The IDF along with anti-Hamas militias Israel is arming and paying, and the phony Gaza Humanitarian Foundation, are deliberately starving Palestinians in Gaza
The Israeli government and IDF have three propaganda lines about aid and hunger in Gaza. First the IDF is allowing plenty of food into Gaza and no one’s starving. Second (completely inconsistent with the first) that people are only going hungry or starving because Hamas is stealing lots of aid and hoarding it. And third that Israel doesn’t have a duty to feed its enemies (inconsistent with both their first line and Article 55 of the fourth Geneva Convention).
From March 19th to May 19th 2025 Israeli ministers and officials claimed there was plenty of food in Gaza to last months, let in during the last ceasefire. They also said the IDF was allowing no aid into Gaza to put pressure on Hamas, who they also claimed stole much of it. But if Hamas had months of food, how would cutting off aid temporarily put pressure on them? And how, if Hamas had stolen much of the aid and was hoarding it, would the rest of the population of Gaza have plenty of food? The Israeli government line was that when aid resumed it would be using a new distribution system that would prevent Hamas stealing aid and ensure it got to Gaza’s population (1) – (2).
A 740% increase in the price of food indicated shortages (3).
The Israeli government made clear its intention to starve the entire population of Gaza from the start. On October 9th 2023 then Israeli Defence Minister Yoav Gallant said “I have ordered a complete siege on the Gaza Strip. There will be no electricity, no food, no fuel.” (4).
This complete siege had to be modified due to international pressure (especially from US politicians who didn’t want to be seen to support deliberate starvation) to letting in some aid and water, but never enough, while claiming it was plenty.
The IDF and COGAT, an Israeli government agency dealing with aid, claimed that by 15th September over 14,000 trucks had entered Gaza since the IDF stopped allowing any aid into Gaza from March 19th to May 19th 2025. If you measured from May 19th that would be 116 trucks a day. If from March 19th (since zero aid got in from then till May 19th) it’d be 77 trucks a day. Either way a fraction of the 500 trucks a day which every established aid agency and charity estimates a population the size of Gaza needs.
COGAT are often quoted as if they’re a neutral body, but COGAT’s head is an IDF general appointed by and responsible to the Israeli Defence Minister. And COGAT’s twitter posts are full of propaganda. So COGAT claims and statistics are questionable (5) – (6).
There is evidence that Palestinian gunmen are stealing aid on a large scale in Gaza, but not Hamas.
Netanyahu admits having Israel’s Shin Bet intelligence agency arm anti-Hamas militias like Abu Shabab’s Popular Forces. Which is known to loot aid trucks. Shin Bet also pays the wages of these militias and the IDF has orders not to interfere with them as they extort money from Gazans for everything from looted food aid to making them pay rent to put up a tent in a “safe area” (7) – (8).
Large scale looting of trucks by gunmen began after the IDF first killed Hamas and Palestinian Authority armed police escorting aid convoys, until none would volunteer as convoy escorts. Then, when aid agencies and charities hired entirely non-Hamas security guards, the IDF killed them too, until no one would (9) – (11).
Looting by these gunmen happens just past IDF checkpoints swarming with troops and tanks, with IDF drones and helicopters patrolling over the whole of Gaza twenty-four hours a day. The IDF claim they’re too worried about accidentally hitting truck drivers to fire on the armed gangs (12) – (13).
The idea that Hamas could loot aid on a large scale in these circumstances is ridiculous. Aid is being looted by people the IDF and Israeli government want to loot it. So they can say “we allowed all these trucks of aid in”, but then it gets stolen by militias involved in organised crime, and by unarmed looters paid by wealthy Gazan businessmen who the IDF also have deals with. And isput on sale. But many Gazans can’t afford it as they’ve been kicked out of their homes, demolished by the IDF, and no longer have jobs or money (14) – (15).
Truck drivers also say the IDF make them take the same routes every time, making it easy for looters to wait in ambush (16).
There are also other ways the IDF and GHF ensure Palestinians in Gaza don’t get much aid even from trucks entering it.
Only a handful of “Gaza Humanitarian Foundation Aid distribution points” are usually available for over 1.5 million Gazans, open on average 11 minutes a day, according to the opening times posted by the GHF online (17).
IDF soldiers and officers told Israel’s Haaretz newspaper they’re often ordered to open fire on civilians at these aid points, even when the sites are “open”. Including artillery and tank fire used supposedly to “communicate with” civilians. Truck drivers also say they witnessed the IDF fire on civilians (18) – (19).
