Israel is starving Gaza and trying to get away with it

It sounds like a mad experiment. Except it is real. Israeli leaders are wrestling with the puzzle of how to starve an entire civilian population to the brink of mass famine and get away with it. The aim is to bring more than 2 million Palestinians to the point of extinction, so that they become willing to be ethnically cleansed through accepting so-called voluntary emigration. It is starving and bombing an entire population into submission.

Some Israeli politicians have contemplated this for years. Dov Weissglas, Ariel Sharon’s adviser, spoke of putting Palestinians “on a diet” as far back as 2006. In 2008, Israeli officials worked out how many calories Palestinians needed to consume to avoid malnutrition. Knesset members last week openly backed starving Palestinian children, while haranguing those who opposed this.

The blockade of Gaza has lasted since 2007. Even before that, Israel had imposed restrictions on the Strip. This is one of the ever-increasing mechanisms of control.

It escalated with the imposition of the full siege of Gaza on Oct. 9, 2023. Genocide apologists point out that this only lasted until Oct. 21. What they omit is that Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu only agreed to end it after massive pressure from US President Joe Biden, and even then only allowed in 20 trucks a day. Northern Gaza was also under Israeli siege in the last quarter of 2024.

On March 2, Israel reimposed a full siege on Gaza. And the situation today is far worse. In 2023, the healthcare system in Gaza had not been systematically destroyed. Agricultural areas had not been bombed.

Knesset members last week openly backed starving Palestinian children, while haranguing those who opposed this

Chris Doyle

Justifying the starvation of civilians is a trifle harder, but this is being tried, although with the awareness that fatalities in their thousands and even hundreds of thousands due to mass starvation is not great PR.

One step is outright denial. There is no humanitarian crisis. What famine?

When this does not work, the evidence of starvation or famine is framed as nonexistent or made up by agencies that are universally antisemitic and are willing victims of Hamas propaganda. Hamas is made out to be in control of every piece of data exiting Gaza, even though the same propagandists will highlight the demonstrations against the group.

Apologists then muddy the waters by debating numbers. How many truckloads have entered Gaza? Leaving aside that the answer for more than two months is zero, at no stage, even during the cessation of hostilities earlier this year, did enough aid get in on any day. But as the UN consistently points out, counting truckloads is pointless. Are the trucks full? What is in them? Can they reach those most in need?

Then they argue that, as external observers largely cannot enter Gaza, how can they be sure starvation is occurring? Except Israel is the one preventing that access.

Another excuse is that Hamas is stealing all the aid. Evidence for this is not furnished. In February 2024, even a senior US official proclaimed that Israel had not provided evidence to substantiate this claim.

Israeli genocide apologists are trotting out diabolical excuses. They say Israel should be praised for putting Palestinians on a diet because this “may increase average life expectancy in Gaza.” How so? Because “one of the biggest health issues in Gaza prior to the current war was obesity.” Yes, obesity is not an issue now in Gaza. Another said that there are no starving children in Gaza, just “a few photographs of a few children with very serious medical conditions, generally genetic ones from birth … resulting in them being unable to digest food.” Since the beginning of 2025, nearly 10,000 children with acute malnutrition have been admitted to hospital, according to the World Health Organization.

In Gaza, aid is required at a scale only UNRWA — an agency Israel wants to destroy — has the capacity to deliver

Chris Doyle

Getting away with it requires dispensing with awkward UN and international agencies that report on the impact of Israel blocking aid and furnish the world with evidence of war crimes.

This is where Israel’s new Gaza aid plan comes in. Aware it must allow minimal levels of aid in, not least as US President Donald Trump has expressed concern, the Israeli military is planning for private military contractors to do the job. They will vet all potential beneficiaries.

This violates every global humanitarian principle of humanity, neutrality, independence and impartiality. UN agencies have refused to engage with it, as Israeli leaders knew they would. What appear to be bogus front organizations are already being marketed to replace them.

This must be rejected. Aid must not be militarized or politicized but provided on the basis of need. In Gaza, aid is required at a scale only UNRWA — an agency Israel wants to destroy — has the capacity to deliver.

Nothing less than the full opening of all crossings into Gaza is acceptable, with UN agencies in charge of distributing aid to those most in need and on a scale yet to be seen over the last 19 months. The Israeli plan is just camouflage for continuing the process of genocide.

• Chris Doyle is director of the Council for Arab-British Understanding in London. X: @Doylech