UAWC Palestine : at least 23 children in northern Gaza Strip have been killed by malnutrition and dehydration in recent weeks.
On Tuesday, March 18, 2025, the Israeli occupation resumed its genocidal war on Gaza and broke the ceasefire agreement, unleashing a brutal wave of airstrikes that has massacred over 50,144 Palestinians and injured at least 113,704 since the conflict began 536 days ago (as of March 25, 2025, source: OCHA). (Read La Via Campesina’s full statement).
24 March 2025: The Israeli Occupation Continues its Use of Starvation for Genocide
For three weeks, since March 2, the Israeli occupation has blocked the entry of all food, water, medical supplies, and any humanitarian aid into the Gaza Strip. This is not due to a lack of available food; aid convoys and supplies are waiting just outside Gaza’s borders. The Israeli occupation is starving Palestinians in Gaza as a continuation of its deliberate campaign designed to make survival impossible.
Severe hunger is rapidly escalating and malnutrition is at catastrophic levels. Food distribution has nearly halted as supplies diminish, forcing bakeries and community kitchens – which have been the lifeline and primary source of food for Gaza’s population during the genocide – to dramatically scale back their operations or shut down completely. More than one in three children under two years old in northern Gaza suffer from acute malnutrition, with UNICEF reporting that at least 23 children in northern Gaza Strip have been killed by malnutrition and
dehydration in recent weeks. The health system has collapsed, leaving starvation-related illnesses untreated, while desperate families are resorting to eating animal fodder and drinking contaminated water. The Gaza government media office announced that Gaza has entered the first stage of famine.
Without immediate intervention, mass death will follow.
However, UAWC emphasizes that this is the occupation’s intention: it is a calculated policy of starvation aimed at erasing Palestinians from their land. Israeli airstrikes have obliterated Gaza’s farmland, fishing sector, and food storage facilities, ensuring that Palestinians cannot produce food for themselves. By systematically destroying Gaza’s food production, preventing food from entering, and violently obstructing humanitarian relief, the Israeli occupation is enforcing mass starvation as a tool of genocide and settler-colonial expansion.
At the same time, Israeli leadership is actively discussing plans to annex Gaza, making it clear that this campaign of starvation is part of its strategy for mass displacement. The destruction of Palestinian agriculture and enforced famine in Gaza mirrors the settler-colonial policies in the West Bank, where land theft and settlement expansion continue with impunity.
Starving civilians as a method of warfare constitutes a grave breach of international law. Under the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court and the Fourth Geneva Convention, it is classified as a war crime and a crime against humanity, demanding urgent international accountability.
We call on people’s movements, labor unions, and civil society worldwide to escalate pressure and break the silence, ending complicity with a regime that weaponizes hunger. The international community must act immediately to stop the Israeli campaign of starvation and genocide before.
UAWC calls for:
- The immediate and unconditional entry of food, water, and humanitarian aid into the Gaza Strip
- An immediate and permanent end to the Israeli genocidal war
- An arms embargo and an end to all military and financial support to the Israeli occupation
- Support for Palestinian food sovereignty and agricultural rehabilitation to rebuild Gaza’s ability to sustain itself
Starving a nation in plain sight is not just a crime, it is a test of humanity. Silence is complicity.