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Stop Weaponizing Food – 100 NGOs Tell Israel

CrossFireArabia
August 14, 2025

More than 100 aid organizations have accused Israel of weaponizing starvation by blocking life-saving aid from entering Gaza, leaving vast quantities of relief supplies stranded in warehouses while more Palestinians starve.

In a joint statement on Thursday, the groups, including Doctors Without Borders and Oxfam, said that aid trucks have massed on Gaza’s borders amid Israel’s blockade of the famine-stricken territory, and new rules are being used by Israel to deny the entry of food, medicine, water and temporary shelters.

“Despite claims by Israeli authorities that there is no limit on humanitarian aid entering Gaza, most major international NGOs [nongovernmental organisations] have been unable to deliver a single truck of life-saving supplies since 2 March,” the groups said.

“Instead of clearing the growing backlog of goods, Israeli authorities have rejected requests from dozens of NGOs to bring in life-saving goods, citing that these organisations are ‘not authorised to deliver aid’,” the groups added.

Relief organisations that have worked in Gaza for decades are now told by Israel that they are not “authorised” to deliver aid due to new “registration rules”, which include so-called “security” vetting.

Hospitals in Gaza are now without basic supplies as a result, and children, the elderly and those with disabilities are “dying from hunger and preventable”, the statement noted.

The more than 100 relief organisations have called for pressure to be exerted on Israel to end its “weaponisation of aid”, for Israel to end its “bureaucratic obstruction” and for unconditional delivery of life-saving humanitarian aid to Gaza according to the Quds News Network.

Bushra Khalidi, Oxfam policy lead, said her organisation has more than $2.5m worth of humanitarian aid supplies that “have been rejected from entering Gaza by Israel”.

MSF’s emergency coordinator in Gaza, Aitor Zabalgogeazkoa, said the restrictions on aid are part of Israel’s militarised distribution of relief supplies, spearheaded by the controversial US- and Israeli-backed Gaza Humanitarian Foundation (GHF).

“The militarised food distribution scheme has weaponised starvation and curated suffering. Distributions at GHF sites have resulted in extreme levels of violence and killings, primarily of young Palestinian men, but also of women and children, who have gone to the sites in the hope of receiving food,” Zabalgogeazkoa said.

At least 859 starving Palestinians have been killed by Israeli forces and American mercenaries while seeking food near or at GHF distribution sites since May.

Israel’s Diaspora Minister Amichai Chikli, who had a role in the new rules imposed on aid groups, told the AFP news agency that registration of humanitarian groups could be rejected if Israel deems that its activities deny the democratic character of Israel or ” promote delegitimisation campaigns”, such as the movement to boycott Israel over its war on Gaza.

The joint outcry comes as two out of three famine thresholds for food consumption have been breached across most of Gaza, with acute malnutrition levels in Gaza City confirming aid agencies’ repeated warnings, according to the Integrated Food Security Phase Classification (IPC).

“Mounting evidence shows that widespread starvation, malnutrition, and disease are driving a rise in hunger-related deaths,” the IPC assessment maintained.

“The worst-case scenario of Famine is currently playing out in the Gaza Strip.”

UNICEF has warned that Gaza faces a grave risk of famine, with one in three people going days without food.

Over 100 humanitarian organizations, including Amnesty International, Doctors Without Borders (MSF), and Oxfam, warned that “mass starvation” is spreading across Gaza, with their colleagues in the enclave wasting away from hunger.

The World Health Organization (WHO) said Gaza City has been the area “worst-hit” by malnutrition in the Gaza Strip, with nearly one in five children under five there now acutely malnourished.

The World Food Programme (WFP) has warned that thousands of Palestinians in Gaza are “on the verge of catastrophic hunger,” with one in three people in the enclave going days without food.

News

Gaza: A Starvation Nightmare

CrossFireArabia
July 23, 2025

UN humanitarian workers said that alarming reports of UN staff members in the Gaza Strip fainting from hunger and exhaustion over the past 48 hours have heightened fears for the lives of the population in the besieged enclave.

“Doctors, nurses, journalists, and humanitarian workers, including UNRWA staff, are suffering from hunger… fainting from hunger and exhaustion while carrying out their duties,” said Juliette Touma, Director of Communications and Public Information for the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees (UNRWA).

Speaking from Amman, Touma emphasized that the search for food has “become as deadly as the bombing.”

More than 1,000 Palestinians Killed

This development comes as the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights announced that more than 1,000 Palestinians have been killed by the Israeli army while trying to access food in Gaza since the so-called Gaza Humanitarian Facility began operating on 27 May.

