Gaza City — As the Israeli siege tightens with relentless force, the death toll from starvation is no longer speculative. Gaza’s Health Ministry reported that at least 113 Palestinians — 81 of them children — have officially died from hunger since October 7, 2023, marking the collapse of Gaza’s humanitarian infrastructure and the failure of global diplomacy to enforce even the most basic protections of international law.
Hospitals, already overwhelmed by trauma injuries, are now overwhelmed by the slow violence of hunger. In the past few days alone, 27 additional starvation deaths have been confirmed, including two infants in the last 24 hours. Medical professionals in Khan Younis and Rafah say they are witnessing “famine in real time,” where skeletal toddlers arrive unconscious, their organs failing not from shrapnel but from emptiness.
The central kitchen of the United Nations Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA) in Deir al-Balah has run dry. There is no flour, no rice, no water purification tablets. Aid trucks wait at the Rafah crossing and Kerem Shalom checkpoint, subjected to intense scrutiny or outright rejection by Israeli authorities. The World Food Programme has warned that more than 495,000 Palestinians are now in the “catastrophic phase” of food insecurity — a diplomatic euphemism for mass starvation.
Despite these figures, Israel has refused to lift its blockade or permit unfettered humanitarian access. Gaza remains under siege from land, air, and sea, and aid convoys have been turned away or attacked, with more than 200 humanitarian workers reportedly killed since the conflict resumed. The targeting of bakeries and markets — deliberate or collateral — has rendered food acquisition nearly impossible. Residents report eating animal feed or boiling grass to stay alive.
Meanwhile, the international community’s response remains woefully insufficient. While Qatar, Türkiye, and Egypt have intensified pressure on Israel to allow humanitarian corridors, the United States continues to provide military and diplomatic cover for the Netanyahu government, even as mass starvation deaths accumulate. United Nations Secretary-General António Guterres condemned the situation as “man-made famine,” but no sanctions or binding actions have followed.
The Israeli government, for its part, continues to deny responsibility. Officials have repeatedly claimed that Hamas is hoarding aid or sabotaging deliveries — a narrative that humanitarian groups like Médecins Sans Frontières and the Red Crescent flatly dispute.
What is unfolding in Gaza is not simply a humanitarian crisis. It is a man-made famine, engineered by siege and indifference, enabled by Western complicity, and enforced through blockade tactics that defy every tenet of international humanitarian law.
According to CNN, the Gaza Health Ministry confirmed 113 starvation deaths — most of them children — as of July 24, 2025. The outlet also cites reports of worsening famine conditions in hospitals, and the catastrophic inability of aid agencies to deliver supplies into the enclave due to Israeli restrictions.
