ICSPR Call to Action: Stop the Famine and Genocide – Protect Gaza’s Residents from Death and Destruction

Date: July 26, 2025

Press Release

Call to Action: Stop the Famine and Genocide – Protect Gaza’s Residents from Death and Destruction

The International Commission to Support Palestinian People’s Rights (ICSPR) warns of a catastrophic collapse of the humanitarian situation in the Gaza Strip. More than 2.3 million Palestinians—mostly children and women—face the threat of death by starvation and disease, as the Israeli military occupation continues to use mass starvation as a tool within its ongoing genocide for 22 months.

This crime is being committed through a total blockade and a deliberate restriction on aid entry, now persisting for 147 consecutive days. This has resulted in an escalating multi-layered catastrophe. Gaza’s residents have now reached Phase 5 (full-scale famine) and Phase 4 (emergency famine) according to UN classifications, as documented by the World Food Programme (WFP) and FAO reports. The Gaza Strip requires over 500 humanitarian aid trucks and 50 fuel trucks daily, yet the occupation allows only a minimal number—no more than 30 trucks after long delays. Worse, the occupation deliberately targets civilians gathered at aid points and attacks civil protection teams in an apparent intent to spread chaos, looting, humiliation, and systematically deny Palestinians their right to food, water, medicine, electricity, and fuel.

The famine has already claimed the lives of at least 127 civilians, including 14 deaths in less than 48 hours, 4 of whom were children. Around 270 patients have died due to starvation and lack of medicine. According to the Ministry of Health, 26,677 documented cases of malnutrition have reached hospitals. The WFP reported that one-third of Gaza’s population suffers from complete food deprivation for several days, while 80% of families survive on one meal every 48–72 hours. Over 1 million children are suffering from severe malnutrition, including 260,000 under the age of five whose lives are in danger and urgently need food and medical care. Medical professionals warn of a looming massacre that could claim the lives of over 100,000 children under two years old, including 40,000 infants, due to the lack of baby formula and closure of aid crossings. Thousands of mothers are forced to feed their babies only water due to the complete absence of formula and nutritional supplements.

The Ministry of Health also reported a 150% increase in waterborne diseases, as water is either non-potable or severely scarce. Widespread diseases include diarrhea, cholera, and others spreading like wildfire among the forcibly displaced in overcrowded camps that occupy less than 10% of Gaza’s area and lack the most basic living conditions. The healthcare system is collapsing: over 84% of hospitals are nonfunctional, and 86% of health services have ceased. There is a 90% shortage in medicines, medical supplies, and fuel. 24,000 patients and wounded are at risk of death due to lack of treatment, nutrition, and potable water, while infants and newborns are dying without incubators, nutritional support, or oxygen devices. The famine also threatens the lives of 55,000 pregnant women, many of whom face miscarriage or death due to hunger.

Severe skin, gastrointestinal, and waterborne diseases such as cholera, typhoid, anemia, and polio are spreading amid a lack of clean drinking water and sanitation. 50,000 pregnant women face life-threatening conditions, and infants and newborns are in mortal danger due to the lack of life-saving equipment and medical support.

Additionally, as part of the ongoing genocide and starvation crimes, ICSPR documented the killing of 41 starving civilians seeking aid on Friday and Saturday near U.S.-Israeli aid distribution points in the Zikim area (northern Gaza) and Morag (southern Gaza), including a woman. This brings the number of starving civilians killed to 1,120, with 7,370 injured by Israeli fire since the beginning of aid entry to Gaza via the so-called “Gaza Humanitarian Foundation”—an entity that has turned its centers into death traps and humiliation zones.

Moreover, on Friday alone, ICSPR documented the killing of 89 civilians and injury of 467 others in various incidents where the occupation forces deliberately targeted families, displaced persons, and road travelers. This raises the death toll of the ongoing genocide since October 7, 2023, to over 60,000 martyrs, with 144,000 injured (who reached hospitals), and around 14,000 still missing under the rubble.

ICSPR holds the Israeli occupation and the United States of America fully responsible for the crime of genocide and systematic starvation. It condemns the deliberate sabotage of all ceasefire efforts and views this as clear evidence of an intent to transform Gaza into an uninhabitable disaster zone through killing, destruction, and displacement.

This conduct constitutes a flagrant challenge to the rulings of the International Court of Justice, the Geneva Conventions, the Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide, UN resolutions, and basic human rights standards. ICSPR also expresses grave concern over the UN’s continued reluctance to declare Gaza a famine-stricken area, despite meeting all legal and health criteria.

ICSPR strongly condemns the ongoing targeting and killing of starving civilians at U.S.-Israeli aid points and warns the world of the imminent humanitarian collapse in Gaza, where thousands may die due to the criminal use of hunger and the militarization of humanitarian aid.

The global failure to stop this genocide and humanitarian collapse is a shameful complicity that enables the occupation to proceed with its crimes. While ICSPR appreciates the global protests, statements, and positions of international leaders opposing the genocide and calling for an end to the siege, it calls for converting this international outrage into effective steps to save the remaining lives in Gaza.

ICSPR Demands:

• The international community must take serious action to impose sanctions on Israel to compel it to halt the genocide, starvation, and siege.

• The United Nations must officially declare Gaza a famine zone, triggering immediate humanitarian intervention under international humanitarian law and the Responsibility to Protect (R2P) principle.

• The declaration must ensure the delivery of food, fuel, medicine, baby formula, and the opening of humanitarian corridors and safe zones to protect and serve civilians.

• Freedom of operation must be guaranteed for international humanitarian organizations, especially UNRWA, to supervise the aid distribution.

• The U.S.-Israeli “Gaza Humanitarian Foundation” model must be abandoned and its organizers held accountable for crimes against starving civilians.

• All free people around the world, including unions, grassroots movements, and Palestinians in the diaspora, must continue their global mobilization to pressure their governments to fulfill their moral and legal duties to stop the genocide and save lives in Gaza.