Former contractors working for the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation say the GHF’s armed security are encouraged to fire on civilians any time they feel like it ; and they do (20) – (22).
Which makes the GHF’s name as Orwellian as the Israeli government calling a plan for a tent city concentration camp in central Gaza “a humanitarian city”.
The IDF also has ever changing rules on what food can and can’t enter Gaza. Dates are banned as “a luxury”, while potatoes’ long shelf life makes them banned supposedly in case Hamas stockpiles them (23).
Aid trucks are only allowed to enter through Israeli crossing points. To do so they must also unload their entire cargo, to be put onto an Israeli truck, which is then unloaded again, searched and moved back onto their truck (24).
Truck drivers say the IDF often delay them for hours at the Gaza border, and are sometimes then told the crossing is now closed for the day. The IDF only has crossings nominally open for about 5 hours a day (25).
What’s more Gaza Humanitarian Foundation aid parcels mostly contain pasta, flour, dried lentils, beans , chickpeas or rice plus cooking oil. So impossible to cook or eat without fuel and water (26).
Israel’s government and military cut off water piped from Israel at the start of the war. When they reopened some pipes with reduced volume, they didn’t allow enough fuel for generators needed to run pumps for piped water, or desalination plants. The water available from Gaza itself is mostly contaminated with seawater and sewage, or rainwater contaminated with sewage, as the IDF destruction of housing and forced evacuations push ever more people into smaller areas of tents with no sanitation (27) – (30).
The IDF began restoring more water infrastructure in 2024, but the “safe areas” they order civilians to move to don’t have enough water supplies, and the IDF regularly kill civilians in them. Nor do Gazans’ houses have water since the IDF demolished most of them. So the rate of diseases has rocketed, many previously rare diseases have become common, and deaths from a combination of malnutrition, dehydration and disease are common, especially among children. (31) – (36).
There’s no electricity without enough fuel for generators, because in 2006 the IDF destroyed Gaza’s only power station to collectively punish the population for Hamas kidnapping Israeli soldier Gilad Shalit. Apart from having destroyed most of the housing in Gaza by controlled demolitions and bulldozers, so that even if there was electricity, there are few standing buildings with electrical wiring. So few ovens (37) – (39).
Some Gazans make fuel to sell by melting plastic to make money to try to buy food (40).
So the people denying the people of Gaza enough food, and killing them by denying them enough clean water, sanitation, housing, healthcare and medical supplies, are the Israeli government and the IDF, along with anti-Hamas Gazan militias they’re arming, and Gazan businessmen they have deals with. And the phony US and Israeli government funded “Gaza Humanitarian Foundation” is also part of this deliberate starvation campaign, using token amounts of aid distribution, to those lucky enough not to be shot, as a fig leaf.
(1) = NBC News 17 Apr 2025 ‘Aid groups describe dire conditions in Gaza as Israel says there is no shortage of aid’ https://www.nbcnews.com/news/world/gaza-aid-shortage-israel-blockade-hunger-rcna201379
(2) = timesofisrael.com 16 Apr 2025 ‘Katz says Israel will renew aid to Gaza via civilian firms to prevent Hamas theft’, https://www.timesofisrael.com/liveblog_entry/katz-says-israel-will-renew-aid-to-gaza-via-civilian-firms-to-prevent-hamas-theft/
(3) = timesofisrael.com 05 May 2025 ‘As aid embargo on Strip enters third month, hunger is stalking Gazans again’, https://www.timesofisrael.com/as-aid-embargo-on-strip-enters-third-month-hunger-is-stalking-gazans-again/
