Understanding Gaza's Starvation within Israel’s Campaign

In October 2023, Israel imposed a complete siege on Gaza, cutting off water, food, gas, and electricity – a clear act of collective punishment identified in international law as a war crime. While Israel subsequently did begin to allow some of these services, supplies remained severely restricted , with total siege reimposed in areas of IDF operations. Israel reimposed a full blockade on Gaza in the beginning of March 2025 amid tepid Western criticism. Without any food or aid entering the Strip, the population began to starve . Dozens are known to have died from malnutrition, with the true toll likely far higher. Minute quantities of food have begun entering Gaza through the US-Israeli aid agency , but the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation lacks the infrastructure – and the political neutrality – to stave off famine in the Strip.

Yet Israel’s starvation of Gaza should not elicit surprise from international onlookers. Over the course of its twenty-month campaign in Gaza, the Israel Defence Forces (IDF) has attempted to destroy every facet of life in Gaza, from eradicating infrastructure to mass killings of Palestinians.

This article argues that starving a population is but a natural extension of IDF efforts in Gaza, while examining the claim that this campaign constitutes ‘genocide’.

The Destruction of Gaza

While Hamas’ presence in civilian areas is used to justify the scale of devastation seen in Gaza, the embedding of combatants within civilian infrastructure and populations is not a new phenomenon, nor does it permit a military free rein to destroy the area in question. Urban warfare against an insurgent force is nearly always a bloody affair , but both sides – especially the military with overwhelming firepower – are strictly constrained in their conduct , particularly when human shields are being used. The IDF has flouted these obligations, engaging in a campaign of disproportionate violence that has systematically destroyed every aspect of Palestinian life in the Strip.

Infrastructure

While the technological sophistication of the IDF permits a high degree of precision when desired , using large munitions – most notably 2000-pound bombs – and unguided munitions in a discriminate manner is nearly impossible in such densely populated urban areas. The IDF’s air campaign has used these munitions to great effect, destroying nearly all of Gaza’s civilian infrastructure . Beyond mere collateral damage, education , telecommunications , sewage , electrical , medical , and water infrastructure has been specifically targeted by the IDF. Israeli ground units have engaged in excessive, arbitrary destruction of civilian infrastructure , often with little or no military justification provided. Whole sections of cities have been flattened by airstrikes and demolitions, with the long term cost in lives unknown.

Furthermore, the IDF has repeatedly conducted strikes on civilian refuges and so-called ‘safe zones’ , while hospitals have also come under frequent heavy attack . While protected objects can lose their protected status under certain circumstances, the threshold is high , and the IDF has rarely met the criteria to justify such attacks. Instead, few of the attacks are directed at even ostensibly legal military targets, with the scale of the attacks – alongside IDF statements (see below) – indicating an attempt to render the infrastructure of the Strip unable to support life.

Life

From the first days of the war, the IDF demonstrated a tolerance for massive civilian casualties in Gaza, mainly inflicted via airstrikes. While a degree of civilian fatalities is to be expected in large military operations, it can only be considered permissible under international law if the actions are proportionate and discriminate , along with other considerations .

Since 7 October 2023, over 54,000 Palestinians have been killed by the IDF, with unknown thousands buried under rubble. One third of these deaths were children. Despite questions about their reliability, these figures have been proven to be credible . Reportedly, according to the IDF’s own figures, civilians accounted for over 80% of those killed since Israel broke the original terms of the ceasefire which operated in Gaza between January and March 2025. In terms of individual strikes, Israel killed at least 126 Palestinian civilians to eliminate a mid-level commander in Jabalia, and frequently kills dozens for low- or mid-level Hamas militants. In their June 2024 operation to rescue four hostages, the IDF killed over 200 Palestinian civilians . The IDF has demonstrated such a high tolerance of Palestinian deaths in both individual strikes and as an overall military campaign that they could only reasonably be considered disproportionate .

Yet the killing of large numbers of Palestinian civilians extends beyond accepting a high level of collateral damage, with civilians and specifically protected persons targeted by the IDF. No less than 65 doctors and nurses confirmed treating dozens of Palestinian children for single gunshot wounds to the head or chest – a prima facie case of the deliberate targeting of children . The UN added Israel to its list of states and armed groups that have committed violations against children, joining the ranks of Russia, the SAF and RSF, Daesh, Myanmar, and Afghanistan.

Israeli soldiers have arbitrarily killed civilians with the use of drones , tanks , rifles , and dogs , according to journalists , local and Western medical personnel , as well as Israeli soldiers themselves. Medical personnel have been killed by the IDF at an unprecedented rate in this conflict, with medical insignia often specifically targeted in such strikes. The IDF has also killed more aid workers, as well as UN workers , than have been killed in any single crisis . According to the International Federation of Journalists – the biggest association for this profession – ten percent of Palestinian media workers and journalists in Gaza were killed over the past year, with many directly targeted by Israeli forces.