“As of 21 July, we have recorded 1,054 people killed in Gaza while trying to access food; 766 of them near GHF sites, and 288 near UN and other humanitarian aid convoys,” said UNHCR spokesperson Thamin Al-Khaitan.

The US- and Israeli-backed organization began operating in the Strip on May 27, bypassing the UN and other established NGOs.

“Aid work is not for mercenaries”

“GHF’s so-called distribution scheme is a sadistic death trap, where snipers fire indiscriminately into crowds, as if they have been given a license to kill,” Ms. Touma said.

Quoting UNRWA Commissioner-General Philippe Lazzarini, Ms. Touma described the scheme as “a mass hunt for people with complete impunity.” She added: “This cannot be the new normal. Humanitarian assistance is not the work of mercenaries.”

The UNRWA spokesperson emphasized that the United Nations and its humanitarian partners have the expertise, experience, and resources available to provide safe, dignified, and large-scale assistance. “We have proven this time and again during the recent ceasefire,” she said.

Famine-like conditions
Living conditions in the Gaza Strip have reached a new low, with prices for basic goods increasing by nearly 4,000%. Gazans, who have lost their homes and been displaced multiple times, are left without income and are completely deprived of essentials.

Ms. Touma highlighted the testimony of a colleague on the ground who had to walk for hours to buy a bag of lentils and some flour, paying nearly $200 for it.

The World Food Programme has confirmed that a quarter of Gaza’s population is facing famine-like conditions, with nearly 100,000 women and children suffering from severe acute malnutrition and in need of urgent treatment.

Everyday staples such as diapers are scarce and expensive, costing around $3 each. Mothers have resorted to using plastic bags instead, while one father said he “had to cut up one of his last shirts to give his daughter sanitary pads,” Ms. Touma said.

Ms. Touma emphasized, “UNRWA has stockpiles of hygiene supplies, including baby and adult diapers, waiting outside the gates of Gaza.” She emphasized that the agency has 6,000 trucks loaded with food, medicine, and hygiene supplies waiting in Egypt and Jordan for entry into the Strip.

Urgent appeal for a ceasefire

She reiterated the UN’s calls for “an agreement that would achieve a ceasefire, release the hostages, and allow the regular flow of humanitarian supplies into Gaza under UN management, including UNRWA.”

For his part, World Health Organization spokesperson Tarik Jasarevic said that humanitarian operations in the Strip are being pushed into “an ever-shrinking space.” In a briefing to journalists in Geneva, he condemned three attacks on Monday on a building housing the organization’s staff in Deir al-Balah, central Gaza, as well as “the mistreatment of those present and the destruction of its main warehouse.”

“Staff and their families, including children, were exposed to grave danger and trauma after the airstrikes caused a fire and extensive damage,” said Mr. Jasarevic, adding that the Israeli military entered the building, “forcing women and children to evacuate on foot” toward the coastal area of Mawasi amidst intense fighting.

UN staff member detained…searched at gunpoint

A WHO spokesperson said that staff and their family members were “handcuffed, stripped, and subjected to immediate interrogation and searches at gunpoint.” Two staff members and two family members were also arrested. While three were later released, one WHO staff member remains in detention for unknown reasons.

Mr. Jasarevic called for the release of the detained staff member, emphasizing that “no one should be detained without charge or due process.”

Mr. Jasarevic added that the recent evacuation order for the area had affected many WHO buildings and weakened its field presence, “paralyzing efforts to maintain a collapsed health system and putting survival beyond the reach of more than two million people.”

According to health authorities in Gaza, approximately 1,500 health workers have been killed in the Strip since the war began in October 2023. Mr. Jasarevic said that approximately 94% of all health facilities have been damaged, and that half of Gaza’s hospitals are “completely non-functional.”

He emphasized that “the opportunity to prevent loss of life and reverse the massive damage to the health system is closing by the day.”

A Nightmare That Must End

UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Volker Türk described the nightmare facing the people of Gaza as worsening following the latest Israeli evacuation orders, followed by intensified attacks on southwest Deir al-Balah, which “added further misery to the suffering of starving Palestinians.”

He warned in a statement that the risk of unlawful killings and other serious violations of international humanitarian law is extremely high, “given the concentration of civilians in the area and the means and methods of warfare used by Israel to date.”

He continued: “Homes have already been destroyed, and thousands have been forced to flee the area once again. Their only option is to go to the ever-shrinking areas of Gaza, where hundreds of thousands are forced to congregate, making any attempt to deliver humanitarian aid difficult. Even these areas are not safe. I remind Israel that the permanent displacement of people living under its occupation would constitute an unlawful transfer, a war crime, and, under certain circumstances, may also constitute a crime against humanity.”