(4) = timesofisrael.com 09 Oct 2023 ‘Defense minister announces ‘complete siege’ of Gaza: No power, food or fuel’, https://www.timesofisrael.com/liveblog_entry/defense-minister-announces-complete-siege-of-gaza-no-power-food-or-fuel/
(5) = Haaretz.com 16 Jul 2025 ‘IDF Officer Overseeing Gaza Aid Deliveries to Step Down After Right-wing Attacks’, https://www.haaretz.com/israel-news/2025-07-16/ty-article/.premium/idf-officer-overseeing-gaza-aid-deliveries-to-step-down-after-right-wing-attacks/00000198-13a8-d3be-a5bc-33fb33550000
(6) = Jerusalem Post 28 Aug 2024 ‘Chief of Staff Herzi Halevi appoints Elad Goren as new Head of Humanitarian-Civilian effort in Gaza’, https://www.jpost.com/breaking-news/article-816729
(7) = timesofisrael.com 05 Jun 2025 ‘Israel providing guns to Gaza gang to bolster opposition to Hamas’, https://www.timesofisrael.com/israel-providing-guns-to-gaza-jihadist-gang-to-bolster-opposition-to-hamas/
(8) = Haaretz.com 17 Sep 2025 ‘'Will Blow Up in Our Faces' Israel Using Gazan Militias for Military Operations in Exchange for Pay and Territory’ https://www.haaretz.com/israel-news/2025-09-17/ty-article/.premium/idf-shin-bet-using-gazan-militias-for-military-operations-in-exchange-for-pay-and-land/00000199-5822-d0dc-afdb-dab715ac0000
(9) = BBC News18 Nov 2024 ‘Almost 100 Gaza food aid lorries violently looted, UN agency says’, https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/c5ypjd7gepmo
(10) =Times of Israel 16 Feb 2024 ‘US envoy: IDF killed Palestinian cops escorting Gaza aid convoy, leading them to refuse missions’, https://www.timesofisrael.com/liveblog_entry/us-envoy-idf-killed-palestinian-cops-escorting-gaza-aid-convoy-leading-them-to-refuse-missions/
(11) = theguardian.com 30 Aug 2024 ‘Aid agency says men killed by Israeli airstrike on convoy were a local escort’, https://www.theguardian.com/world/article/2024/aug/30/aid-agency-says-convoy-members-killed-by-israeli-airstrike-were-a-local-escort
(12) =Le Monde 15 Nov 2024 ‘In Gaza, humanitarian supplies looted right in front of the Israeli army’ https://www.lemonde.fr/en/international/article/2024/11/15/in-gaza-humanitarian-supplies-looted-right-in-front-of-the-israeli-army_6732902_4.html
(13) = theguardian.com 17 Oct 2024 ‘‘I hate the night’ Life in Gaza amid the incessant sounds of war’, https://www.theguardian.com/world/ng-interactive/2024/oct/17/i-hate-the-night-life-in-gaza-amid-the-incessant-sounds-of-war
(14) = haaretz.com 05 Aug 2025 ‘'Survival of the Strongest': Gaza Looters Wreak Havoc as Aid Seekers Remain Empty-handed’, https://www.haaretz.com/middle-east-news/2025-08-05/ty-article-magazine/.premium/survival-of-the-strongest-gaza-looters-wreak-havoc-as-aid-seekers-remain-empty-handed/00000198-7a1e-d7c7-a5d8-7f1e7f2e0000
(15) = The Economist 14 May 2024 ‘A shadowy wartime economy has emerged in Gaza’,
https://www.economist.com/middle-east-and-africa/2024/03/14/a-shadowy-wartime-economy-has-emerged-in-gaza
(16) = haaretz.com 12 Aug 2025 ‘Dates Are 'Luxury' – and Other Ways Israel Hinders Aid Trucks From Reaching Starving Gazans’ https://www.haaretz.com/israel-news/2025-08-12/ty-article-magazine/.premium/dates-are-luxury-and-other-ways-israel-hinders-aid-trucks-from-reaching-starving-gazans/00000198-9e25-d1fc-a3d8-feadb97a0000
(17) = theguardian.com 22 July 2025 ‘Eleven-minute race for food: how aid points in Gaza became ‘death traps’ – a visual story’ https://www.theguardian.com/global-development/2025/jul/22/food-aid-gaza-deaths-visual-story-ghf-israel
(18) = Haaretz.com 27 Jun 2025 ‘'It's a Killing Field': IDF Soldiers Ordered to Shoot Deliberately at Unarmed Gazans Waiting for Humanitarian Aid’ https://www.haaretz.com/israel-news/2025-06-27/ty-article-magazine/.premium/idf-soldiers-ordered-to-shoot-deliberately-at-unarmed-gazans-waiting-for-humanitarian-aid/00000197-ad8e-de01-a39f-ffbe33780000
(19) = ITV News 21 Jul 2025 ‘Rare whistleblower account describes deadly chaos at GHF's aid distribution points’, https://www.itv.com/watch/news/rare-whistleblower-account-describes-deadly-chaos-at-ghfs-aid-distribution-points/prbty0x
