29 April 2025
On Friday, April 25, the World Food Programme (WFP) announced it has completely run out of food stocks in Gaza.
Since March 2, 2025, the Israeli occupation has blocked the entry of all food, water, fuel, and humanitarian aid into the Gaza Strip. For nearly two months, Palestinians have been deliberately cut off from sustenance, and are being sentenced to death by engineered famine.
WFP-supported bakeries all shut down on March 31 as wheat flour and cooking fuel ran out. WFP’s food parcels, which were meant to last families two weeks, were also exhausted by the end of March. There are no more reserves. No more rations. The shelves are empty. The ovens are cold.
At the moment, there are over 116,000 metric tons of food assistance at Gaza’s borders, which would be enough to feed one million people for up to four months. But the Israeli occupation is refusing entry.
Gaza is being starved.
This is not just a humanitarian crisis. This human-made famine is a war crime unfolding in real time.
The food system in Gaza has already been destroyed by Israeli bombardment and siege, which intentionally targeted agriculture, farms, fisheries, water systems, sanitation facilities, and basic infrastructure.
The Israeli closure of borders has shattered the Gaza market, leading to catastrophic shortages and a terrifying surge in food prices. As of the first week of April, the Food Security Cluster reports that around 80% of households in Gaza depend entirely on humanitarian aid for food. And that aid has been forcibly collapsed by the Israeli occupation. 80% of families reported they could no longer even access markets, and 95% said they cannot afford food even if it were available. Food prices have skyrocketed between 150% and 700% over pre-genocide levels, and in some cases, by up to 1,400% compared to prices during the so-called ceasefire period. Essential food items like dairy products, eggs, fruits, and meat have completely disappeared from the market. Even staple vegetables like potatoes and onions have soared by over 1,000%. As of the first week of April, markets were operating at less than 40% capacity, with stocks expected to last no more than 1-2 weeks. It is now the end of April. Stocks are totally depleted.
Meanwhile, the energy crisis has exploded alongside the food crisis. Cooking gas prices have risen by 4,000%, forcing desperate families to scavenge for garbage and plastic just to build fires, risking their health and their lives in the process.
This famine is not an accident. It is a deliberate Israeli policy of genocide by starvation. The Israeli occupation is weaponizing the most basic human needs to ethnic cleanse the Palestinian people. The Israeli occupation has engineered the systematic destruction of an entire people’s ability to eat, to live, to exist.
Gaza is being crushed between engineered famine and genocidal violence.
At the same time, the Israeli occupation has expanded the so-called “buffer zone” between the Philadelphia and Morag Axis into a militarized strip that devours nearly 20% of Gaza’s entire land area. This involves bulldozing farmland, flattening homes, and ensuring that displaced Palestinians have no place to return. U.S. companies, including military contractors, are directly participating in building this infrastructure of apartheid and displacement. This construction is part of the ongoing war crime of destruction and appropriation of occupied territory, and serves to permanently sever Gaza’s connection to its land, economy, and future.
There is no neutrality in the face of starvation. There is no excuse for the world’s failure to act.
UAWC demands immediate, unconditional opening of all crossings into Gaza to allow unrestricted and unconditional entry of food, water, medicine, fuel, and humanitarian supplies. We demand an end to the Israeli siege of the Gaza Strip, accountability for its crimes, and immediate pressure to permanently halt this genocide. There must be international prosecution of starvation as a weapon of war and genocide under the Rome Statute and international humanitarian law. Next steps must prioritize restoration and rebuilding of Gaza’s food systems, led by Palestinians, not imposed by occupying forces or international agencies that perpetuate dependency.
There can be no negotiations with famine. No negotiations with genocide. Only the urgent and total end to the siege, and the liberation of Palestine.