On Thursday, the United Nations World Food Programme announced food stocks are running extremely low–there is only less than a week of flour left to keep bakeries running in Gaza amidst Israel’s monthlong blockade. Multiple aid groups have warned that the death toll from starvation and malnutrition will escalate in Gaza due to Israel’s reimposed blockade after a two-month-long ceasefire had allowed relief and aid into the territory. Israel’s large-scale bombardment of the territory has renewed in recent weeks, following the end of Phase One of the ceasefire deal.
Israel implemented the total blockade on March 2, during the declared truce, stating that the entry of all goods and supplies would be cut off from entering the Gaza Strip. It claimed that Hamas has refused to accept a framework for continued talks proposed by US special envoy Steve Witkoff, stating, “Israel will not allow a ceasefire without a release of our hostages. If Hamas persists in its refusal, there will be additional consequences.” Hamas said that cutting off aid was “cheap extortion, a war crime and a blatant attack”, and that Israel’s blockade was meant to force a changed ceasefire deal. Yair Golan, the leader of the Democratic Party in Israel, pointed out that avoiding negotiations for a second phase and eventual long-term ceasefire is politically advantageous for Prime Minister Netanyahu’s right-wing government. “Those who want to release the hostages need to understand a simple thing – we need to reach a long-term ceasefire and withdraw from most of Gaza. Netanyahu is constantly looking for ways to keep all Israeli citizens under extraordinary pressure and in a state of emergency, as it serves his political needs.” Golan told Israeli media outlet Maariv. Despite repeated warnings from humanitarian organizations that the ceasefire must be held in order to properly provide relief, Gaza’s population again faces mass starvation and famine with no means of receiving aid. Fayza Nassar, a woman living in the heavily destroyed urban Jabalia refugee camp, told The Associated Press, “There will be famine and chaos. Closing the crossings is a heinous crime.”
On March 18, Israel resumed its bombardment of the Gaza Strip after ending the ceasefire. 700 people, hundreds of whom were children, were killed over the course of seven days of nonstop attacks. According to the Health Ministry in Gaza, over 50,000 Palestinians, mostly civilians and 17,000 children, have been killed in Israel’s offensive in Gaza since October 2023. Sam Rose, Acting Director of Affairs in Gaza for UNRWA, warned that not resuming the ceasefire will lead to “large-scale loss of life, damage to infrastructure property, increased risk of infectious disease and massive trauma for the one million children and for the two million civilians who live in Gaza. And it’s worse this time because people are already exhausted.” Since the offensive began, 90% of the population have been forcibly displaced and 90% of all homes have been damaged or destroyed. In the renewed bombing campaign and increasing ground operations across the entire Gaza Strip, hundreds of thousands have been displaced again, and humanitarian organizations are unable to provide necessary aid. “Given the total ongoing siege in Gaza, we’re seeing the shelter response approaching a complete standstill because we have almost nothing left to distribute despite still seeing these massive force transfers happening every day, sometimes multiple times a day,” said Gavin Kelleher, a humanitarian working with the Norwegian Refugee Council in an online briefing with aid groups in Gaza.
The United Nations World Food Programme, which is the primary provider of food aid in Gaza, has stated that it has tens of thousands of tons of food supplies that are ready to enter Gaza if the border crossings reopen. However, the food agency only has two weeks left of supplies to maintain its operations, already having to reduce food rations. Several bakeries have shut down due to shortages of cooking gas, and the World Food Programme said that its flour supplies can only maintain bread production for 800,000 people for five more days in the existing operational bakeries. Mr. Rose warned on March 21 that due to the blockade, about 50% of Gaza residents in March will go without rations, “so we will only reach one million people rather than two million” he said.
Israel’s use of blockades and isolation in the Gaza Strip began in the early 1990s, imposing restrictions on the transport and entry of people and goods in both Gaza and the West Bank. Israel officially ‘disengaged’ from the Gaza Strip in 2005, however, it continues to control entry and exit into the territory through land, air, and sea. Since the victory of the Hamas movement in the 2006 Palestinian Legislative Council elections, Israel declared the territory a “closed area” and imposed heavy limitations on the movement of people and goods, deepening the isolation of Gaza from the West Bank and the rest of the world and leading to the territory being described as an open-air prison. In 2023, the Euro-Med Human Rights Monitor released a report on the impacts of the draconian policies of the seventeen years of the blockade, with the population experiencing regular blackouts, fuel shortages, lack of essential medicine and sanitation, and food insecurity. The Euro-Med Monitor reports that the poverty rate has risen from 40% to 61.6% since the beginning of the blockade in 2006 and 80% of the population depended on aid at the beginning of 2023. Israel’s previous military operations in the Gaza Strip since 2006, such as Operation Guardian of the Walls in 2021, have involved the deliberate targeting of infrastructure such as water wells, public facilities, and economic capacities. The Euro-Med Monitor described the “suffocating” blockade as “an unprecedented form of collective punishment in a stark violation of international humanitarian law”.
