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Famine in Gaza is no longer a speculative threat, nor is it merely a rhetorical tool to shame the international community into action. It is now a brutal, undeniable fact. The situation has evolved from a humanitarian crisis into a full-blown catastrophe and the numbers speak for themselves. According to the UN, 96 percent of Gaza’s population faces acute food insecurity. The Integrated Food Security Phase Classification warns that at least 500,000 people are living under “catastrophic” conditions — one step before mass starvation.

These are not projections. They are the present realities. Gaza, already strangled by an 18-year blockade, is now walking barefoot into famine under the shadow of total siege and relentless bombardment. The current Israeli assault, which began in October 2023, has not only flattened entire neighborhoods and displaced more than 1.7 million people, it has also systematically targeted the infrastructure that makes survival possible: bakeries, food distribution centers, water facilities and even the UNRWA aid warehouses that once formed the backbone of humanitarian relief.

Hospitals are collapsing. Children are dying — not only from bombs, but from hunger. Videos and photographs released by health workers in Khan Younis and northern Gaza show toddlers with protruding ribs, skeletal arms and lifeless eyes. Mothers have been filmed weeping as they try to feed their children with boiled grass and stale bread mixed with animal feed. These are not isolated cases — they are the norm in a place where malnutrition is spreading faster than any ceasefire can catch up.

In previous conflicts, Gaza’s suffering was often buried under the weight of geopolitical calculations and narratives of moral equivalence. This time, the truth has become too grotesque to ignore. The UN has repeatedly stated that Gaza is on the brink of famine. In June, the World Food Programme declared that 100 percent of Gaza’s population is “food insecure” — a statistic unprecedented in modern times. In March, famine was declared in northern Gaza by multiple humanitarian agencies, citing more than 30 children dying of starvation in just two hospitals. The rest of the deaths go undocumented, with bodies buried under rubble or in makeshift graves.

To continue treating Gaza’s starvation as a “pressure tactic” used by Palestinian officials or international nongovernmental organizations is to participate in a lie that masks a genocide in progress. What we are witnessing is not a food crisis born of natural disaster or logistical failure. It is manufactured. It is the deliberate denial of food, water and medicine as a weapon of war — what international law classifies as collective punishment and, in some interpretations, genocide.

Let us call it what it is: engineered starvation. And it is working.

The scenes unfolding in Gaza are reminiscent of the worst famines in modern history: Ethiopia in the 1980s, Sudan’s Darfur and the besieged cities of Syria. But there is one critical difference: never has the international community had such real-time access to the suffering — drone footage, eyewitness testimonies, satellite images — and still failed to meaningfully intervene. We cannot say we did not know. We know everything and yet we are doing nothing. Or worse — we are enabling.

Standing with Gaza is no longer a political choice or a symbolic gesture — it is an existential test of our humanity.

Hani Hazaimeh

The Biden administration continued to send military aid to Israel, including bombs and surveillance technologies, despite multiple reports from Amnesty International, Human Rights Watch and even former UN officials calling for arms embargoes. European leaders offer lukewarm appeals for “humanitarian pauses” while failing to impose any meaningful consequences.

This is no longer about political alliances, strategic partnerships or counterterrorism narratives. Standing with Gaza is no longer a political choice or a symbolic gesture — it is an existential test of our humanity. In the face of children starving to death on live television, neutrality becomes complicity. Silence becomes endorsement.

What is more, supporting Gaza today is not a matter of political affiliation or ideological alignment. It is not reserved for Muslims, Arabs or left-leaning activists. It is a universal moral imperative. Every human being who still believes in dignity, in life, in the right of a child to eat and sleep safely, has a role to play. This is not about Hamas. This is about humanity.

The flood has reached its limit. The time for cautious statements and deferred action is over. The international system, including the UN Security Council and major humanitarian agencies, is facing a crisis of legitimacy. If these bodies cannot prevent the slow death of an entire population by hunger, what are they for? What is the value of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights if it cannot be applied to Gaza? What purpose does international law serve if starvation tactics are used with impunity?

There must be steps taken — now. First, an immediate and unconditional ceasefire is the only way to begin halting the famine. Second, the complete and unrestricted entry of humanitarian aid must be guaranteed by a binding international resolution, not vague promises. Third, accountability must follow. War crimes, including the deliberate starvation of civilians, must be investigated and prosecuted, no matter the perpetrator.

Finally, there is a role for all of us as individuals. Speak up. Do not allow this atrocity to continue in your name. History will remember what we did — or did not do — when Gaza cried out not for help but for bread.

In 2025, the world is being tested not just by war but by its own conscience. Will we choose humanity or will we rationalize genocide with politics and diplomatic fatigue? Gaza is dying, not in silence but in full view of the world.

Let history record that we saw — and that some of us refused to look away.

• Hani Hazaimeh is a senior editor based in Amman. X: @hanihazaimeh