ICSPR Warns of the Risk of Famine Outbreak and Declared Israeli Plans to Escalate Aggression and Politicize Humanitarian Work
Date: May 6, 2025
Press Release
ICSPR Warns of the Risk of Famine Outbreak and Declared Israeli Plans to Escalate Aggression and Politicize Humanitarian Work
The International Commission to Support Palestinian Rights (ICSPR) expresses its deep concern over the continued Israeli perpetration of the crime of genocide for the nineteenth consecutive month amid a blatant failure of the international community. This aggression has resulted in the killing, disappearance, arrest, and injury of nearly 200,000 people, as well as the destruction of 88% of buildings and facilities in the Gaza Strip.
ICSPR reiterates its warning of the acute famine spreading among civilians in the Gaza Strip, which has already claimed the lives of 57 children. All indicators point toward the imminent collapse of the humanitarian situation and the healthcare and aid systems, due to the continued closure of border crossings and the prevention of humanitarian aid entry for the 66th consecutive day. This is despite international appeals to ensure the flow of aid and the establishment of humanitarian corridors.
Instead of responding to these calls and fulfilling its responsibilities, the Israeli occupation has recently revealed new details about a plan for aid distribution in Gaza. This plan includes establishing three aid distribution centers in Rafah City, which has been fully occupied and emptied of its residents, turning it into a large detention camp. The proposed centers would be managed by American security firms under the guard of the Israeli occupation army, which would search displaced and starving residents seeking limited aid. This would accelerate the process of forced displacement toward Rafah, which has already been destroyed and isolated from the rest of the Strip. The plan amounts to a demographic and geographic transformation aimed at full control over future aid flows, minimizing UNRWA’s role, and obstructing the work of international and local humanitarian organizations. This step paves the way for the militarization and politicization of aid, and tight control over the work of international institutions—many of which have already refused to engage with or cooperate under the mechanisms Israel is trying to impose, as they flagrantly violate the rules of international humanitarian law, especially the Sphere Standards for humanitarian action and the principles of neutrality and humanity.
According to available information, on May 4, 2025, the Israeli security cabinet discussed a plan to expand the military aggression and control the distribution of humanitarian aid in Rafah via centers managed by American companies and supervised by the Israeli army. The plan entails occupying the Strip and coercing starving civilians to head toward Rafah to receive limited aid, with Israel determining its type, quantity, and beneficiaries. This marks a clear escalation in the politicization of humanitarian aid and an obstruction to the work of relief organizations—part of a broader strategy to enforce starvation, extermination, and forced displacement of the population.
It is noteworthy that the Israeli authorities have completely halted the entry of humanitarian aid (including food, fuel, medicine, and goods) into the Gaza Strip since early March 2025. This has led to a widespread famine and an acute humanitarian crisis due to the severe shortage of basic supplies. Currently, 91% of the population suffers from food insecurity, and more than 2 million lives are at risk of famine. The continued aggression, daily targeting and killing of civilians, and the collapse of the health system—especially due to the lack of fuel for hospitals—have compounded the crisis. According to the Gaza Ministry of Health, the remaining fuel reserves are only sufficient for two more days, threatening the lives of thousands of patients and the wounded. This forms part of the systematic starvation and genocide strategy.
ICSPR strongly condemns and rejects the occupation’s attempts to impose control over humanitarian work. It warns of the grave implications of the new Israeli plan to expand its aggression on the Gaza Strip, which would result in the killing and injury of thousands of civilians, deepen the humanitarian catastrophe, and place hundreds of thousands at risk of forced displacement and death. ICSPR also warns of the catastrophic consequences of the ongoing starvation crime, which necessitates declaring Gaza a famine zone and taking all urgent measures to protect the lives of patients, the injured, the elderly, women, children, and all civilians in the Gaza Strip.
ICSPR affirms that Israel’s declaration of its intent to control humanitarian aid under false and questionable pretexts represents a dangerous precedent that strips humanitarian work of its neutrality and independence. This constitutes a violation of UN resolutions, the International Court of Justice rulings, and the Fourth Geneva Convention, which prohibits an occupying power from exploiting civilians’ humanitarian needs for military or political objectives.
While ICSPR expresses appreciation for the positions of civil society, the private sector, the international community, and particularly the Secretary-General of the United Nations and humanitarian organizations that have refused to participate in this plan—out of commitment to their legal and moral principles—ICSPR calls for:
ICSPR urges all countries and international and regional organizations to fulfill their legal, ethical, and humanitarian obligations, and to exert real and sustained pressure on the Israeli occupation and the United States to stop the aggression and the crime of genocide, to immediately reopen crossings, and to ensure the entry of humanitarian aid through international institutions and humanitarian organizations. Aid must reach people safely and fairly in their areas of residence, without interference, conditions, blackmail, or politicization by the Israeli occupation.
ICSPR also calls on all free people of the world to activate all political, diplomatic, legal, and popular movements to stop the expansion of Israeli aggression and genocide, to ensure the flow of humanitarian aid, medicines, and fuel to Gaza, and to intensify efforts to isolate and boycott the Israeli occupation, impose sanctions, and hold its leaders and partners accountable before international courts.
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