(20) = CBS News 21 Aug 2025 ‘Eyewitness says American subcontractors at Gaza aid sites fired at Palestinians’, https://www.cbsnews.com/news/eyewitness-says-american-subcontractors-at-gaza-aid-sites-fired-at-palestinians/
(21) = BBC news 03 Jul 2025 ‘Gaza aid contractor tells BBC he saw colleagues fire on hungry Palestinians’, https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/cnvmry71q5yo
(22) = BBC news 25 Jul 2025 ‘'I witnessed war crimes' in Gaza, former worker at GHF aid site tells BBC’ https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/videos/cy8k8045nx9o
(23) = See (16) above
(24) = see (16) above
(25) = See (16) above
(26) = BBC News 26 Jul 2025 ‘What is inside the GHF food aid box being distributed in Gaza?’,
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/cd787er1qz4o
(27) = timesofisrael.com 15 Oct 2023 ‘Israel says it is restarting water supply to southern Gaza Strip’ https://www.timesofisrael.com/israel-says-it-is-restarting-water-supply-to-southern-gaza-strip/
(28) = timesofisrael.com 28 Oct 2023 ‘Amid concern for humanitarian situation, how much water and power does Gaza have?’ https://www.timesofisrael.com/amid-concern-for-humanitarian-situation-how-much-water-and-power-does-gaza-have/
(29) = BBC News 26 Aug 2024 ‘Diseases spread in Gaza as sewage contaminates camps and coast’, https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/c2kjzk75eplo
(30) = timesofisrael.com 16 Aug 2025 ‘Some Gazan families turn to drinking unclean water as they battle heat, thirst’ https://www.timesofisrael.com/some-gazan-families-turn-to-drinking-unclean-water-as-they-battle-heat-thirst/
(31) = timesofisrael.com 05 Jun 2024 ‘How Israel worked to renew Gaza’s water supply amid the war, with help from locals’, https://www.timesofisrael.com/how-israel-worked-to-renew-gazas-water-supply-amid-the-war-with-help-from-locals/
(32) = Reuters 11 Sep 2025 ‘Overcrowded camps force Palestinians back to Gaza City danger’ https://www.reuters.com/world/middle-east/with-nowhere-else-shelter-palestinians-displaced-gaza-return-city-under-israeli-2025-09-11/
(33) = CNN 12 Dec 2023 ‘Bloody diarrhea, jaundice, hepatitis: Thousands fall ill in war-ravaged Gaza amid spike in infectious diseases’, https://edition.cnn.com/2023/12/12/middleeast/gaza-diseases-spread-what-we-know-intl
(34) = The Lancet 29 May 2025 ‘Deterioration of health outcomes in Gaza: 19 months of protracted conflict’ https://www.thelancet.com/journals/lancet/article/PIIS0140-6736(25)00812-8/fulltext#:~:text=and%20April%2C%202024%2C%20a%20sharp,and%20mobile%20clinics%20in%20Gaza
(35) = Independent.co.uk 23 Aug 2025 ‘Israel destroyed Gaza’s water plants. Now a deadly condition is spreading like wildfire’,
https://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/middle-east/gaza-water-israel-acute-flaccid-paralysis-b2813953.html
(36) = theguardian.com 12 Aug 2025 ‘‘It’s a horrible picture’: Gaza faces new threat from antibiotic-resistant disease’, https://www.theguardian.com/world/2025/aug/12/gaza-antibiotic-resistant-disease
(37) = B’TSelem Sep 2006 ‘Act of Vengeance: Israel's Bombing of the Gaza Power Plant and its Effects’ https://www.btselem.org/publications/summaries/200609_act_of_vengeance
(38) = Haaretz.com 17 Jul 2025 ‘New Satellite Data Shows: Gaza Devastation Scale Greater Than Estimated, at Least 70 Percent of Buildings Leveled’, https://www.haaretz.com/israel-news/2025-07-17/ty-article-magazine/.premium/satellite-data-shows-at-least-70-percent-of-gaza-buildings-leveled/00000198-12de-d9c7-af98-7adffc8f0000
(39) = BBC News 18 Jul 2025 ‘Israel levelling thousands of Gaza civilian buildings in controlled demolitions’ https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/resources/idt-33fccfbe-abcc-4af1-bdd2-632b2787cf59
(40) = Reuters 12 Sep 2024 ‘Gazans burn plastic waste to produce fuel’, https://www.reuters.com/world/middle-east/gazans-burn-plastic-waste-produce-fuel-2024-09-12/
