International NGOs denounce a "famine visible to the world" in the Gaza Strip.

Leading international humanitarian organizations unanimously condemned the situation in the Gaza Strip on Friday following the official declaration of a state of famine in Gaza City and its surrounding areas. This is a "final and inevitable" catastrophe engineered by Israel, the effects of which will be irreversible for many children in the enclave, according to Save the Children, Plan International, Oxfam, and Action Against Hunger.

"The world has watched as children have suffered the unthinkable for nearly two years in Gaza, and now we have confirmation that hundreds of thousands are slowly being condemned to starvation," said Inger Ashing, executive director of Save the Children International.

"All of Gaza is being systematically and deliberately subjected to starvation, and children are paying the highest price. The world has failed to act. This man-made famine is the final and inevitable result of the Israeli government's use of hunger as a weapon of war," he concluded. For Ashing, this catastrophe could have been avoided and "there is no world leader who didn't know this was coming."

Action Against Hunger has warned of a rapid deterioration in the situation. Its teams in the Gazan town of Deir al-Bala, threatened by imminent famine, report that it is currently recording the highest number of cases of severe acute malnutrition in the city since the start of its nutritional operations in Gaza in 2024.

The NGO also warns that local food production is nearly impossible, as "only 1.5 percent of Gaza's arable land is accessible and undamaged," adding that "inflation has caused the prices of basic foodstuffs to increase by 4,000 percent compared to pre-October 2023 prices, making basic commodities unaffordable."

For his part, Oxfam's Food Security and Livelihoods Coordinator, Mahmud Alsaqqa, has attributed the crisis "in its entirety" to Israel's blockade of food and vital aid, "a terrible consequence of Israeli violence and its use of hunger as a weapon of war."

"The population of the Gaza Strip is suffering from deliberate starvation, relentless bombing, and forced displacement. All of this is part of the Israeli genocide," he denounced.

Plan International has managed to bring 10 truckloads of food into Gaza since August 6, enough to feed 45,000 people for three days, but the NGO warns that much more is needed to meet the needs of a starving population.

In response to the famine declaration, Plan International's global humanitarian director, Unni Krishnan, denounced, "The dire consequences of Israel's use of hunger as a weapon of war and its blocking of humanitarian aid are devastatingly evident to all.

"No conflict should ever reach this point. What we are seeing today in Gaza is a completely manufactured and preventable catastrophe that is leaving more than one million Palestinian children, and 2.2 million people in total, struggling to survive," he added.

"The famine in Gaza is not a failure of logistics or aid; it is the result of a brutal war and deliberate starvation," Krishnan condemned. "We demand, without delay, an immediate and sustained ceasefire, a complete halt to arms transfers to Israel, and the complete lifting of Israel's illegal blockade on humanitarian aid."

Finally, Erika Guevara-Rosas, Amnesty International's Senior Director of Research, Advocacy, and Campaigns, described the famine declaration as "a devastating confirmation of what humanitarian and human rights organizations, including Amnesty International, have been warning about for months."

"This famine is a direct consequence of Israel's deliberate campaign of starvation in Gaza," Guevara-Rosas added, referring to a "totally man-made, deliberately orchestrated, and preventable catastrophe."

"The deliberate obstruction of humanitarian aid, the destruction of vital infrastructure, and the direct killing of civilians are a clear manifestation of how Israel is imposing living conditions calculated to bring about the physical destruction of the Palestinian population in Gaza as part of its ongoing genocide," he added, before recalling that this statement comes at a time when Israel is about to begin its occupation of Gaza City.

Launching such an offensive amid persistent famine, Amnesty adds, would not only lead to further massive violations of humanitarian law, but would also deliberately and exponentially intensify Palestinian suffering.

Finally, Doctors Without Borders (MSF) has taken the opportunity to condemn the escalation of the Israeli offensive in Gaza with its imminent land invasion into Gaza City. The head of the NGO's emergency response in the Palestinian enclave, Amande Bazerolle, has declared herself "horrified" by the "intensification of Israeli massacres" in the city, where "they are razing entire neighborhoods."

These attacks, in the midst of a declared famine, make it "impossible to imagine anything more cynical: people dying of hunger while Israeli forces invade and destroy any remaining life."

MSF denounces that this combination "will lead to a complete and absolute humanitarian disaster" and as Israeli forces "accelerate their campaign of genocide and ethnic cleansing by expanding their military ground invasion to Gaza City, Palestinians trapped there will face hunger, disease and death."

"We've seen this repeatedly before: the massive destruction of civilian infrastructure, the forced displacement of millions of people to ever-shrinking, uninhabitable areas, and the systematic denial of food, water, and aid," he said.