Did Israel use famine as a weapon of war
After the brutal attack on Israel on October 7, 2023, lies about Israel that were already circulating before the war intensified, and as the battle continued, new ones emerged. One is that Israel used famine as a weapon of war. But were the people in Gaza suffering from intentional starvation, and if so, was Israel the cause of their lack of water and food? Did Israel use famine as a weapon of war?
Let’s look at some claims and then uncover the facts.
The Facts
Claim #1 – Israel Destroyed Gaza’s Water Infrastructure
Hamas alleged Israel had destroyed Gaza’s water infrastructure, which resulted in limited availability of it—and the water they did have was salty or contaminated.
In reality, a water crisis existed in Gaza before the war started. There are no streams, lakes, or other bodies of water in the Gaza Strip, so its people rely on desalination plants and Israeli pipelines (which were initially shut down at the onset of the war but quickly restarted and continued to run throughout the war). Hamas claimed Israel destroyed its northern pumping facility, but in truth, that pipeline was damaged in the October 7 attack—and Israel made great efforts to make repairs on its side and help the Palestinians fix it on theirs.
Claim #2 – Israel Is Starving Civilians
Palestinians also claimed Israel was starving Gazan civilians as a method of warfare by blocking the delivery of water, food, and fuel from getting into Gaza and destroying agricultural areas, making it impossible for them to survive. The media grabbed hold of this lie and ran with it, convincing the world Israel was using famine as a weapon of war.
But that narrative is also false. A June 2024 Integrated Food Security Phase Classification (IPC) Famine Review Committee (FRC) of the Gaza Strip concluded that there was indeed a risk of famine in Gaza if inadequate dietary aid continued. However, in that same report, the IPC FRC determined there wasn’t enough reliable information to declare a famine (and the evidence they did have indicated there was not).
The report acknowledged that the amount of food entering Gaza had only increased over the past few months, not decreased, and said that nearly 100 percent of daily caloric requirements were met from March to April of this year. Before the war, 70 trucks carrying food entered Gaza every day, but from the start of the war until late spring 2024, that number increased to an average of 124 per day. The Jerusalem Post reported more than 35,000 aid trucks entered Gaza since the start of the war. Sadly, much of the aid, including food, piled up for days or weeks on the Gaza side of the border because looting made distributing it too dangerous.
Though the FRC acknowledged there was a possibility of death by starvation, the reality of determining whether that could actually happen because of the situation in Gaza was impossible when Hamas faked death numbers, and water and food availability only increased.
Furthermore, a June 2024 Jerusalem Post article cited two Columbia University professors, Awi Federguen and Ran Kivetz, whose research and analysis revealed that the people of Gaza were not starving. They said the amount of food being supplied to Gaza was “more than sufficient to feed all 2.2 million Gazans, according to what is considered a normal diet in North America.” Federguen and Kivetz concluded the International Criminal Court (ICC), the United Nations, and Hamas were blaming Israel “for a famine that never was, hoping to stop the war.”
#3 Israel Fired upon Starving Gazans at Aid Stations
When the United States and Israel established their own aid channel carried out by the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation (GHF), every UN and their friends in humanitarian NGOs immediately began a campaign to stop it. They did not want aid delivered to the Palestinians outside of UN channels because then it could not be stolen by Hamas or sold on the black market for profit. As part of their campaign, they used a disgruntled GHF aid worker who accused the IDF of being ordered to fire at hungry Gazans seeking food, who showed a photo of a child he claimed was later killed. The IDF denied any such orders and said that sometimes they must fire into the air to prevent stampedes. It was later proved that the young boy had not been killed and was with family.
Was Israel Really Using Famine as a Weapon of War?
Starving civilians as a weapon of warfare violates International Humanitarian Law (IHL). Under the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court (ICC), it is considered a war crime. But Israel never intentionally starved Palestinians—rather, the Jewish State delivered more food to Gaza than ever before. If the United Nations had distributed it properly and Hamas didn’t hijack it, the people in Gaza would have had all the food they needed. Undoubtedly, people suffered in Gaza during the war. But there was not a famine—and even if there were, we must place blame where it belongs: on Hamas.
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Dr. Susan Michael is the U.S.A. Director of the International Christian Embassy Jerusalem, Director of the American Christian Leaders for Israel network and creator of the Israel Answers website. She is the author of Encounter the 3D Bible and hundreds of articles located on her blog.
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