Gaza Population Tips From Mass Starvation to Mass Death, Crisis Group Reports
July 30, 2025–Stage 4 and 5 famine has reached the Gaza Strip, according to the Integrated Food Security Phase Classification (IPC) platform, the world’s monitor on famine. The entire population faces acute food insecurity while a half a million people face starvation.
“Nineteen months into the conflict, the Gaza Strip is still confronted with a critical risk of Famine. Over 60 days have passed since all humanitarian aid and commercial supplies were blocked from entering the territory. Goods indispensable for people’s survival are either depleted or expected to run out in the coming weeks,” the IPC warning said.
Defying international law against using starvation as a weapon of war, Israeli has repeatedly used its control of the borders around the small Palestinian enclave to press for unconditional surrender by Hamas. In March 2025, the Israeli government broke a ceasefire agreement and imposed a total siege on humanitarian food, water, medicine, and fuel. On May, Israel installed the controversial Gaza Humanitarian Foundation (GHF)–a group reportedly funded by Israeli intelligence–to take over aid distribution. Whereas aid organizations had distributed meals through a network of over 400 sites, the GHF limited access to four sites, primarily in the South. Over 1,054 people seeking aid have been killed under the new militarized system of distribution, according to the UN rights office (OHCHR). Of those deaths, 766 occurred near GHF sites.
In June, UNRWA Commissioner-General Philippe Lazzarini said the aid agency held the equivalent of 6,000 truckloads of aid in warehouses outside of Gaza. He warned that aid would rot if not permitted to enter. Furthermore, he condemned the GHF militarized system of distribution.
“This humiliating system continues to force thousands of hungry & desperate people to walk for tens of miles excluding the most vulnerable & those living too far. This system does not intend to address hunger,” UN Philippe Lazzarini said in a tweet.
Scarcity Persists Despite International Pressure
Despite international pressure to get aid into Gaza, supplies are still not reaching the people. Today, aid organizations and doctors on the ground report that little to no aid is getting in.
The International Crisis Group warns that Israel’s draconian restrictions are posing a danger to the entire population.
“Israel’s strategy of restricting access to life’s basic necessities while providing just enough subsistence to keep [people in Gaza] from sliding into famine underestimated the toll that extended deprivation would take on an already weakened population,” the Crisis Group said.
