For decades, Israel has controlled the flow of food into Gaza, calculating precisely the number of calories needed to keep Palestinians alive while using hunger as a tool of pressure. A senior adviser to former Prime Minister Ehud Olmert stated in 2006 that the aim was to put Palestinians on a diet but not to cause death by starvation. Documents released by an Israeli court in 2008 revealed that Cogat, the Israeli agency managing aid shipments, had set a minimum of 2,279 calories per person per day, equivalent to 1.836kg of food.
Today, humanitarian organisations estimate that 62,000 metric tonnes of dry and canned food are needed monthly to meet basic needs for Gaza’s 2.1 million people – roughly 1kg per person per day. However, data compiled by Israel’s own government shows that between March and June this year, only 56,000 tonnes of food were allowed into the territory, less than a quarter of the minimum required. In March and April, Gaza was under total siege with no food entering at all.
The Famine Review Committee, an independent group of experts, has stated that even the food packages supplied by the US- and Israeli-backed Gaza Humanitarian Foundation would lead to mass starvation, given their inadequate distribution plan and the reported violence. The committee noted that during the ceasefire in January and February, extra aid shipments brought Gaza back from the brink of famine, but subsequent deliveries in May were merely a trickle, only slowing the descent into starvation.
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has responded to international outrage with promises of only minimal extra aid, while the number of food trucks remains well below what is needed. Airdrops have been restarted by several countries including France, Germany, the UK, Egypt, Jordan and the UAE, despite being expensive, inefficient and occasionally deadly. Last year, at least 12 people drowned trying to recover food that landed in the sea, and five were killed by falling pallets.
Israeli officials have denied mass starvation, blamed Hamas for hoarding aid, and pointed to United Nations distribution failures, but the data makes clear that Israel’s restrictions are the primary cause. A UN-backed report this week described a “worst-case scenario” famine unfolding in Gaza, with food deliveries “at a scale far below what is needed” due to drastic restrictions on entry.
