Gaza's catastrophic hunger continues as aid remains blocked after ceasefire
By isabelle // 2025-10-24
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  • The Gaza hunger crisis remains catastrophic despite a ceasefire agreement.
  • Israel is systematically blocking nearly all lifesaving food and medical aid.
  • The UN confirms no fully functioning hospitals remain in Gaza.
  • Aid groups accuse Israel of arbitrarily rejecting essential supplies like food and tents.
  • This engineered famine is the brutal culmination of a 17-year Israeli blockade.
Two weeks after a ceasefire was supposed to bring relief to Gaza, a grim reality has set in. The hunger crisis remains catastrophic, with lifesaving aid still being systematically blocked by Israeli authorities. Despite promises of increased humanitarian access, only a fraction of the necessary food and medicine is reaching a starving population, leading to what aid groups describe as generational devastation. The World Health Organization chief, Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, delivered an unsettling assessment from Geneva. "The situation still remains catastrophic because what's entering is not enough," he stated. He confirmed there has been "no dent in hunger, because there is not enough food" since the ceasefire commenced on October 10. This contradicts the terms of the ceasefire agreement, which included ramping up aid deliveries. The numbers tell a story of engineered scarcity. The UN World Food Program aimed for 2,000 tonnes of aid to enter Gaza daily. Instead, only about 750 metric tonnes of food are getting in. This shortfall is directly caused by Israel keeping most crossings closed, with only two of the Israeli-controlled access points operational. This bureaucratic stranglehold ensures nutritional needs are not being met.

Aid blocked... and mocked

The consequences are measured in human suffering. At least a quarter of Gaza’s population is starving, according to UN warnings, and the effects of malnutrition will have generational impacts. A shocking 70 percent of newborns are now premature or underweight, a drastic increase from the 20 percent rate seen before October 2023. Forty-one aid organizations, including Oxfam and the Norwegian Refugee Council, have accused Israel of arbitrarily rejecting critical aid shipments. In a recent open letter, they revealed that between October 10 and 21, 99 requests by international NGOs to deliver aid were rejected. The blocked items include tents, food, medical supplies, and even children’s clothing, all of which should be unrestricted during a ceasefire. A director at the Palestinian NGO PARC, Bahaa Zaqout, explained the cruel irony of what little is allowed in. He cited biscuits, chocolate, and soda being permitted on commercial trucks, while essential items like seeds and olives are restricted. "Unfortunately, these do not respond to the minimum nutritional values required for children, women and the most vulnerable groups," he said.

The health system is shattered

The medical infrastructure lies in ruins, compounding the famine. Ghebreyesus reported that "there are no fully functioning hospitals in Gaza, and only 14 out of 36 are functioning at all." He warned of critical shortages of essential medicines, equipment, and health workers, creating a death trap for the injured and sick. The WHO chief also condemned the slow pace of medical evacuations, noting that "once-a-week medical evacuations are not enough." He stated that for some patients, "delays mean death," revealing that 700 people have died while waiting for permission to leave for treatment. He urged Israel to allow patients to travel to the West Bank immediately. This manufactured crisis did not emerge from a vacuum. It is the escalation of a 17-year blockade where Israel controlled every calorie entering the strip. A leaked 2008 document revealed a calculated policy to keep Gaza "on a diet." The current famine is that policy executed to its brutal, logical conclusion. The Gazan population is slowly being starved under the guise of security. With the UN confirming Gaza as an unprecedented humanitarian catastrophe where the entire 2.2 million population faces acute food insecurity (the highest proportion ever recorded in history), the silence of Western leaders and the ongoing blockage of aid is a testament to a profound moral failure.. For the parents watching their children waste away, ceasefire or not, the slow-motion genocide continues unabated. Sources for this article include: AlJazeera.com MiddleEastEye.net MiddleEastMonitor.com
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