Gaza faces a catastrophic humanitarian crisis as only 14 per cent of essential food and aid has entered the besieged territory over the past month. Officials warn that Israeli restrictions have created a deliberate “engineered famine,” leaving thousands at risk of death from hunger and malnutrition.

Border closures and the blocking of over 430 critical food and medical items have emptied warehouses and stalled aid trucks at crossing points, preventing desperately needed supplies from reaching hospitals, distribution centres, and families. Vulnerable groups, children, the elderly, the sick, widows, and the wounded, are bearing the brunt of the crisis. To date, at least 313 people, including 119 children, have already died from starvation, though health workers caution that the real figures are likely higher.

Eyewitnesses describe families boiling animal fodder and weeds to survive, while children collapse in classrooms and hospitals from severe hunger. Limited food distributions draw long queues, often descending into chaos as Israeli forces reportedly fire on civilians attempting to access aid. International agencies have repeatedly called for an immediate lifting of the blockade, with the UN World Food Programme warning that Gaza is experiencing “the fastest decline into famine in modern history.”

Human rights groups have condemned the deliberate restriction of food as a weapon of war, noting it constitutes a war crime under international law. Officials in Gaza are urging urgent international intervention, stressing that without immediate action, weeks of continued starvation could push the population further towards mass casualties.