As hunger in Gaza reaches catastrophic levels, ActionAid is calling for immediate and unrestricted access for humanitarian aid to be delivered at scale through the United Nations, including UNRWA, and other humanitarian agencies with the experience and capacity to respond. World leaders must act now.
Despite mounting need, Israeli authorities continue to systematically block, restrict, and militarise the distribution of humanitarian aid, in violation of international humanitarian law. The current system undermines core humanitarian principles of impartiality, neutrality, and independence, and is directly contributing to starvation.
A mother in Gaza shares: “I try to gather all the vocabulary of the Arabic language, but none of it can describe the horror we are going through. I am speaking these words while feeling the full weight of hunger. We are living a real tragedy.
“As a working woman, hunger exhausts me more than work itself. I return each day empty-handed, with nothing to feed my children. Bread is beyond reach, and tears are no longer enough to calm our children. Hunger is not temporary; it lives with us.”
Across Gaza, ActionAid staff and local partners continue to serve communities, even as they face starvation and dehydration themselves.
Faten Abu Shamalah, Project Coordinator, ActionAid partner Wefaq states: “For months, families have endured extreme hunger and dehydration. Farmland is inaccessible, markets are destroyed, and aid is blocked. People are surviving on canned food when it’s available. Fresh vegetables are nearly impossible to find, and unaffordable when they appear.
“Clean water is just as scarce. People drink contaminated water, and diseases are spreading. In desperation, families cook with wood, plastic, even garbage, due to the total absence of fuel and electricity.”
This is a starvation crisis that is being deliberately and systematically prolonged. Everyone in Gaza, children, mothers, humanitarian workers, is affected. As Israel continues to relentlessly bomb the starving people of Gaza, ActionAid demands an urgent ceasefire.
Alaa AbuSamra, ActionAid’s Emergency Response Manager in Gaza, says: “People are collapsing in the streets from hunger. Mothers feed their babies sugar water instead of formula. Children are skeletal. All food is either missing or unaffordable. Last night, the bombing was heavy, but hunger is the real weapon.
“The international community is complicit. Where are the aid trucks? Where are the sanctions that were promised? Instead of delivering relief, they’ve delivered a death sentence. Gaza is a nightmare, and this must end.”