By Euro-Med Human Rights Monitor
Geneva – EU states must urgently pressure Israel to halt the genocide in the Gaza Strip, including all its tools, most notably the starvation policy that has killed hundreds of civilians in recent weeks.
In a letter to the foreign ministers of 18 EU states, including France, Italy, Sweden, Hungary, and Austria, Euro-Med Monitor outlined the catastrophic humanitarian situation in the Gaza Strip, more than 22 months after Israel began its genocide in the enclave.
More than 60,000 Palestinians have been killed, including at least 18,500 children, with estimates suggesting the total number of direct and indirect victims exceeds 80,000. Over 145,000 have been injured, and approximately 11,000 remain missing.
Israel has destroyed the basic pillars of life in the Gaza Strip, including health, education, and livelihood systems. It has deliberately cut off food and water supplies as part of a systematic policy to inflict maximum suffering on the population, a fact publicly acknowledged by senior Israeli officials.
Starvation has been a central weapon in this campaign, with Israel deliberately blocking humanitarian aid, destroying farmland, warehouses, and bakeries, cutting off fuel for food production, and demolishing water infrastructure, driving the population toward widespread famine.
The tightening of the blockade since March 2025, combined with the prevention of essential supplies, has caused severe famine and malnutrition. At least 162 Palestinians, including 92 children, have died of starvation, and over 20,000 children have been hospitalised with severe malnutrition, while many mothers are left with only water to feed their infants.
Euro-Med Monitor further noted that the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation (GHF), backed by the United States and Israel, served merely as a cover for a policy of starvation. Its four aid distribution centres became killing zones, where 1,568 Palestinians were killed and about 5,000 injured while trying to access food between late May and early August.
Restrictions on aid access have left thousands of families, particularly those with disabilities or without a breadwinner, completely deprived of assistance, while the food distributed is nutritionally inadequate and lacks essential items such as baby formula.
Israeli claims of easing humanitarian restrictions have not altered the reality on the ground, as UN data shows that less than half of scheduled aid movements have been fully facilitated, while the blockade and the core policy of deprivation remain in place.
Regarding airdrops, including those by European countries, Euro-Med Monitor stated in the letter that they are insufficient, uncoordinated, and meet only a fraction of the needs. Some have even caused deaths and injuries, underscoring that the only viable solution is to restore UN-supervised humanitarian land corridors as the most effective and safe means of delivering aid.
Statements by Israeli officials since the start of the genocide, notably former Defence Minister Yoav Gallant’s declaration of “a complete siege on the Gaza Strip” and the denial of food and water, reflect a declared policy of starvation. This constitutes a war crime, a crime against humanity, and even genocide, as confirmed by the International Court of Justice in January 2024.
Relevant EU states must cease supporting, facilitating, or legitimising Israeli crimes, and work to impose economic, diplomatic, and military sanctions, including a total ban on arms exports and imports, suspension of military cooperation, freezing the assets of implicated Israeli officials, imposing travel bans on them, and suspending trade privileges and bilateral agreements that benefit the Israeli economy.
Euro-Med Monitor urges EU states to support the International Criminal Court’s prosecution of Israeli officials, open domestic investigations into European citizens implicated in crimes against Palestinians, help end the blockade and illegal Israeli presence in the occupied Palestinian territory and ensure the unconditional reconstruction of Gaza’s infrastructure and housing.
Halting the full-scale genocide unfolding in Gaza demands unwavering global solidarity and decisive action. Euro-Med Monitor calls on EU states to stand on the right side of history, support the Palestinian people’s right to liberation and self-determination, and bring “one of the darkest chapters in modern history” to an end.
Euro-Med Human Rights Monitor is a Geneva-based independent organization with regional offices across the MENA region and Europe
15 August 2025
Source: countercurrents.org