Gaza is not condemned to famine. That was the message from Philippe Lazzarini, head of UNRWA, as he appealed to the world’s conscience amid a deepening humanitarian catastrophe.

"We are not asking for the impossible," he said, only that Palestinians be allowed to live with dignity and access the basic essentials for survival.

Over the past two weeks, only 900 aid trucks have been allowed through, barely a tenth of what is needed daily. This trickle of aid, Lazzarini warned, is a cruel parody of the humanitarian response Gaza so desperately needs. During the brief ceasefire months ago, the UN managed to deliver up to 800 trucks a day, proving that large-scale relief is entirely feasible, when the political will exists.

Since early March, Israel has intensified its blockade, cutting off food and medical aid to over two million Palestinians. This calculated obstruction has transformed hunger into a weapon. While international actors speak of humanitarian concern, their inaction signals complicity in Gaza’s slow starvation.

For Palestinians, this is not a natural disaster, it is a deliberate policy. And while children waste away and families forage for survival, the world continues to debate what should never have been up for question: the right of a people to eat, to live, to exist.