IDaysofPal- Since launching its war on Gaza in October 2023, Israeli occupation forces have adopted a deliberate military policy known as “engineering starvation”, aimed at strangling the Gaza Strip and subjugating its population by using food and medicine as weapons of war, in blatant violation of international humanitarian law and the Geneva Conventions.
Such Israeli policy centers on total control over border crossings, blocking the entry of humanitarian aid and essential goods, restricting relief operations, and deliberately targeting food and agricultural infrastructure.
According to field reports, these measures have severely worsened famine, especially among children, the sick, and the elderly, amid rising death tolls among those risking their lives just to obtain food.
Economist Dr. Nael Mousa explained that “engineering starvation” refers to the systematic implementation of policies that dry up sources of food, water, and medicine in a specific area to break the will of its people.
In an interview with Felesteen Online, he noted that the policy has been clearly applied in Gaza through the complete closure of crossings, the banning of many essential goods, and strict limits on the entry of fuel and electricity, leading to the collapse of food production and cold storage chains.
Moreover, Mousa emphasized that these policies have created widespread food insecurity, forcing thousands of families to search for food under extremely dangerous conditions, even at the risk of death.
Economist Dr. Haitham Draghmeh added that all alternative methods proposed to address the food crisis have utterly failed. He pointed out that air-dropped aid often landed in uninhabited areas, the sea, or zones under Israeli control.
Some airdrops even resulted in the death of civilians, including children, due to the uncontrolled fall of containers. Furthermore, much of the food dropped was military-grade and did not meet the needs of Gaza’s severely starving population.
Draghmeh also addressed the “maritime corridor” project, saying it has not functioned regularly and has ultimately failed. Its appearance coincided with a spike in military escalation, notably the Nuseirat massacre in March 2025, in which more than 600 people were killed when Israeli forces stormed the camp.
In addition, he also criticized the role of the Israeli-American GIHF organization, calling it a “death trap.” Although it brought in limited aid shipments, the distribution was chaotic and uncoordinated, and aid-seekers were frequently targeted, resulting in the deaths of hundreds at distribution points. He said the organization was used as a media tool to justify the continued closure of crossings, even as the elderly, the sick, and women were unable to access aid amid deadly chaos.
Draghmeh stressed that all these alternative methods do not equal even one full day of aid flow through the Karem Abu Salem crossing if opened regularly.
According to reports from the United Nations, World Bank, and international relief organizations, Israel’s starvation policy has led to more than 470,000 people in Gaza facing “catastrophic hunger” (Phase 5 of the Integrated Food Security Phase Classification), while the entire population of Gaza suffers from acute food insecurity, making it one of the worst humanitarian crises of the modern era.
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