Seventy-one thousand children and over seventeen thousand mothers in Gaza are now battling life-threatening malnutrition, as famine tightens its grip on a besieged population. The World Health Organization warns of an unfolding catastrophe, describing the deprivation as man-made, deliberate, and entirely preventable.

Despite food and medicine sitting just across the border, Palestinians continue to die of hunger and disease. The entire population is now facing acute food insecurity, with nearly half a million experiencing catastrophic levels of hunger. No formal famine declaration is needed to recognise the agony endured by the people of Gaza.

Israeli forces have maintained an unrelenting blockade for over two months, while military operations continue to devastate the territory. Basic services have collapsed. Bakeries have been shut for weeks. Families have run out of clean water and essentials. Humanitarian convoys remain blocked, and pleas for ceasefire are ignored.

In the past 24 hours alone, more than 40 people have been killed in Israeli airstrikes. As the siege and bombardment persist, so too does the international community’s failure to act. Gaza is starving — not by chance, but by design.