Famine in Gaza: What you need to know now

2. The famine in Gaza is not a natural disaster.

“Palestinians are suffering a manmade famine caused by Israel’s siege and the deliberate obstruction of aid and fueled by the inaction of world leaders,” said Jolien Veldwijk, CARE Palestine (West Bank and Gaza) Country Director.

Since March 2025, the movement of aid and commercial goods into Gaza has been tightly controlled, amounting to a near-total blockade. Though some restrictions have eased under international pressure, the volume of aid allowed through remains far below the minimum needed to support more than two million people.

The problem doesn’t stop at the border. “People are starving not because food is unavailable, but because access is blocked, local agrifood systems have collapsed, and families can no longer sustain even the most basic livelihoods,” said Qu Dongyu, Director General of the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO).

Even when aid is allowed into Gaza, distribution has been chaotic and dangerous. As OCHA footage shows, UN teams face regular delays at Gaza’s crossings, making them frequent targets and forcing civilians to reach their lives to reach them. Poorly coordinated delivery systems and few access points mean that aid is often delayed, diverted, or looted. This has resulted in long, dangerous queues at aid sites, stampedes, and violent clashes. Desperate crowds attempting to offload aid are often met with gunfire.

At the same time, people continue to die from starvation, with at least seven additional recorded deaths from hunger and malnutrition in Gaza’s overwhelmed hospitals. which have led to the deaths of more than 1000 aid-seekers since May. CARE staff report that many families walk long distances only to find aid depleted, forcing them to return empty-handed, day after day.

“The crisis remains entirely preventable,” the WHO states. “Deliberate blocking and delay of large-scale food, health, and humanitarian aid has cost many lives.”

3. Gaza’s children are dying from hunger.

While the IPC stopped short of officially declaring a famine, humanitarian leaders emphasize that people in Gaza are already dying from hunger and malnutrition-related causes. An aid worker providing psychosocial support to families in Gaza spoke of the devastating impact on children: “Children tell their parents they want to go to heaven, because at least heaven has food.”

According to the WHO, 74 people in Gaza have died of malnutrition-related causes in 2025, 63 of them in July alone, including 25 children.

“When we think it can’t get worse, it gets worse,” said UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Volker Türk. “Children are starving and dying in front of our eyes. Gaza is a dystopian landscape of deadly attacks and total destruction.”

At CARE’s health clinic in Deir al-Balah — now operating at limited capacity due to displacement orders — the percentage of malnourished patients has jumped from 19% to 32% in just a few months. Supplies of therapeutic food and preventative supplements have run out.

“We don’t have any supplies left of the preventative supplements,” said Beckie Ryan, CARE’s Assistant Country Director in Palestine. “So, we’re seeing the slide downwards into really acute malnutrition that’s going to have lifelong consequences on development.”

On July 29^th, Ryan told NPR that some parents have “had to resort to… choosing which child will be fed that day. Are they going to buy supplies for the baby, or are they going to buy something that the 5-year-old can eat?”

4. A stable ceasefire and the free flow of aid is the only way to end the suffering.

Despite publicized efforts like airdrops, “humanitarian pauses,” and temporary humanitarian corridors,  at least 71 Palestinians have been killed recently while trying to reach aid, gunned down as they approached convoys and distribution points.

According to a statement issued by CARE, “almost two years of daily killing, destruction, displacement, aid obstruction, siege, and starvation cannot be undone with piecemeal solutions. It will take a concerted, holistic, and sustained longer-term effort to even begin to address their debilitating effects.”

Despite repeated public announcements of improved access, there has been no meaningful change on the ground. Since the full siege was imposed on 2 March, CARE has not been able to deliver any of the 1.5 million dollars’ worth of pre-positioned supplies into Gaza. This includes critical shipments of food, medical supplies, hygiene kits, and maternal and infant care items currently stuck in Egypt, the West Bank, and Jordan.

Famine in Gaza cannot be stopped without a full ceasefire and unrestricted humanitarian access. CARE and other organizations are calling for a complete end to the siege, the full opening of all border crossings, and a coordinated aid response led by the UN, with support for local and international aid groups to do their work safely.