Emad Mekay, IBA Middle East CorrespondentWednesday 27 August 2025
Girl walking to get food in Gaza. Jaber Jehad Badwan/Wikimedia Commons.
International legal experts are increasingly asserting that the humanitarian catastrophe unfolding in Gaza is not merely a by-product of war but a deliberate Israeli strategy, a policy many allege is a war crime.
‘If [Israeli] Prime Minister [Benjamin] Netanyahu decided that every child in Gaza should have breakfast tomorrow, it could be done,’ says Alex de Waal, an expert on famine and Executive Director of the World Peace Foundation at Tufts University. ‘The fact that this has not happened speaks volumes about Israel’s intentions in what may be one of the most ruthlessly engineered famines in modern history.’
On 22 August, the Integrated Food Security Phase Classification (IPC), the leading international authority on food crises, issued a report confirming famine in Gaza’s largest city and surrounding areas. By the end of July, the World Health Organization (WHO) had recorded 74 malnutrition-related deaths in Gaza in 2025, with 63 occurring in July alone. It blames the ‘deliberate blocking and delay of large-scale food, health, and humanitarian aid’ and branded the crisis as ‘entirely preventable.’
A consensus among UN agencies, major aid organisations and academics has emerged about famine in the tiny strip of land that houses around two million Palestinians. Human Rights Watch, Amnesty International and Doctors Without Borders have all condemned what they allege is Israel’s intentional use of starvation as a weapon of war, describing it as a direct cause of Gaza’s rapidly worsening humanitarian crisis, while Greenpeace International demanded an immediate end to the ‘deliberate starvation of Palestinian people.’
I think that a prosecution case alleging starvation as a war crime is a strong one
Stephen Rapp
Former US Ambassador-at-large for War Crimes Issues
The IBA’s Human Rights Institute (IBAHRI) has condemned the ‘deliberate starvation’ of Gaza’s population as an inhuman method of warfare and as a ‘grave breach of international law.’ Gaza, it says, is enduring a ‘summer of long horrors’, highlighting in a statement that ‘famine remains an imminent threat across the territory. Critical infrastructure and services are nearing total collapse. Life in Gaza is being extinguished day by day and the minimal flow of aid reaching the Strip falls far short of meeting the overwhelming humanitarian need.’
Catriona Murdoch, an international criminal barrister and starvation crimes expert, says that Israel, by wielding aid as a bargaining chip, is flouting core humanitarian duties to provide aid unconditionally. The strategy has exacerbated the pre-existing humanitarian crisis and has contributed to the staggeringly quick impact of food insecurity, she says. ‘The conduct of Israel in routinely blocking [aid] for extended periods or making the conditions of delivery so dangerous or logistically impossible, would fall within the set of rules which prohibits this type of conduct,’ she says, referring to international humanitarian law (IHL). ‘Starvation is the process of deprivation that occurs when actors impede the capacity of civilians to access the means of sustaining life.’
Israeli officials reject these accusations and deny any deliberate famine policy. They defend aid limits by pointing to major security risks to Israeli citizens and blame Hamas for siphoning off supplies, claiming that the group funnels food, fuel and medicine to its fighters rather than civilians. Israel says it only bars ‘dual-use’ items – which it insists could serve military ends – from aid.
Commentators say that some of the statements and actions by Israeli officials indicate criminal intent. In January, for example, Israeli media outlet Haaretz reported that eight members of the Knesset’s Foreign Affairs and Defence Committee had advocated cutting off northern Gaza’s food, water and power supplies as a military tactic against Hamas. Despite Israel’s 2005 withdrawal from Gaza to the Strip’s outside borders, experts say Israel remains the occupying power, controlling the territory’s borders and resources. Under international law, this obliges it to provide civilians with basic necessities – a duty, critics say, it has failed to uphold.
