Description

Photo:
Scene. Published by Palestinian Centre for Human Rights (PCHR)
____

Palestinian Centre for Human Rights (PCHR)
Aug 11, 2025

August 10, 2025 – The Palestinian Centre for Human Rights (PCHR) warns of the catastrophic consequences of Israel’s continued policy of using starvation as a weapon of war against the population of the Gaza Strip.

This policy exacerbates the suffering of thousands of patients and sentences them to death, such as patients with diabetes, cancer, and heart disease, premature infants, and individuals with chronic conditions requiring ongoing treatment and balanced nutrition.

PCHR emphasizes that these patients are currently facing a deadly combination of deprivation of healthy food, lack of medicine, and the inability to access treatment, after more than 85% of Gaza’s healthcare system was destroyed and most of its facilities were rendered inoperative.

They are also prevented from traveling to receive proper treatment outside the Gaza Strip due to unjust criteria imposed by the Israeli occupation authorities.

The Israeli Occupation Forces (IOF)’s policy has created a deadly equation, trapping thousands of patients between starvation and the worsening of their health conditions.

This policy has led to mass death among patients, as Gaza’s hospitals and health centers are inundated daily with frail bodies, while the death toll continues to rise sharply. Meanwhile, patients are deprived of any real chance of survival and are left to face a harsh and inhumane fate.

According to our researchers’ documentation, thousands of patients are experiencing severe deterioration in their conditions, clearly visible at hospitals’ departments across the Gaza Strip.

This deterioration has especially affected patients who previously relied on precise medical and nutritional regimens to stabilize their health and prevent further deterioration.

However, their bodies now endure starvation, leaving them vulnerable to their illnesses without the protection or immunity guaranteed by international law.

PCHR confirms that no more than 1,120 food aid trucks have entered Gaza over the past two weeks, according to official figures, representing only 14% of the Strip’s needs during that period.

The actual daily requirement is estimated at over 600 trucks to meet basic food and humanitarian needs and to halt the spread of famine. Therefore, the policy of starvation persists and even intensifies, with no real humanitarian corridors or safe and equitable aid distribution mechanisms in place.

This is evidenced by data from the Palestinian Ministry of Health (MOF) in Gaza, which reported 16 deaths due to severe malnutrition in the past 48 hours, bringing the total number of deaths related to famine and malnutrition to 217 as of the morning of Sunday, 10 August 2025, including 100 children.

This is a highly alarming indicator of the escalating catastrophe. According to PCHR’s follow-ups, most of the Gaza population shows clear signs of malnutrition, including pallor, wasting, and general weakness.

However, the most affected groups are those suffering from chronic and serious diseases, as starvation significantly worsens their conditions and often becomes a direct cause of death.

Dr. Hassan Khalaf, an internist at al-Helo Hospital in Gaza City, told PCHR’s researcher that the current situation warns of a looming health crisis threatening patients in the Gaza Strip.

He said, “Patients whose health conditions were stable are now deteriorating and on the verge of collapse, simply because they lack food or their medications are unavailable. For example, diabetic patients are not receiving their regular insulin doses and lack the most basic nutritional requirements, leading to a significant rise in cases of ketoacidosis—a deadly complication that occurs when the body burns fat instead of sugar for energy, causing blood acidity to increase. The tragedy is that after limited emergency interventions, the patient returns home only to face the same fate again. This situation applies to most patients whose health stability primarily depends on having a healthy and balanced diet aligned with their treatment regimens. Dr. Khalaf emphasizes, “the medical staff are also exhausted, suffering from hunger and fatigue, and are forced to work under inhumane conditions without adequate supplies or resources, which increases the risk of further collapse of the remaining hospitals and medical centers in the Gaza Strip.”

Moreover, the Israeli occupation authorities’ systematic starvation policy deprives cancer patients in the Gaza Strip of the healthy food necessary to combat the spread of the disease in their weakened bodies, leading to a severe deterioration in their health conditions.

They also suffer from a lack of medication and are denied treatment, whether in the Gaza Strip or abroad, due to the destruction of their specialized treatment centers and restrictions on their ability to travel freely to receive appropriate treatment abroad. PCHR has documented the suffering of cancer patients enduring this tragedy, including Maysa ‘Eliyan Kamel ‘Eliwa (38), who stated to PCHR’s researcher:

“My journey with leukemia began three years ago. Unfortunately, the disease spread to my right breast and lungs, and recently it reached my brain and left eye. Over the past few months, my health condition has severely deteriorated due to hunger and lack of treatment. I used to receive treatment through the MOH, and my condition was stable. But now, after the crossings were closed and the entry of medicine and food was blocked, I lost twenty kilograms in one month. I cannot sleep due to intense pain, and I cannot afford the cost of treatment or even painkillers, as the hospital can no longer provide them. Even chemotherapy doses have been reduced to accommodate everyone, and I cannot obtain the next dose because I cannot afford the cost of the preliminary dose, which we are usually required to purchase from private pharmacies due to its unavailability in government hospitals. With each day that treatment is delayed, the disease spreads further, especially since I do not eat food or drink anything that might ease its severity. I can’t even afford canned food, which is unsuitable and unhealthy for my medical condition. My son Zuhair (20) goes out daily to collect whatever he can from trucks near the Zikim military site northwest of Gaza. This daily risk could cost him his life, all in order to provide me and his siblings with a loaf of bread. Although I long for many foods recommended by doctors to ease my disease, I want nothing more than to receive proper treatment. I want to recover so I can stay by my children’s side. I want to raise my little daughter Yasmin, celebrate my daughter Arwa’s graduation from high school, and care for my daughter Menna Allah. However, I don’t know if this lack of treatment will enable me to be with them or take me away from them.”

The IOF continue to deprive approximately 244 thalassemia patients in the Gaza Strip of their right to treatment and healthcare by cutting off essential medicine supplies and enforcing a systematic policy of starvation.

This has resulted in a severe shortage of blood units vital for saving lives, amid the total collapse of the healthcare system and food security in the Gaza Strip.

These dire conditions have already claimed the lives of 45 patients, including 31 who died due to lack of treatment and proper nutrition — three of whom passed away recently.

PCHR documented the testimony of Fathiyah Mohammed Diab Jebril (55), the mother of patient Ahlam ‘Adnan Sa’dallah Jebril (29), who passed away in late July 2025 as a result of this deliberate deprivation policy. Fathiyah shared her story with PCHR’s researcher:

“Ahlam died on 26 July 2025 from severe complications caused by hepatomegaly and low blood pressure. The last months were the hardest for us, as it became almost impossible to obtain the medications she needed to remove excess iron, and the severe food shortages left her pale, weak, and frail. Like other patients, she relied on regular blood transfusions, but repeated delays in the entry of blood units due to Israeli restrictions caused serious complications that ultimately claimed her life. I never imagined she would leave me. Before the war, we hardly felt she was sick—she received her treatment regularly and followed a healthy diet that kept her condition as a thalassemia patient stable. But in recent months, our options have become painfully limited. She was forced to eat bread made from lentils and dukkah—a simple Palestinian spice blend—while we could not afford the overpriced vegetables that were available. What hurts me most is that my daughter died longing for food she could not have, and I could not give her. My only wish now is that other thalassemia patients-Ahlam’s friends-will be able to taste the food they love and receive their medicine regularly, so they are spared the harm that threatens their lives.”

PCHR affirms that the deliberate subjugation of these patients to deadly conditions through the deprivation of essential treatment and food constitutes a grave breach of international law and amounts to an act of genocide under Article 2 of the Genocide Convention.

PCHR stresses that Israel not only deprives the population of food and medicine, but also willfully violates its obligations under international humanitarian law towards civilians under occupation.

Under the Fourth Geneva Convention, the occupying power is obligated to ensure the provision of healthcare and food to the population, particularly to patients, and any measures resulting in their deprivation constitute a war crime.

Furthermore, the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court explicitly classifies the use of starvation as a method of warfare and the denial of humanitarian access to civilians as both a war crime and a crime against humanity- crimes that have been clearly reflect in Israel’s conduct in recent months.

PCHR considers the situation in the Gaza Strip to be a clear and deliberate implementation of the collective punishment policy prohibited under international law.

More than two million Palestinians are being deprived of the basic necessities for survival, while patients are left to face their fate under a suffocating, comprehensive siege that severs the lifeline of the population and deliberately and systematically blocks the entry of food and medicine.

Israel’s deliberate obstruction of all attempts to deliver humanitarian aid, its imposition of severe restrictions on access, and its exploitation of aid as a tool of political pressure constitute some of the gravest humanitarian and moral violations in modern history.

In light of the above, PCHR calls on the international community to uphold their legal and humanitarian obligations, end the prevailing policy of impunity enjoyed by the Israeli authorities, and urgently intervene to stop this catastrophe, particularly as it is expected to worsen amid Israeli threats to take control of Gaza City, home to one million Palestinians.

PCHR further calls on the United Nations and relevant agencies, foremost the World Health Organization and the World Food Programme, to take immediate action and exert pressure on the Israeli authorities to allow the entry of relief aid and medical supplies into the Gaza Strip without delay or conditions.

PCHR recalls the provisional measures issued by the International Court of Justice, which explicitly ordered the facilitation of the immediate and large-scale entry of humanitarian aid; failure to comply with these measures would pave the way for the continuation of the crime of genocide.