Death by Design: Gaza’s Man-Made Famine

I recently listened to a Space on X hosted by @ShameenSuleman discussing the escalating famine in the Gaza Strip.

The stories shared by enduring Palestinians on the ground were harrowing beyond what words can fully capture. No sentence, headline or statistic can convey the scale of human suffering unfolding there. This is not merely a humanitarian crisis it is a man-made catastrophe, a deliberate act of starvation, and what many experts describe as genocide unfolding in real time.

For more than 21 months, Palestinians in Gaza have endured relentless siege, bombardment, displacement and forced starvation by the “israeli” Occupation Forces (iOF).

According to the Integrated Food Security Phase Classification, Gaza is now at Stage 5 famine the most severe level of food insecurity. At this level, at least 20% of the population faces catastrophic food shortages, and more than 30% of children are suffering from acute malnutrition. Mortality rates are rising rapidly as hunger tightens its grip.

In human terms, this means children are wasting away, their bodies too weak to grow. Pregnant women collapse from hunger, unable to nourish themselves or their unborn children. Mothers give birth without access to nutrition or medical care. Infants enter a world without formula, clean water or hope for survival.

Starvation, a brutal process

The body first burns glucose, then fat. Once those reserves are depleted, it consumes muscle and organ tissue, leading to kidney failure, cardiac arrest and death. Stage 5 famine signifies the collapse of an entire food system where severe, life-threatening undernourishment affects entire populations.

This is not happening to a few. It is happening to over 2 million persons who are trapped by the iOF in the Gaza Strip, once dubbed as the world’s largest open-air prison, now the ground for an ongoing Holocaust.

What makes this crisis unbearable is its intentionality. This is not the result of drought or natural disaster, but rather a calculated and vile strategy. Weaponizing hunger via food deprivation to control and punish millions of civilians who are trapped in an area that is nearly as small at the island-states of Malta or Grenada.

Reports indicate that Palestinians have been shot by the iOF and mercenaries hired by questionable entities, while attempting to reach food at distribution centers, such as those operated by the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation (GHF).

These are not aid stations they are death traps. With hundreds of famished and unarmed Palestinians killed at the hands of hired mercenaries at its aid-distribution sites, many are now calling GHF the Gaza Holocaust Foundation.

As Gaza starves to death, governments including the United States, the United Kingdom and members of the European Union continue to provide weapons, funding and political support to Israel, enabling these actions. How can nations that prosecute war crimes and genocide at the International Criminal Court turn a blind eye or worse, act as accomplices to what many experts call the clearest case of genocide in modern history? This is not just hypocrisy; it is complicity.

The people of Gaza are not collateral damage. They are human beings teachers, mothers, children, doctors, farmers, students systematically starved while the world watches. While we watch.

The Risk of Speaking Out

The fear of repercussions physical, mental or social is real. But remaining silent in the face of this moral catastrophe, where 2 million lives hang in the balance, is far more terrifying. This is not a political issue or an “israeli entity’s” problem. It is a matter of life and death.

Gaza needs food, water, medical aid and safety Now.

Statements of support, worry and condemnation are not enough. We need action. We need compassion. We must stop asking, “Whose side are you on?” and start asking, “What kind of human being am I willing to be?”

If we do not raise our voices now if we do not demand an immediate cease-fire, unrestricted humanitarian access and full accountability we become complicit in this genocide through our silence.

The question becomes: Will we act, or will we stand by as as Palestinian babies get murdered by the "israeli" occupation's engineered famine, and bombardment?

Do not scroll past this genocide. Do not let their suffering fade into background noise. Two million lives depend on it.