ICSPR Exposes a Systematic Plan to Engineer Starvation and Chaos in Gaza and Calls for Urgent UN Intervention

Tuesday, June 10, 2025

Press Release
The International Commission (ICSPR) Exposes a Systematic Plan to Engineer Starvation and Chaos in Gaza and Calls for Urgent UN Intervention

The International Commission to Support Palestinian Rights (ICSPR) has revealed the contents of a legal briefing memorandum it addressed to several senior international officials, including UN Secretary-General António Guterres, ICC Prosecutor Karim Khan, the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, the Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights in the occupied Palestinian territories, the European Union, and the UN Fact-Finding Mission. The memorandum warns of a systematic plan led by Israeli occupation authorities, under the guise of “humanitarian action,” aimed at engineering starvation and chaos in the Gaza Strip, dismantling the social fabric, and replacing international agencies with private security networks.

Security Privatization of Humanitarian Work

The Commission stated in its memorandum that the occupation is working to privatize humanitarian and relief efforts by substituting non-governmental entities, seemingly “civil,” but in reality, directly supervised by the Israeli military and private U.S. and Israeli companies. A prominent example is the “Gaza Humanitarian Foundation” (GHF), established as an alternative to the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees (UNRWA), and operating through distribution centers located mainly in southern and central Gaza, especially within so-called “humanitarian corridors.”

According to ICSPR, these centers violate humanitarian and legal standards, collect biometric data from civilians, enforce harsh and degrading inspection procedures, and determine beneficiary lists based on security criteria, resulting in the exclusion of hundreds of thousands of families. This turns aid into a tool for political pressure and population control.

Conditional and Degrading Aid Distribution

ICSPR explained that the food rations provided through these centers fall far below minimum international standards, with individuals receiving only 1,750 calories per week, significantly less than the survival threshold. These rations are also distributed irregularly, forcing thousands of families to queue for hours under the scorching sun, often resulting in casualties. This was evident in the massacres at “Point 86” east of Al-Bureij and the “Caravans” area in Rafah, where over 110 civilians—including women and children—were killed, and more than 500 injured, either by occupation gunfire or stampedes driven by hunger and chaos.

Funding and Arming of Local Militias

The memorandum also exposes a dangerous development: the arming and funding of local armed groups to control border crossings and aid warehouses. These groups facilitate the movement of trucks affiliated with the new institutions while blocking access for Palestinian and international organizations. One such group, known as the “Abu Al-Shabab Battalion” active in Rafah, has reportedly forcibly obstructed aid distribution, extorted traders, and threatened local staff working with international agencies.

ICSPR emphasized that this represents a new model of “colonialism through chaos”, wherein civil society institutions are dismantled, and the public space is handed over to armed groups backed by the occupation. This is part of a broader strategy to fragment Gaza into “closed cantons”, each controlled by a local faction or private security firm under direct Israeli supervision.

Undermining UNRWA and International Agencies

ICSPR noted that Israeli authorities, supported by the U.S. administration, are systematically working to dismantle UNRWA’s role, through media defamation, field restrictions on staff, limitations on facilities, and blockades on aid entering through its channels. This aims to drain its funding and replace it with organizations serving the occupation’s agenda.

Such measures directly violate the rights of Palestinian refugees and undermine UN resolutions, particularly Resolution 302 of 1949 that established UNRWA, weakening the international community’s ability to offer neutral humanitarian responses in conflict zones.

Genocide by Non-Traditional Means

ICSPR asserted that the situation in Gaza goes beyond mere “siege” or “military aggression” and meets the threshold of genocide, as defined by the 1948 Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide. The use of hunger, denial of medical care, spread of chaos, prevention of aid, and use of civilians as hostages of famine are deliberate tools aimed at destroying the population physically, socially, and psychologically.

The memorandum stressed that the “chaos engineering” strategy is based on isolating areas from each other, preventing internal movement, inciting politically and security-motivated local conflicts, and destroying the local market through monopolies, raw material restrictions, and the targeting of merchants.

ICSPR’s Demands to the International Community

In conclusion, ICSPR called upon the international community, particularly the United Nations and the International Criminal Court, to take urgent and binding measures, including:

1. Immediate cessation of all forms of aggression and blockade against Gaza.

2. Launch of an independent international investigation into the crimes committed, especially massacres at aid distribution centers and the arming of local gangs.

3. Restoration of UNRWA’s full mandate and role, along with other international organizations, to deliver aid according to international standards, free of military interference.

4. Reorganization of the humanitarian operation under neutral international supervision, rejecting privatization efforts or politically conditioned aid.

5. Urgent monitoring by the UN Fact-Finding Mission of the operations of aid distribution centers and incoming truck convoys, ensuring neutrality.

6. Accountability for entities involved in establishing and supporting armed militias in Gaza, treating them as occupation proxies, not legitimate actors.

7. Revitalization of international criminal accountability mechanisms, targeting Israeli officials responsible for genocide and crimes against humanity.