Stop Letting Gaza Starve: The World Must Act Now

The images emerging from Gaza that we bear witness to every day are heart-wrenching. As July closes, we are witnessing some of the deadliest moments of this ongoing catastrophe. Every twelve minutes, a Palestinian life is murdered by Israeli bombardment. Yet, the true horrors go beyond the bombs and the bloodshed. There is something much more insidious at play: the weapon of starvation.

The United Nations has reported that more than 1,000 Palestinians have been killed by Israel this month alone while attempting to access food. But these are not casualties of bombs, these are people, including children and the elderly, who have perished because they were starved from the simplest, most basic necessity for survival: sustenance. The desperate attempts to reach food have become nothing short of death traps. Gaza is suffocating, not only from airstrikes and military occupation but from hunger.

Behind the visible deaths, we have a silent genocide: the systematic starvation of an entire population. It is a slow, agonising process that has been engineered to perfection by the Israeli government. As Professor Alex de Waal, an expert on humanitarian crises, aptly said, it is “minutely engineered, closely monitored, precisely designed.” Israel’s ongoing siege, blocking vital food, water, and medical supplies, has turned Gaza into an open-air prison where death comes not just from bombs but from the very air they breathe.

The true tragedy lies in the human cost of this cruelty. I remember a year ago, I interviewed a  young Palestinian teacher who was attempting to educate children amid the chaos, amidst the ongoing genocide. She spoke of her dreams for a better future for the children she taught, children who were already scarred by the violence of occupation and airstrikes. Despite everything, she held on to the belief that education was their only hope for tomorrow. I kept in touch with her regularly, hoping, praying that her voice, her optimism, and the very survival of those children would endure.

But today, that teacher is starving. I have watched as the very people I’ve spoken to and fought for from a distance have suffered unimaginable horrors. Despite all the calls for aid, despite all my efforts to reach out, I feel powerless. I feel as though I am standing on the sidelines, watching a slow-motion tragedy unfold, and I cannot stop it. The thought that children who once dreamed of a future now struggle to stay alive is breaking my heart. I want to do more. I must do more. Yet, like the rest of us, I am shackled by the unyielding system of inaction, both from global powers and international bodies. This doesn’t stop us from sending aid and speaking out as much as we can and continuing to push for an end to this horror.

We are witnessing the deliberate destruction of Gaza. Israel claims that Hamas is responsible for the chaos, for the hunger. But they cannot hide behind that argument when  it is Israel who is  starving the children. It is Israel that has weaponised food and water, depriving an entire population of their most basic needs and we can all see it clearly. And yet, the UK and the US, Israel’s primary allies continue to support this genocide, offering diplomatic cover and weaponry while the death toll rises. They do not just fail to act, they enable the genocide.

I understand that condemnation is growing. I understand that voices across the globe are calling for justice, but condemnation alone is not enough. Words have done little to change the course of events. What matters is action. Sanctions, arms embargoes, halting trade deals, all of it must happen now, or the history books will forever mark this moment as one of the most shameful failures of international governance.

I have been part of many conversations in which people said, “We cannot turn a blind eye. We cannot let this happen.” Yet the failure to act has proven just how hollow those words were. Time and again, nations such as the UK and the US have turned a blind eye while allowing Israel to continue its policies of apartheid, segregation, and genocide. And in doing so, they are complicit in this mass killing, in the destruction of Gaza’s people, in the breaking of its children.

For those who argue that it’s too late, that we are too far gone, this is exactly why we need to act. The longer we delay, the worse the suffering becomes. Starvation in Gaza doesn’t just destroy lives in the moment; it ruins generations to come. Children who are starving today will suffer lifelong health consequences. Societies, once vibrant and full of hope, are being shattered. Gaza’s soul is being obliterated by this suffocating siege, and we all bear witness to it.

To my Palestinian brothers and sisters, to the teacher I once spoke to who is now fighting for her life, I see you. I hear you. I am fighting for you, even if it feels like the world has forgotten you. The world must wake up.  Many world leaders cannot keep pretending that this is not a genocide. This is the deliberate, calculated destruction of an entire population, and we must do everything we can to end it now.

It will take more than words to halt this genocide. It will take bold action. It will take the courage to stand up against Israel’s war crimes and to stop the UK and US from continuing to be complicit. Because as we sit back and let this continue, history will not ask us what we said. It will ask us what we did. And right now, we have done nothing enough.

The views expressed in this article belong to the author and do not necessarily reflect the editorial policy of Middle East Monitor.