These deaths are marked by a number of mass killings committed by the IDF over the course of the war, including but not limited to the following incidents:

• In December 2023, the IDF struck the house of the former director of the Abu Yousef Al-Najjar Hospital, destroying the house and killing him and 29 other civilians .
• In February 2024, the IDF opened fire on a crowd of Palestinians seeking food from aid trucks, killing 118 civilians.
• In the Tel al-Sultan attack (also called the Rafah Tent Massacre ) of May 2024, the Israeli Air Force bombed a camp of displaced Palestinians, killing over 40 civilians.
• In late March 2025, at least fifteen medical workers in clearly marked vehicles were attacked and executed , with their vehicles crushed and dumped alongside the bodies in a mass grave.

None of these massacres had even the veneer of military utility. Mass graves have been uncovered in a number of areas following the withdrawal of Israeli forces, with some graves containing the bodies of women, old people, and the wounded while other bodies were found ‘ tied and stripped of their clothes’ , according to the UN human rights office.

Erasure of Homeland

Even before Trump’s calls for ethnically cleansing Gaza and recent Israeli efforts to remove its population , Israel had long faced accusations of forced displacement and ethnic cleansing. Throughout the war, the IDF issued mass evacuation orders – at times covering over 80% of the Strip – ostensibly to create ‘security zones’. These zones, meant to be cleared of enemy combatants , were both unlawful and ineffective, as Hamas repeatedly reconstituted in ‘cleared’ zones.

Evacuation orders , like the October 2023 order for 1.1 million Palestinians to leave northern Gaza cannot be justified by military necessity, instead, reflecting a broader effort to render Gaza unliveable. These orders were deemed impossible to execute safely , extremely disruptive to aid efforts , and inhumane in forcing over a million people into a tiny ‘ humanitarian zone ’. Civilians were forced to flee, often multiple times , under threat of being labelled as a combatant and killed. These actions amount to forcible transfer and, when combined with the intentional devastation of the Strip, may constitute ethnic cleansing .

Even if the Palestinian people are not entirely expelled from Gaza, the war has seen a systematic erasure of the Strip’s cultural and historical identity. The destruction extends beyond lives and homes, targeting Gaza’s religious, educational, cultural, and historical heritage . The IDF have damaged or destroyed nearly 1,000 mosques , all three active churches, 85% of schools , every university , libraries , cemeteries , museums , and dozens of other historical sites . Attacks on many of these sites did not have any semblance of military necessity, and can only plausibly be viewed as the intentional effort to erase Gaza’s heritage.

The Claim of Genocide

Besides the ongoing case at the International Court of Justice (ICJ), genocide scholars , humanitarian NGOS , and international law experts have all described the Israeli campaign as genocidal, with the ongoing starvation of Gaza suggested as the most recent iteration of genocidal acts.

The Israeli actions detailed above align with some of the described acts in the Genocide Convention, such as killing members of the group or inflicting conditions of life intended to bring about its physical destruction . Yet crucially, such actions could only be legally considered genocidal if combined with the intent to destroy a population in whole or in part . Intent is typically the most difficult element to prove when making the case for genocide. Proving intent in the charge of genocide typically requires inference through a careful analysis of state documents, leaks, and the actions themselves, as few genocidaires describe their intent openly. However, this is not true in the case of the Gaza Genocide.

Intent

Since 7 October 2023, genocidal statements from many leading members of the Israeli government have been commonplace, with the obvious intent of either dehumanising or blaming the entire population of Gaza, or inciting the destruction of the Strip and/or its population outright. Hundreds of these statements have been documented from Prime Minister Netanyahu (on numerous occasions ), both Ministers of Defence that served in the Israeli cabinet since the start of the current war, Israeli President Herzog , the Minister of Agriculture , the Minister of Heritage , the Minister of Communications , the Energy Minister , the Finance Minister , numerous members of the Knesset , the Israeli ambassador to the UK , dozens of army commanders and soldiers , army spokesperson Hagari , journalists , and other public figures .

Furthermore, even if none of these statements are taken at their face value, genocidal intent can be proven in a number of other ways, especially through patterns of conduct . For example, the military objective of killing the civilian leadership, administrators, and law enforcement (besides being illegal under international law) might qualify as genocidal given that the actions would destroy the ‘fabric’ of a protected group. Other notable arguments include the conditions inflicted upon the Palestinian life which are so destructive that Israel would have to know that they would result in the extermination of Palestinians in Gaza .

The recognition of this conflict as genocidal is not new, as international organisations and human rights experts have been warning of potential, imminent, and then ongoing genocide since October 2023 .

The Price of Inaction

While much attention has understandably fixated on the term 'genocide', the determination of violence as genocide is often a legally technical affair. Designating the war on the Palestinians of Gaza as genocide does carry significance both legally and politically, but legal and humanitarian obligations do not begin or end there. Beyond the argument of genocide, Israel has been committing clear and well-documented war crimes and crimes against humanity for 20 months, while its friendly and allied countries provided diplomatic and material support. For example, the UK, despite its denunciations of Israeli action and suspension of some arms licences , continues exporting arms and providing military support as reconnaissance missions over Gaza. Unless the international community takes meaningful action against Israel, there is no reason to expect that either this violence or the starvation of two million people will end.

The next steps are clear: governments must immediately suspend all arms sales, military aid, and military cooperation with Israel, impose sanctions , and support the international legal mechanisms investigating these atrocities. Accountability for the perpetrators and abettors will be a necessary step to justice and a critical measure of the international community’s willingness to uphold international humanitarian and criminal law without exception.

© RUSI, 2025.

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