Amnesty International has confirmed what Palestinians in Gaza have long cried out: starvation is not a by-product of war, it is being deliberately weaponised. In a damning new report, the organisation identifies Israel’s systematic obstruction of food and aid as part of a broader campaign of genocide.

Since October 2023, families in Gaza have faced more than siege and bombardment, they’ve faced the slow agony of hunger. Amnesty documents how Israeli forces have blocked convoys, bombed aid points, and fired on civilians queuing for food and water. Children collapse from hunger not because food is unavailable, but because it is kept out of reach. Even so-called humanitarian corridors have become fatal traps.

Testimonies gathered by Amnesty describe civilians shot at while holding white flags or carrying bread. The organisation accuses Israel of stripping humanitarian relief of all meaning, replacing it with calculated cruelty. With more than 500 Palestinians killed at aid distribution sites in recent weeks, the report aligns with calls from over 165 humanitarian agencies for an end to this deadly system and the urgent establishment of a UN-led mechanism for aid access.

Gaza’s crisis is not the result of natural disaster, it is a political decision. The hunger, the collapse of the health system, and the thirst are not accidents of war, but deliberate tactics of collective punishment. The world cannot claim ignorance. Amnesty’s findings make clear: this is a genocide unfolding in plain sight.