ICSPR Israeli Occupation Intensifies Starvation of Gaza Strip Residents, Commits Crimes Against Starving Civilians, Targets Places of Worship, Aid Providers, and Prisoners
Date: July 28, 2025
Press Release
Israeli Occupation Intensifies Starvation of Gaza Strip Residents, Commits Crimes Against Starving Civilians, Targets Places of Worship, Aid Providers, and Prisoners
The International Commission to Support the Palestinian People’s Rights (ICSPR) expresses its strongest condemnation and denunciation of the escalation of systematic Israeli crimes against Palestinian civilians in the Gaza Strip, which have reached unprecedented levels of catastrophic famine in recent hours, in the context of an ongoing genocide and aggression since October 7, 2023, now entering its 651st day.
According to field data and ICSPR monitoring, the number of martyrs has risen to 58,667 and injuries to 139,974 since the beginning of the aggression, including 94 martyrs and 367 injuries in just the last 24 hours. Among them were 26 civilians killed in front of the American-Israeli distribution centers while trying to access food aid, raising the total number of “Bread Martyrs” to 877 and injuries to 5,666. Additionally, 4 martyrs were killed due to the Israeli bombing of Abu Helo School in Al-Bureij Camp, which was sheltering hundreds of forcibly displaced persons. Furthermore, the deliberate targeting of aid security personnel in northern Gaza resulted in the killing of 8 civilians, in a war crime aimed at spreading chaos and exacerbating famine. Israeli warplane attacks on residential neighborhoods and displacement tents have caused dozens of casualties among martyrs and wounded.
ICSPR strongly condemns the Israeli targeting of the Holy Family Church (Latin Monastery) in Gaza City, which was sheltering over 600 displaced persons, including 54 people with disabilities. The bombing with an Israeli artillery shell resulted in the martyrdom of 3 civilians: Saad Salameh (60), Fumieh Ayad (80), and Najwa Ibrahim Awad (75), and injured 6 others, including Father Gabriel Romanelli, the church’s priest. Parts of the church were destroyed, and dozens of citizens were displaced.
It is worth noting that on October 19, 2023, Israeli forces bombed St. Porphyrius Church, the third oldest church in the world, in addition to partially targeting and destroying two other churches in Gaza and approximately 1,000 mosques completely or partially destroyed, in flagrant violation of the protections afforded by international humanitarian law to religious sites and places of worship.
ICSPR: The Gaza Strip is facing an unprecedented stage of famine due to the use of starvation as a weapon and the militarization of humanitarian aid by the Israeli occupation. Famine now threatens the lives of the population, particularly women, children, the sick, and the elderly. More than 90% of the population is facing severe food insecurity due to the ban on humanitarian aid entry amid the complete closure of crossings since March 2 of this year, and the near-total destruction of local food production capabilities. Residents are forced to risk their lives to obtain scraps of food at American-Israeli aid distribution points, where they are deliberately targeted and killed while trying to reach food.
The severe starvation policy imposed on the Gaza Strip has resulted in the death of 69 children, the latest being 1.5-year-old Sanaa Al-Lahham. Deaths due to lack of food and medicine have reached 620 patients. The famine has also had severe effects on the health of pregnant mothers and their unborn children, in addition to 17,000 cases of acute malnutrition among children being treated in hospitals that are on the verge of collapse due to severe shortages in medicine, medical supplies, nutritional supplements, baby formula, and exhausted medical staff. Fuel shortages have hindered hospital generator operations. The Ministry of Health has announced the spread of malnutrition-related diseases among the population, who are suffering from fatigue, weight loss, and pallor. Tens of thousands of citizens are arriving daily at hospitals in critical conditions due to hunger.
ICSPR: The statements of Israeli National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir before the Supreme Court, in which he said he is “proud of starving prisoners,” constitute an official admission of the crime of starvation and denial of food and medical care to prisoners. He and the Israeli leaders must be held accountable for their crimes against prisoners in Israeli prisons, including starvation, torture, and medical negligence, which have caused the death of 78 prisoners since October 7, 2023. The most recent was prisoner Samir Mohammed Al-Rifai (53) from Jenin, who died due to torture, starvation, and medical negligence after being arrested from his home on July 10, 2025. It is worth noting that the Israeli army has carried out more than 18,000 arbitrary arrests, including 560 women, 1,450 children, and more than 3,629 administrative detainees without trial, while continuing crimes of enforced disappearance and denial of rights against Gaza prisoners.
ICSPR: The continued international silence and failure to stop the genocide, starvation crimes, collective punishment, and other war crimes in the Gaza Strip, West Bank, and Jerusalem paves the way for more crimes and assaults against civilians and allows the occupation to evade its legal responsibilities. It warns of the systematic Israeli policies aimed at exterminating, destroying, and erasing Palestinian presence. The occupation authorities deliberately subject the population of the Strip to catastrophic living conditions that worsen daily due to famine, water scarcity, lack of medicine, and the collapse of health and humanitarian services. This continues alongside the destruction of cities and neighborhoods, citizens’ properties, mass killings, daily massacres, and forced displacement of civilians, representing one of the most dangerous aspects of genocide. These acts aim to force the population through collective killing, starvation, thirst, and militarized aid distribution via the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation to move south toward detention camps being prepared — paving the way for emptying the Strip of its population and creating a new Nakba.
Based on the above, ICSPR records and demands the following:
ICSPR: Appreciates the position of the Egyptian Ministry of Foreign Affairs rejecting attempts to impose demographic change in Rafah or establish a tent city, and its repeated calls to stop the genocide and ensure the delivery of humanitarian aid. It commends the decision of the International Criminal Court to reject the cancellation of arrest warrants against Netanyahu and Gallant, and calls for accelerating and expanding ongoing investigations and issuing more arrest warrants against Israeli leaders and their partners. It values the outcomes of the Hague Group Conference held in Bogotá, Colombia, with the participation of 30 countries, which decided on a set of legal and diplomatic measures to activate international actions to stop the genocide and to enforce accountability, boycotts, and sanctions against Israel to prevent its impunity.
ICSPR: Urges the international community, the United Nations, third states, and free people around the world to act immediately to pressure the Israeli occupation to stop the genocide being committed against the Palestinian people in Gaza in all its forms, and to ensure the opening of all crossings for the flow of humanitarian aid, saving the lives of Gaza’s population from famine, and preventing the collapse of the health and humanitarian system.
ICSPR: Calls on the United Nations to urgently declare Gaza a famine zone and activate the principle of international protection responsibility, including opening permanent humanitarian corridors and providing international protection to Palestinians through a General Assembly resolution under the “Uniting for Peace” formula. This would ensure the formation of an international protection mission and a humanitarian international coalition capable of stopping genocide crimes, protecting civilians, and enabling international organizations to deliver humanitarian aid to the people of the Strip.
ICSPR: Calls on the international community and the state parties to the Geneva Conventions and the Convention on the Prevention of Genocide to support accountability paths for Israeli officials and their partners before international courts, and to impose comprehensive international sanctions on Israel. This includes banning arms exports, halting military support, working to stop the criminal American-Israeli aid mechanism, ensuring the freedom of work for international organizations — especially UNRWA — and confronting forced displacement plans and demographic and geographic changes in the Gaza Strip.