A key part of Israel’s war on Gaza since October 7, 2023 has involved the devastation of civilian infrastructure and total isolation of the territory. On October 9, 2023, when calling for a “complete siege” on Gaza, then-Defense Minister Yoav Gallant stated that no fuel, food, or water would enter the territory, saying, “We are fighting against human animals and we must act accordingly”. Other Israeli officials echoed this deeply dehumanizing rhetoric and called for the total destruction and siege of Gaza. Israel is obligated under international humanitarian law as an occupying power to ensure that the needs of civilians are provided for. The campaign has seen the near total destruction of the Gaza Strip; essential services were almost entirely blocked from entering the territory, and hospitals, schools, and civilian infrastructure were destroyed. In December 2023, South Africa brought a case against Israel in the International Court of Justice, alleging that Israel was violating the Genocide Convention of 1948. In January 2024, the International Court of Justice determined that “many Palestinians in the Gaza Strip have no access to the most basic foodstuffs, potable water, electricity, essential medicines or heating.”, and issued provisional measures to be implemented in order to provide humanitarian services and assistance, measures which Israel has since violated. In a December 2024 report “Extermination and Acts of Genocide: Israel Deliberately Depriving Palestinians in Gaza of Water”, Human Rights Watch concluded that Israel was committing genocide in the Gaza Strip through Israel’s deliberate destruction of infrastructure and use of deprivation in the siege designed to bring about the destruction of part of the civilian population of Gaza. Amnesty International released a report in December 2024 declaring that Israel was committing genocide in Gaza, with specific condemnation of the use of starvation as a weapon of war. A news report released by the World Health Organization in March 2024 regarding the consequences of starvation and famine in Gaza pointed out the vulnerability of children to malnutrition and the long-term health impacts of poor nutrition and sanitation. The use of deprivation and denial of essential aid in Gaza has put at risk the development, growth, and health of an entire future generation.
Israel’s ongoing siege on Gaza has been supported by its allies internationally, including the United Kingdom and the United States. The U.S. has a long history of providing extensive military aid to Israel; according to the Council on Foreign Relations, Israel is the largest cumulative recipient of U.S. foreign aid since its founding, the majority of which is defense and military aid. In October 2024, Linda J. Bilmes, William D. Hartung, and Stephen Semler, from the Costs of War Project at Brown University reported that Israel received $17.9 billion in military aid from the United States since the beginning of the war on Gaza. Despite Israel’s failure to observe international humanitarian law and human rights violations in its war on Gaza, the United States has continued to sell arms and provide aid to Israel. The United States has also been unwavering in its support of Israel on the international stage, vetoing both an ‘immediate humanitarian ceasefire’ in December 2023 and a resolution demanding an immediate and unconditional ceasefire in Gaza in November 2024 by the UN Security Council, of which the United States is a permanent member. Whilst the Biden administration criticized aspects of Israel’s offensive in Gaza, it continued to provide military aid, thus allowing Israel to continue to operate with impunity. The current administration has continued to silence criticism of Israel voiced by pro-Palestinian academics and students within the United States. Columbia University, the location of campus protests in the spring of 2024, has caved to the Trump administration’s demands to stymie pro-Palestinian activity on campus, including through the restructuring of the Departments of Middle Eastern, South Asian and African studies. A number of student activists across the United States have been detained by federal immigration authorities for their involvement in pro-Palestinian protests, including Mahmoud Khalil, a permanent US resident who played a prominent role in last year’s demonstrations at Columbia University.
Throughout its war on Gaza, Israel has maintained as a cornerstone of its strategy, the intentional deprivation of food, water, and essential resources, a continuation and deepening of its historic operations within the territory. Despite repeated warnings and condemnations from human rights organizations and the United Nations, as well as its clear obligations under international humanitarian law, Israel has perpetuated an offensive that is directly in violation of these obligations in Gaza. In November 2024, the International Criminal Court issued warrants for the arrest of Yoav Gallant and Netanyahu for war crimes, specifically for the use of starvation as a method of warfare, and for crimes against humanity dating back to October 8, 2023. Netanyahu continues to avoid negotiations for a ceasefire and for comprehensive peacebuilding as suits his political needs and has maintained the use of starvation tactics in the Gaza Strip. To ensure an end to the ongoing war, states and institutions with influence must begin by defunding the offensive on Gaza by completely cutting off military aid, as well as implementing targeted sanctions and reviewing bilateral trade agreements. However, this solution remains unlikely as countries such as the United States, the United Kingdom, and Germany have been unwavering in their extensive diplomatic and military support for Israel, sheltering the occupying power from accountability and funding its offensive despite their own international legal obligations to not provide military aid or sell weapons to states committing human rights violations. Mild criticism from allies whilst still unconditionally providing support does nothing to bring about fair, comprehensive peacebuilding. Allies of Israel have been totally complicit in these violations and have provided a blank check for Israel’s war crimes and genocide of Palestinians in Gaza. Meanwhile, the people of Gaza are entering the 18th month of the offensive, facing a rapidly rising number of civilian casualties, many of whom are children, in a devastating, endless bombardment of their homeland without access to food, water, or essential resources. The consequences of enabling Israel’s unabating genocidal campaign and systematic destruction of the livelihoods, education, health and safety of the entirety of Gaza will be felt for generations to come.
