By Ephraim Agbo
The humanitarian nightmare in Gaza has now crossed a grim and irreversible line: famine.
According to the Integrated Food Security Phase Classification (IPC)—a globally recognized authority on food crises—the Gaza Strip has officially met the technical threshold. That means the situation is no longer just dire. It’s lethal. Children are starving. People are dying of hunger. Entire communities are being pushed to the edge of survival.
And yet, the world still debates.
A Slow Death, in Plain Sight
The signs have been there for months. Doctors Without Borders and other humanitarian agencies warned us: babies with hollow eyes, toddlers with bloated bellies, families boiling grass to eat. But now it’s more than anecdotal. The IPC says there’s enough hard data to declare it—Gaza is in a state of famine.
And the most visible casualties? Children.
A lot of people are asking the same haunting question:
“Why do the children look so much worse than the adults?”
Here’s the brutal truth—kids break down faster. Their bodies are still growing. They need more nutrients per pound than adults. And when there’s no food, they don’t just get tired. They waste away—rapidly.
Even worse? Many parents are skipping meals entirely to feed their children. But a bite of bread or spoon of rice isn’t enough for a growing body. So the parent looks “okay,” while the child spirals. It’s not because adults are hoarding food—it’s because they’re choosing to starve, hoping to buy their kids another day.
And that’s what makes this famine feel especially cruel: even sacrifice doesn’t save them.
The Numbers Are Shocking. The Global Response? Muted.
To begin stabilizing the crisis, aid officials say Gaza needs 500–600 trucks of food and supplies every single day. In the last 48 hours, only 152 trucks got through. That’s not even a third of what’s needed.
Even worse, 95–98% of those trucks are being looted—not by militias, but by starving people. Parents. Kids. Neighbors. People who’ve been reduced to fighting over flour. And when they get it? It costs $35 a kilo, if they’re lucky.
One father in Khan Younis said he and his five children hadn’t eaten in 48 hours.
Imagine hearing that from your neighbor. Would you call it a complicated geopolitical issue—or would you call it what it is?
An engineered humanitarian collapse.
Airstrikes and “Pauses”: A Cruel Irony
Even as aid agencies beg for food corridors, airstrikes continue—killing 12 more people in the last 24 hours. This, during what Israel calls “humanitarian pauses.”
Think about that phrase for a second.
What does it mean to pause a humanitarian crisis? Shouldn’t we be stopping the cause?
Meanwhile, the Hamas-run health ministry reports that over 100 people have already died from hunger. These aren't people who "succumbed to the conditions." These are people starved by blockade, buried under bureaucracy, and ignored by the world.
When Is a War Crime Just “Tragic”?
In the words of Ukraine’s Ombudsman:
“People in prison do not lose their right to life.”
The same should be true for children in Gaza, mothers in shelters, and families standing in line for flour under drones.
But silence persists. Powerful nations dodge words like “famine.” Aid trucks are rationed. Borders remain sealed. And somehow, the system still thinks this is all just a byproduct of war—not a result of deliberate choices.
This Is Not Just a Crisis. It's a Consequence.
This famine is not a natural disaster. It’s not a surprise. It’s not unfortunate. It’s a result—of policy, blockade, and indifference.
Because if this were happening in Paris or New York or Tel Aviv, we wouldn’t be arguing about definitions. Planes would be flying. Borders would be open. Aid would be flooding in.
But this is Gaza. And so the rules are different. Or at least, that's what we're being told—over and over again, in the quiet, deadly language of inaction.
You can’t call it a war on terror if you’re letting children starve.
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