By Refaat Ibrahim
Israel is not starving Gaza by accident; it is by design. The siege, destruction of farmland, and obstruction of aid point to a calculated policy to deprive more than two million people of food.
Quds News Network has gathered first-hand testimonies proving that Gaza’s famine is no accident. It is not a natural disaster. It is a man-made weapon.
Israel has built it step by step, blocking food, destroying farms, choking cash, and turning survival into a crime.
This is what academics call engineered famine: a deliberate policy to starve a population into submission. Alex de Waal defines such acts as “starvation crimes”; policies that create mass hunger through sieges, destruction of livelihoods, and aid obstruction. Amartya Sen’s landmark Poverty and Famines shows that famine often happens not when food is gone, but when people are stripped of the legal and economic means to access it.
Political scientists, including Hendrix and Haggard, see famine as a tool of control used to punish or break entire populations. In Gaza, every element of that playbook is in motion.
Here is Israel’s step-by-step blueprint for creating famine in Gaza.
1. Blocking Access to Food and Aid
Thousands of aid trucks wait at the border, but Israel decides which move and which rot. UN officials say only 14% of needed aid gets in.
Drivers, who spoke on condition of anonymity, told QNN they are ordered to stop at exposed intersections like Morag and unload under Israeli military watch. They are being ordered not to reach UN warehouses.
“We are told to stop at intersections. If we don’t unload there, the truck gets bombed,” a driver told QNN.
Another driver said:
“If a truck passes beyond the designated zone with aid still inside, it will be bombed.”
These drop points are “red zones” where Israeli snipers fire on civilians. Safe delivery to UNRWA warehouses is blocked. Anyone trying to secure supplies risks being killed.
The WFP declined to comment on the testimonies.
Israel forces aid truck drivers to stop at specific locations, where the cargo is then looted, either by Israeli-linked armed groups or starved civilians.
2. Engineering Chaos
In these unsafe zones, armed Israeli-linked gangs and collaborators loot the aid and sell it at black market rates. A kilo of flour now costs 100 shekels (about $30), up from $2 before the war.
Israel allows some trucks in, but often only those linked to Israeli-affiliated companies. Meanwhile, UN warehouses are blocked, and some NGOs act selectively, delivering aid to specific groups while others starve.
A Gaza business owner told QNN an Israeli trader, claiming to speak for the army, offered 10 trucks of goods, including two with US aid:
“The two ‘aid’ trucks would be used as bait for crowds. The other eight had to be guarded by armed men, sold at high prices, and paid for only after sale. The occupation would take the money when the goos are sold, then I would get my share.”
The owner refused. Others agreed, fueling runaway prices and draining millions in cash.
Dr. Zaher al-Wahidi of Gaza’s Health Ministry told QNN:
“Aid that enters is stolen under the cover of the Israeli army. 95% of citizens cannot afford goods; only a tiny few can.”
3. Destroying Agricultural Infrastructure
The Palestinian Ministry of Agriculture says Israel has:
- Destroyed 90% of farmland (167,000 dunams)
- Wiped out 459,000 tons of produce worth $325 million
- Killed 36 million chickens and destroyed 2,500 poultry farms
- Demolished 33% of greenhouses and 46% of wells
Large swathes of farmland have been converted into Israeli-controlled buffer zones. This obliteration of agriculture erases any possibility of local food production, forcing total dependence on aid, or starvation.
4. Trapping People and Strangling Cash
Crossings are shut, checkpoints trap civilians, and drivers cannot reach warehouses. Hunger lines are drawn by military barriers.
Cash is also strangled. Since October 2023, no currency has been allowed in. Banks are destroyed. People must pay up to 50% of their own money’s value to access cash from traders.
A handful of traders, tied to Israel, import non-essential goods at massive markups, draining scarce liquidity while food remains unaffordable.
5. Weaponizing Bureaucracy
Israel allows only a narrow list of goods (sugar, flour, processed cheese). No meat, eggs, vegetables, milk. The diet keeps people barely alive but malnourished.
Dr. Munir al-Bursh, Gaza’s Health Ministry head, said:
“Instead of infant formula, the occupation sends chips and biscuits. They are engineering famine while fooling the world.”
This policy ensures only minimal survival, calories to keep people alive but not healthy.
6. Criminalizing Survival
Fishing and gardening are restricted. Last month, Israel banned fishermen from the sea entirely, cutting off the last independent food source.
Gunboats have fired on fishing boats, arrested crews, and seized their catch.
Meanwhile, the Israeli army continues to target starved aid seekers at US-Israeli aid distribution centers, which are being called “death traps”. Israel has killed over 1800 starved aid seekers at aid centers.
7. Controlling the Narrative
Israel tells the world there is no famine. Last week, Prime Minister Netanyahu called photos of starving children “lies” and blamed the UN for “rotting” aid.
He claimed that “tons of tons of aid” is “rotting on the Gazan side of the border because the UN was, and still is, unwilling to deliver all of it.”
A few hours after that press conference, Israel killed five Al Jazeera journalists who had documented hunger. Foreign reporters are barred from entering Gaza.
Academic Lens on Gaza’s Famine
- Sen’s Entitlement Theory: Food may exist, but most Gazans can’t afford it. Prices soar, cash vanishes, access collapses.
- De Waal’s Starvation Crimes: Gaza meets all key motives: punishment, control, displacement, weakening.
Under international law, starving civilians is a war crime. The ICC has already issued arrest warrants for Israeli officials over deliberate famine tactics.
Refaat Ibrahim is a journalist from Gaza
16 August 2025
Source: countercurrents.org