The head of the World Food Programme has issued a stark warning that famine is now a looming reality for half a million Palestinians trapped in Gaza, where food is being used as a weapon and international indifference continues to cost lives.

WFP Executive Director Cindy McCain said that 500,000 people are experiencing severe food insecurity, and without immediate intervention, “they could fall into full-blown famine.” Speaking on Sunday, McCain condemned the drastic drop in humanitarian aid allowed into Gaza, noting that while temporary ceasefires once saw 600 trucks entering daily, today barely 100 make it through.

The Israeli blockade, she suggested, is starving civilians by design. Aid is restricted, corridors are sealed, and entire families are left without access to basic nutrition. Children, already traumatised by war, now wake to empty plates and stomachs that haven't felt full in months.

McCain called on the global community to act, not with statements, but with pressure—real and immediate—on Israel to lift its siege and open humanitarian pathways. “We cannot be allowed to just sit by and watch these people starve to death,” she said.

For Palestinians in Gaza, the message is clear: they are not dying from a lack of food, but from the choices of those who refuse to let it in.