The humanitarian crisis in Gaza has reached unprecedented levels of severity, with Israel‘s ongoing blockade severely restricting the flow of essential goods and aid into the region.
As a result, a catastrophic famine has taken hold, causing widespread malnutrition, starvation, and disease among the civilian population.
The situation is particularly dire for vulnerable groups, including children and pregnant women, who are bearing the brunt of the crisis.
With thousands of lives hanging in the balance, the international community is growing increasingly concerned about the devastating consequences of the blockade and the urgent need for a humanitarian response.
The situation is dire, with vast quantities of relief supplies stranded in warehouses across Jordan and Egypt while Palestinians continue to starve.
The blockade has created extreme shortages, pushing Gaza’s already fragile population into severe hunger and dehydration.
Between March and mid-May, Israel fully sealed Gaza’s crossings, preventing food, water, and humanitarian aid from entering.
More than 100 aid organizations, including Oxfam, Doctors Without Borders (MSF), Amnesty International, and the Norwegian Refugee Council (NRC), have condemned Israel’s weaponization of aid, saying it is obstructing life-saving assistance from entering Gaza.
Amnesty International has 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.
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.
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.
Famine is the worst level of hunger, where people face severe food shortages, widespread malnutrition, and high levels of death due to starvation.
According to the Integrated Food Security Phase Classification (IPC), famine is when at least 20% of households face extreme food shortages, acute malnutrition affects more than 30% of the population, and the death rate exceeds 2 deaths per 10,000 people per day.
The situation in Gaza is a humanitarian crisis, and the international community must act to address the root causes of the famine and ensure that aid reaches those in need.
The consequences of Israel’s actions are devastating, and the world must take notice. As Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said, “Gaza’s fate will define the future of humanity and urges the world to act now.”