October 7 marks the completion of two years since the Gaza conflict began. Israel's relentless war on Gaza has since killed over 67,000 Palestinians. Experts and rights groups have slammed Israel for engineering famine in Gaza through a policy of starvation, turning food and water into weapons of war.
The UN formally declared famine in parts of Gaza in late August. A month later, a UN independent international inquiry commission concluded that Israel had committed genocide in Gaza.
Top humanitarian figures, including UN relief chief Tom Fletcher, have issued urgent appeals to end what they call Israel’s “systematic obstruction” of essentials and aid — a characterisation that Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s government refuses to acknowledge.
Ramy Abdu, chair of the Geneva-based Euro-Med Human Rights Monitor, said the policy left no doubt about Israel’s intent. “Gaza’s famine differs from others in that it is not caused by natural disasters or economic collapse,” he told Anadolu. “It is a policy of using food and water as weapons of war and tools of genocide.”
Ramy Abdu, chair of the Geneva-based Euro-Med Human Rights Monitor, said Gaza’s famine “is a policy of using food and water as weapons of war and tools of genocide,” adding that “starvation as a weapon against civilians is a war crime.”
Israel had devastated Gaza’s food security for a long time before October 2023, imposing a blockade in 2006 that controlled border crossings and, at times, even calculated daily calories.
On Oct 9, 2023, Israel declared a “complete siege,” cutting food, water, fuel, and electricity. Imports stopped overnight; fuel blocks shuttered bakeries, stalled pumps, and halted deliveries. Farmland destruction and fishing bans further eliminated food sources. Abdu called it turning “engineered fragility” into “a weapon of slow annihilation.”
Forced displacements have deepened hunger. An estimated 2 million Palestinians remain displaced, with children and pregnant women among the hardest hit as hunger combines with disease and lack of clean water.
By early 2024, donor suspensions crippled UNRWA; warehouses were bombed, convoys blocked, and looting reported. Israel blocked aid to northern Gaza and sealed Rafah in May. In May 2025, Israel, with US support, launched the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation (GHF).
The UN and major NGOs denounced it as militarising relief, and its “aid zones” were described as “death traps.” Since then, more than 1,760 Palestinians have been killed while trying to reach food, nearly 1,000 of them near GHF sites, according to the UN human rights office.
On August 22, the Integrated Food Security Phase Classification (IPC) formally declared famine in parts of Gaza.
According to the Gaza Health Ministry, at least 460 Palestinian deaths are linked to hunger and famine, including more than 150 children. One in every five children in Gaza City is malnourished.
In September, the UN Independent International Commission of Inquiry concluded that Israel has committed genocide in Gaza, finding four of five genocidal acts under the 1948 Genocide Convention.
The commission’s September 16 statement said Israel must end its policy of starvation, lift the siege, and ensure unimpeded large-scale aid access, including for UNRWA and OHCHR staff.
Abdu said the designation should trigger obligations under the Genocide Convention, but “in practice, little has been done.”
After 732 days, Israel has killed over 67,000 Palestinians, a conservative count that experts say is higher.
The enclave is largely in ruins, with over 28,000 women and girls and over 20,000 children killed, according to UN and Gaza Health Ministry figures. The war is the deadliest for journalists in modern history, with nearly 250 killed. Israel has killed at least 383 aid workers, according to the UN.
Hopeful peace talks are being held in Cairo, but Israel continues to strike and kill Palestinians in Gaza.