Amnesty International released a damning report accusing Israel of deliberately starving Palestinians in Gaza since April, alleging systematic destruction of health and social structures that has left children, pregnant women, and the elderly in dire malnutrition.
Israel’s Deliberate Starvation of Gaza’s Palestinians: Amnesty Report Reveals April Onset of Hunger
“Israel is carrying out deliberate actions to starve people in the occupied Gaza Strip,” the Amnesty International report states. The organization accuses Israel of “systematically destroying the health, wellbeing, and social fabric of Palestinians,” describing it as an integral part of ongoing genocide.
19 Witnesses of Hunger in the Gaza Strip
Amnesty International presented testimony from 19 Palestinians currently in temporary shelters, joined by two medical staff treating severely malnourished children in Gaza City hospitals. Their accounts reveal that the deadly combination of starvation and disease is not a by‑product of military operations but an intentional outcome of policies enacted over the past 22 months to physically annihilate a population.
Displacement or Death
Starvation has hit children, pregnant women, and breastfeeding mothers hardest. Save the Children surveyed 747 pregnant and nursing women in July, finding 323 (43 %) malnourished. A mother of a newborn and a 7‑month‑old girl said Palestinians face the choice of displacement or death. By late April, hunger became tangible, lactation ceased, and the only three‑day supply of infant formula—a scarce item across Gaza costing $79—became essential. There were no diapers or antibiotics, and requests to bring antibiotics were denied by the Coordinator of Government Actions in the Territories (COGAT), a unit of Israel’s Defense Ministry that approves import of aid into Gaza.
Amnesty International Report: Genocide and Israel’s Deliberate Actions
The report emphasizes that no tuna, meat, tomatoes, or cucumbers have been consumed for at least a month, with most food sources extinct for several months. The Gaza Health Ministry recorded 110 child deaths by August 17 due to malnutrition complications. In April, Amnesty accused Israel of genocide through forced displacement and facilitating a humanitarian catastrophe in the besieged territory.
Read More about the Humanitarian Crisis in Gaza
Further insights into the crisis are available in related journalistic analyses.