‘In the case of Israel, given the repeated and public statements made indicating a specific intent to seal off areas [and] restrict food and water, coupled with the dehumanising language and strong rhetoric of starvation tactics [being presented], it would be difficult to run a defence based on denial that civilians were not the intended target of this siege and starve campaign,’ says Murdoch.
Legal analysts argue that Israel’s ten-week complete blockade on food deliveries to Gaza, which lasted from March to May, could form the backbone of a powerful war crimes prosecution, with starvation as a central charge. Stephen Rapp, IBAHRI Council Member and former US Ambassador-at-large for War Crimes Issues, says that intent – a critical element in such cases – may be legally inferred from the predictable consequences of sealing off the enclave while destroying its lifelines. Israel controlled all access points after its military operations rendered the Rafah crossing inoperable and crippled local food production, including farming and fishing.
‘Even if it was reasonable to presume that the civilian population could control Hamas’ decisions, it is well settled that a party cannot commit IHL violations in order to force another party to comply with its obligations,’ Rapp says. ‘One must comply with the law even if the other side does not.’
‘Starvation of civilians as a method of warfare as a war crime contrary to article 8(2)(b)(xxv) of the [Rome] Statute’ was one of the charges laid against Netanyahu alongside Yoav Gallant, the former Minister of Defence of Israel, by the International Criminal Court when it issued arrest warrants for both men in May 2024. Israel has denied this charge and others contained in the warrants.
Rapp adds that beyond food, other necessities of life such as medical care are being denied. He refers to a recent report by Physicians for Human Rights (PHR) – for which he is a board member – based on testimony from over 50 medical workers in Gaza, which details how Israeli authorities systematically blocked vital medical supplies – items with no conceivable military use – leading to preventable deaths and lasting harm.
‘I think that a prosecution case alleging starvation as a war crime is a strong one,’ Rapp says. ‘The full blockade and tighter restrictions of 2025 will make cases stronger, and harder to defend against, at the ICC and in national systems exercising universal jurisdiction.’
The IBAHRI, while condemning the attacks by Hamas against Israel that took place on 7 October 2023, dismisses Israel’s aid-diversion claims as unsubstantiated, citing an internal study carried out by the US Agency for International Development that debunked them. As such, the claims ‘in no way justify bypassing international humanitarian norms,’ the IBAHRI says. Officials from bodies such as the UN World Food Programme have denied Israeli claims of large-scale, organised theft by Hamas but have said that, in fact, some aid was stolen ‘by criminal gangs, under the watch of Israeli forces.’
De Waal highlights the duration during which aid has been prevented as grounds for accusations of criminal conduct. ‘A military commander cannot starve a population by accident,’ he says. ‘It takes weeks to starve. During this time, information is available about the outcome. In Gaza, authoritative warnings have been repeatedly issued by the UN and the US FEWS NET [Famine Early Warning Systems Network]. Failing to act on these warnings should be taken as evidence for criminal intent.’
In spring 2024, the International Court of Justice (ICJ) issued an additional measure to an earlier ruling demanding Israel allow full, unhindered humanitarian access to Gaza, including by opening border crossings and ensuring aid delivery. The ruling even received near-unanimous support including from Israel’s appointed judge, Aharon Barak, on humanitarian grounds.
Despite this, Israel has failed to comply. ‘Within an hour’s drive of the stricken communities, the UN and other aid organisations have the resources, skills and networks to [create] a comprehensive humanitarian operation today,’ says De Waal.
Commentators say that as a party to the Genocide Convention, Israel is legally bound to prevent atrocities. The international community, particularly signatory states, has a duty to enforce these obligations. Yet, with crossings still restricted and aid blocked, Gaza’s famine continues to worsen by the day.
While Israel frames its policies as security-driven, the global view – backed by rights groups and legal bodies – holds that its restrictions are disproportionate, legally questionable and a leading cause of Gaza’s famine.
Emad Mekay is a freelance journalist and can be contacted at emad.mekay@int-bar.org