The High Commissioner said that Israel, as the occupying power, must ensure the provision of food, medicine, and other supplies to the population, and must immediately and unconditionally allow humanitarian aid to enter and be distributed to all those in need. He added: “Instead of launching round after round of new military attacks, the killing, destruction, and widespread violations of international law must stop immediately. More and more countries are joining the calls to extricate us from this nightmare.”

UN News

News

Israeli Army Fires on UN Aid Convoy

CrossFireArabia
July 21, 2025

The World Food Program (WFP) condemned the Israeli military for firing on a humanitarian convoy delivering food aid to northern Gaza on Sunday morning, calling the attack “completely unacceptable” and urging an immediate end to violence against civilians seeking life-saving assistance.

The 25-truck convoy had entered Gaza through the Zikim crossing carrying vital supplies when “the surrounding crowd came under fire from Israeli tanks, snipers and other gunfire,” the UN agency said in a statement.

“These people were simply trying to access food to feed themselves and their families on the brink of starvation,” it said, expressing deep sorrow over “the loss of countless lives” and many more suffering life-threatening injuries.

The WFP criticized the breach of prior assurances by Israeli authorities that humanitarian convoys would not face military engagement.

“There should never, ever, be armed groups near or on our aid convoys,” it stressed. “Shootings near humanitarian missions, convoys and food distributions must stop immediately.”

The agency warned that without safer conditions for aid operations, it may be forced to suspend deliveries across Gaza.

“WFP teams accompanying convoys should not have to risk their own lives in the effort to save others,” the statement said.

Highlighting Gaza’s deepening hunger crisis, the WFP said nearly one in three people are going days without food, with malnutrition surging among 90,000 women and children urgently needing treatment.

“We urgently call on the international community and all parties to advocate for, and facilitate, the delivery of life-saving food aid to starving populations inside Gaza — safely, securely, wherever families are, and without obstruction,” it added.

Analyses

Using Starvation as a Weapon of War

CrossFireArabia
May 14, 2025

By Professor Mutaz M. Qafisheh and Manal Radaydeh

The famine raging in Gaza is not a side effect of war. It is the outcome of a willful and publicly declared plan aimed at displacing and destroying Gazans by starving the entire population. This is not a natural disaster— it is the systematic denial of access to food in a tiny, resource-scarce strip of land. Starvation is being used as a weapon—to break people’s will, force surrender, collectively punish, and carry out ethnic cleansing.

Nearly two months after the ceasefire collapsed, Israeli forces tightened the blockade on Gaza, sealing border crossings and halting all entry of food, water, medicine, and fuel. According to the World Food Program (WFP), food stocks had already run out by April 2024, and conditions have worsened significantly since March. Even modest charity kitchens that once served over a million meals daily have now ceased operations. WFP reported that the prices of the few remaining food items have surged by over 1,400%.

Malnutrition and imminent death

This crisis is affecting everyone, but children are paying the heaviest price. UNICEF reported that over 60,000 children are suffering from severe malnutrition. As a result, thousands face imminent death. Most children survive on a single meal a day—or less. The lack of proper nutrition is damaging their bodies and minds in ways that may never be reversed. Satellite footage shows infants drinking water instead of milk. Many have withered to skeletons.

It is crucial to underline that this man-made hunger is not accidental. It is the explicit outcome of political decisions targeting civilians. Under international humanitarian law—particularly Article 23 of the Fourth Geneva Convention—all parties in a conflict must allow the free flow of humanitarian aid to civilians. The UN Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights has described this famine as “cruel collective punishment.”

On Nov. 21, 2024, the International Criminal Court issued arrest warrants for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and former Defense Minister Yoav Gallant, accusing them of war crimes, including the use of starvation as a method of warfare—characterized as a war crime. This came after a unanimous order by the International Court of Justice on March 28, 2024 in the genocide case brought by South Africa against Israel. The ICJ ordered Israel to take all necessary and effective measures without delay to ensure the unhindered, large-scale provision of urgently needed services and humanitarian aid—food, water, electricity, fuel, shelter, clothing, hygiene, sanitation, and medical care—to Palestinians throughout Gaza. Yet Israel continues to act as if it were above the law.

Today, Gaza’s food system is completely destroyed: bakeries bombed, farms bulldozed, fishing boats burned, livestock killed, warehouses flattened, shops emptied, and aid trucks blocked or turned away. OCHA warns that famine is either imminent or already unfolding. And yet, the siege continues—on top of systematic daily bloodshed.

