Gaza, 12 May 2025 – Al Mezan has published a new fact sheet exposing the catastrophic and deliberate starvation of Gaza’s population, with a specific focus on children, pregnant women, and nursing mothers. The fact sheet, titled “The Effects of Israel’s Genocidal Siege and Starvation on Gaza’s Children, Pregnant Women, and Nursing Mothers,” documents the calculated use of hunger as a weapon of war and underscores the genocidal nature of Israel’s policies since the full siege imposed on 2 March 2025.
Over the past year and a half, and with escalating intensity since March 2025, Israel has obstructed the entry of food, fuel, and cooking gas into Gaza, while simultaneously bombing agricultural zones and industrial food production facilities. Large swathes of farmland in Rafah and the northern and eastern Gaza—areas now fully controlled by Israeli forces—have been razed. The destruction of Gaza’s food system has left more than two million Palestinians entirely dependent on humanitarian aid for survival.
Yet even this lifeline is being systematically denied. According to the World Food Programme (WFP), 116,000 metric tons of food aid—“enough to feed one million people for four months”—remain stuck just outside Gaza’s sealed crossings. The siege of Gaza caused extreme food shortages and soaring prices, pushing hundreds of thousands of Palestinians to rely on community kitchens for survival. At the same time, as documented by Al Mezan, the Israeli military has intensified targeted attacks on community kitchens. On 7 May 2025, after 65 days of total siege, Palestinian Prime Minister Mohammad Mustafa officially declared Gaza a ‘famine-stricken zone’.
The fact sheet provides deeply disturbing evidence of the toll this siege is taking on Gaza’s most vulnerable. At least 52 Palestinian children have died due to malnutrition and dehydration, while thousands more suffer from severe wasting and related health complications. Firsthand testimonies reveal the daily trauma endured by parents struggling to keep their children alive. One mother shared with Al Mezan: “If this continues, my children will lose their ability to move, hear, and see. I don’t want to lose my children like I lost their father. They’re all I have left in this life.”
The fact sheet details how the deliberate use of starvation, in conjunction with the systematic destruction of food sources and targeted attacks on humanitarian relief operations, constitutes a method of warfare intended to destroy the Palestinian people in Gaza either in part or in whole. Al Mezan affirms that these acts meet the legal threshold for genocide as defined under Article II of the 1948 Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide.
Al Mezan warns that the current siege, if left unchallenged, will result in mass death from starvation, especially among infants, children, pregnant women, and nursing mothers—groups particularly vulnerable to the effects of food deprivation. Al Mezan calls on the international community to immediately end Israel’s blockade and siege of Gaza; ensure unimpeded access for humanitarian aid, including food, water, fuel, and medical supplies; protect civilians and civilian infrastructure from further attack; uphold international law by holding perpetrators accountable.
The full fact sheet includes data, firsthand accounts, and urgent recommendations for international action. The fact sheet is available here, PDF here.