Starvation is silently killing Gaza. What should be a basic human right – access to food – is being denied, and the consequences are heartbreaking. According to the Palestinian Health Ministry, as of August 17, at least 263 people, including 112 children, have died from starvation.

This famine isn’t natural. It’s man-made. It’s the result of Israel’s ongoing blockade and destruction of essential supplies – a deliberate policy, according to global rights groups, that is pushing an already vulnerable population into unimaginable suffering.

Why is Gaza Starving?

For nearly 22 months, Israel has maintained a blockade that restricts food, water, and humanitarian aid from entering Gaza. Between March and mid-May, crossings were completely sealed, leaving people with nothing.

• Before October 7, 2023, about 500 aid trucks entered Gaza daily.
• Since then, deliveries have dropped drastically – often nowhere near what’s needed for 2.3 million residents.
• Today, warehouses in Jordan and Egypt are stacked with supplies that never make it to Gaza’s starving families.

Over 100 international aid organisations – including Oxfam, Doctors Without Borders, Amnesty International, and the Norwegian Refugee Council – have condemned this as the weaponisation of aid, accusing Israel of deliberately blocking life-saving assistance.

The Reality on the Ground

Amnesty International says Israel is pursuing a “deliberate policy of starvation” – systematically destroying not just food security, but the health, wellbeing, and social fabric of Palestinian life.

Children are paying the highest price. Their bodies are wasting away, their growth is stunted, and without immediate intervention, many will not survive.

When Does Malnutrition Become Deadly?

The human body can survive only so long without proper nutrition:

• First, it burns fat reserves.
• Then, organs begin to fail.
• Finally, starvation leads to death.

Children are most vulnerable. The first 1,000 days of life – from pregnancy to age two – are critical. Without nutrition during this period, damage is often permanent, affecting cognitive and physical development.

Doctors in Gaza are seeing children fall into the “red zone” on MUAC tapes (used to measure malnutrition). Below 11.5 cm means severe acute malnutrition – a medical emergency with a high risk of death.

Signs include:

• Extreme thinness
• Pale, sunken eyes
• Flaky skin and hair loss
• Swollen bellies (caused by severe protein deficiency and oedema)

These are not distant statistics. These are children, parents, grandparents – entire families trapped in a crisis engineered by blockade.

The Bottom Line

263 dead from starvation. 112 of them children.

This is not a famine caused by nature. This is a famine caused by policy. And unless the blockade is lifted and unrestricted aid flows into Gaza, those numbers will continue to rise.