of the current scramble for aid:  “In the past we used to support each other, especially those in need. Even during the beginning of this war, now people are just led by the individual instinct to survive.” 

Nahed, 66, told Amnesty International how the scramble for food near aid routes “has denied people their humanity”. He said: “I had to go there because I have nobody to look after me. I saw with my own eyes people carrying bags of flour stained with the blood of those who had just been shot; even people I knew were almost unrecognizable. The experience of hunger and war has changed Gaza completely; it has changed our values.”

Older people have also been among the hardest hit by displacement.

Aziza, 75, told Amnesty International of her wish to die:

“I feel like I have become a burden on my family. When we were displaced, they had to push me on a wheelchair. With toilet queues extremely long in the camp where we stay, I need adult diapers, which are extremely expensive. I need medication for diabetes, blood pressure and a heart condition, and have had to take medicine which has expired. I always feel like these young children, they are the ones who deserve to live, my grandchildren. I feel like I’m a burden on them, on my son.”

“Multi-layered intertwined destruction”: Deadly mixture of hunger and disease

An emergency doctor at al-Shifa Hospital in Gaza City painted a grim picture. Interviewed by Amnesty International on 24 July, he highlighted how people at greater risk– infants, children with pre-existing conditions, older persons, and those living with disabilities – are disproportionately affected by the combined effects of lack of food, medication, clean water and hygiene. These shortages are compounded by the constant state of fear and distress. 

The doctor stressed that many patients would be leading “reasonable lives” were it not for the “combination of starvation, destruction and depletion of the healthcare system, unsanitary conditions, and multiple displacements under inhumane conditions.” 

The lack of specific nutritious foods is causing easily preventable health complications. A teenage kidney transplant patient, for instance, suffered a relapse due to polluted water and inadequate food. Diabetics, who could manage their condition with strict diets, now face severe challenges due to unavailable nutrient-rich foods, including vegetables, fish, chicken and beans, and medical supply shortages. 

The doctor said that extreme mass starvation has overshadowed other health emergencies, particularly the alarming rise in infectious and waterborne diseases, meningitis, and Guillain-Barré Syndrome (GBS). He added that a severe shortage of antibiotics and the extreme load on his hospital, which is only partially functioning, have compounded what he described as an “invisible catastrophe,” explaining that the spread of disease, or people struggling with chronic conditions that they use to treat before, often go unseen because there is this “preoccupation with only the amount of food that enters, without looking at the full picture.” 

GBS is a rare and potentially life-threatening neurological disease in which the immune system starts attacking the peripheral nervous system. GBS is triggered by viral infections, such as those causing diarrhea. The syndrome can affect all senses, cause muscular weakness and impact breathing and heart rate, and may lead to paralysis. According to the Ministry of Health, 76 cases of GBS had been recorded as of 12 August 2025, all in July and August. Of these, GBS had resulted in the deaths of four Palestinians, including two children. 

Intravenous immunoglobulin (IVIG), the primary medication required to treat GBS, is currently unavailable in Gaza due to Israel’s blockade. If the disease progresses, including reaching the lung muscles, and causes respiratory weakness, patients will require intubation. For a decimated healthcare sector already overwhelmed by daily mass casualty events, the capacity to deal with this mixture of hunger and disease is extremely limited. 

The toll on both patients and healthcare workers is equally dire. Wounds are taking significantly longer to heal, forcing moderately injured individuals to endure prolonged hospital stays because their bodies are too weak due to the lack of adequate food. The al-Shifa emergency doctor described a “multi-layered intertwined destruction,” where a devastated hospital, like al-Shifa – once Gaza’s largest hospital, now barely functioning after [being attacked during] two major Israeli raids in November 2023 and March 2024 – is forced to contend with starvation, destroyed infrastructure, constant bombing, and the risk of further displacement into unhygienic tents. The doctor told Amnesty that this constant and pervasive state of crisis is exhausting medical staff. 

“An already catastrophic situation risks spiraling into even deeper horror if Israel implements its plan to launch a full-scale ground invasion of Gaza City. Such a military operation would deliver a devastating and irreversible blow to the two malnutrition stabilization centers operating in the city, and to decimated healthcare facilities,” said Erika Guevara-Rosas.

Following the Israeli cabinet’s approval of the plan to entrench Gaza’s occupation by launching an offensive on Gaza city, one IDP from Jabalia refugee camp said: “I’ve already been displaced on 14 occasions during this war; I don’t have the power to flee anymore; I don’t have the money to transport my two children with disabilities. My muscles ache, I’m too exhausted to walk, let alone carry my children. If they are going to attack the city, we will just sit here awaiting our death.

”As the occupying power, Israel is legally obligated to protect civilians and provide for the civilian population, including by facilitating the entry of supplies essential for their survival, the safe and dignified distribution of aid and unhindered access to food and medical supplies throughout Gaza. Starvation must never be used as a weapon of war, and UNRWA and other UN agencies, and humanitarian organizations must have safe and unfettered access across all of Gaza.

“The world cannot continue to pat Israel on the shoulder for trickling in aid and viewing these cosmetic measures as a sufficient response to its calculated destruction of the life of Palestinians in Gaza,” said Erika Guevara-Rosas. 

“In the face of the horrors Israel is inflicting on the Palestinian population in Gaza, the international community, particularly Israel’s allies, including the European Union and its members must uphold their moral and legal obligations to bring an end to Israel’s ongoing genocide. States must urgently suspend all arms transfers, adopt targeted sanctions and terminate any engagement with Israeli entities when this contributes to Israel’s genocide against Palestinians in Gaza.” 

Background:

This research builds on Amnesty International’s recent documentation of  the impact of specific Israeli policies and practices, including a total siege imposed for 78 days between  March and May and the replacement of the longstanding UN-led humanitarian aid system with an imposed deadly and degrading non-neutral aid mechanism, fronted by the US-Israeli backed “Gaza Humanitarian Foundation,” which has further deepened the suffering of Gaza’s civilian population. 

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