Collapse of health care

The suffering is not only physical. As hunger spreads, so does the risk of disease, especially among children, the elderly, and the chronically ill. The health care system has collapsed. People with chronic diseases—cancer, diabetes, high blood pressure, heart and kidney failure—are dying. Euro-Med Human Rights Monitor recently documented the deaths of 14 elderly people due to malnutrition, among many others who perish in silence, with no one to record their plight.

The coming months and years will reveal the far-reaching consequences of the famine that struck Gaza in full view of world leaders—some of whom encouraged or were complicit in the starvation of 2 million innocent civilians. The world—particularly Europe and the Arab nations—can, if it chooses, put an end to these genocidal acts against children, the elderly, the sick, and the exhausted.

It is unimaginable. How is it possible that in the 21st century—an age of smartphones and social media—the international community watches a live-streamed famine unfold and does nothing? What has brought us to this moral and legal vacuum? If famine is tolerated this time, it will be normalized and replicated elsewhere. That would mean the erosion of values humanity has struggled for centuries to uphold.

It’s time for action, not just words. History will judge. History is here. And history is now.

Mutaz M. Qafisheh is Professor of International Law at Hebron University. Manal Radaydeh is a Researcher in International Diplomacy at Hebron University and this article was published in Anadolu.

Features

Is Israel Re-occupying The West Bank?

CrossFireArabia
February 26, 2025

Weeks of deadly Israeli military raids in the occupied West Bank have turned Palestinian communities into “battlefields” and left 40,000 people homeless, UN humanitarians warned on Wednesday.

The violence has seen exchanges of fire between Israeli troops and Palestinian militants – and the use of bulldozers in refugee camps for the first time in 20 years which have destroyed public services, including vital electricity and water networks.

Israel’s defence minister said on Sunday forces could remain in the camps for the “coming year”.

Philippe Lazzarini, head of the UN’s Palestine refugee agency, UNRWA, said that “fear, uncertainty, and grief once again prevail. Affected camps lie in ruins…Destruction of public infrastructure, bulldozing roads and access restrictions are common place.”

More than 50 people including children have been killed since Israeli military raids started five weeks ago, the UN agency said, warning that the West Bank “is becoming a battlefield” where ordinary Palestinians are the first and worst to suffer.

Lethal force

Meanwhile, UN aid coordinating office, OCHA, also condemned the “lethal, war-like tactics” being employed by the Israeli military against Palestinian communities in the occupied West Bank.

OCHA confirmed further civilian casualties and mass displacement after a two-day Israeli military raid in the northern town of Qabatiya in Jenin governorate that ended on Monday.

Palestinians were detained in the operation, OCHA noted, before reiterating deep concerns about the use of excessive force against civilians and the additional humanitarian needs among people left homeless.

Responding to needs

UN partners on the ground are doing their utmost to help people uprooted by the violence despite growing “physical and administrative” challenges, OCHA said.

According to the UN World Food Programme (WFP), it reached 190,000 people in January with cash assistance and has provided one-off cash assistance to more than 5,000 displaced people from the Jenin refugee camp.

Gaza cold kills six children

In neighbouring Gaza, UN and its humanitarian partners have continued to scale up food security and livelihood support, while six children reportedly died from the cold.

Needs remain enormous amid desperate humanitarian conditions caused by 15 months of constant Israeli bombardment sparked by Hamas-led terror attacks on Israel that left 1,200 dead and some 250 people captured as hostages.

Citing the Gazan health authorities, OCHA said that six children from the Gaza Strip have died in recent days because to the severe cold, bringing to 15 the total number of youngsters killed by the winter conditions.

Meanwhile, more than 800 trucks entered the Gaza Strip on Tuesday alone, OCHA said. Since the start of the ceasefire on 19 January, WFP has brought more than 30,000 tonnes of food into Gaza. More than 60 kitchens supported by the UN agency across the Strip have handed out nearly 10 million meals, including in North Gaza and Rafah in the south.

The biggest aid provider in Gaza, UNRWA, has reached nearly 1.3 million people with flour and reached about two million people with food parcels since the start of the ceasefire.

The UN Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) also reported that it has delivered animal feed to northern Gaza for the first time since the escalation of hostilities.

The aid delivery last week has helped 146 families with livestock in Gaza City alongside another 980 in Deir al Balah.

Between the start of the ceasefire and 21 February, FAO distributed more than 570 metric tonnes of animal feed across the Gaza Strip to some 2,300 families with livestock.

OCHA noted in addition that aid partners working in education have identified additional schools in Rafah, Khan Younis and Deir al Balah that were used as shelters for displaced people. “These schools will be assessed and repaired to prepare for their reopening,” it said.

UN News