Today’s official confirmation of famine in Gaza brings shame on the entire world. Every day, our team there sees more people starving to death and children turning into living skeletons before our eyes. Many more will die unless the world acts now.  

The famine is no accident – Israel is intentionally starving Palestinians to death. It is entirely man-made, caused by Israel’s cruel and illegal blockade and the complicity of world leaders who have failed to stop the daily war crimes. Never before has a famine – the most extreme and rarest form of starvation – been so widely predicted and so easily preventable, yet repeated warnings have been ignored.  

Israel has destroyed Gaza’s ability to feed itself, then blocked lifesaving aid from entering, and gunned down starving people trying to get food for their children. It has destroyed Gaza’s health system, denying malnourished people treatment.  

Truckloads of food, medicine, and other vital aid are just a few miles from starving people, but are barred from reaching them.  

Even as horrific images of emaciated children touch hearts around the world, Israel has further accelerated its attacks on civilians, continued to restrict aid, and stepped up its efforts to shut down and militarise the humanitarian response. Young children are the most vulnerable to starvation, but even aid workers and medics are now wasting away.      

In the face of relentless violence and suffering, Palestinians in Gaza have shown incredible courage and resilience, but there is a limit to what humans can endure.   

There can be no more excuses. World leaders must finally act to save lives and prevent genocide. The only way to stop this famine from spreading further across Gaza, and killing even more people, is to demand a ceasefire and pressure Israel to fully reopen all land crossings so that Gaza can be flooded with sufficient supplies. A small, temporary increase is not enough – it must be large-scale, sustained, and delivered through the UN-led system that Israel is trying to shut down.   

More paltry words of condemnation will not make any difference now. To save lives, governments must apply meaningful economic and diplomatic pressure, such as ending all arms sales, suspending trade agreements, and banning trade and investment with illegal Israeli settlements.