Euro-Med Human Rights Monitor
GAZA CITY – The risk of famine and malnutrition, and their devastating consequences, remains present in the Gaza Strip despite the entry into force of the ceasefire agreement. The limited quantities of goods and aid allowed into Gaza represent only a fraction of actual needs and fall far short of addressing the severe food and supply deficit that Israel has deliberately imposed as a tool of genocide during two years of military assault and comprehensive blockade.
Serious concern arises from reports in Israeli media about political recommendations to issue an official decision reducing the amount of humanitarian aid allowed into Gaza and keeping the Rafah crossing closed, planned to reopen on Wednesday, as a punitive measure against Hamas, under the pretext of the movement’s failure to release the bodies of Israeli soldiers.
Field monitoring indicates that Israel has permitted the entry of only 173 aid trucks since the ceasefire began on Friday, including three trucks of cooking gas and six carrying fuel (diesel). The remaining trucks contained limited quantities of food, supplies, and some medical items, alongside non-essential goods.
No aid trucks were allowed to enter on Monday under the pretext of releasing Palestinian detainees, nor today due to Jewish holidays, both in blatant violation of the ceasefire agreement, which stipulates the entry of no fewer than 600 trucks per day into Gaza.
Israel’s control over the volume of aid, its non-compliance with the ceasefire terms, and its move toward further reductions not only constitute a breach of the agreement but also amount to the continuation of genocide by depriving civilians of their basic rights, chief among them food, water, and medicine, and by imposing life-threatening conditions. This ongoing policy demonstrates Israel’s determination to use starvation as a central instrument in its strategy to destroy Palestinian society in Gaza.
The entry of humanitarian aid into Gaza is not a privilege granted by Israel but a binding legal obligation under international humanitarian law, guaranteeing civilians in wartime an absolute right to receive such assistance. Any attempt to link food or medicine to political or security conditions constitutes a flagrant violation of fundamental rights, including the right to life, dignity, personal safety, health, food, and water.
Humanitarian aid must be provided based solely on neutrality and need, without discrimination, delay, or selectivity. Subjecting aid to political conditions or negotiations transforms it from a tool of relief into one of destruction and displacement, contributing directly to the perpetuation of the crime.
Gaza’s more than two million residents have suffered from real famine and acute malnutrition over the past two years, the devastating effects of which remain evident today. Rates of wasting, anaemia, and stunted growth among children have risen to unprecedented levels, while hundreds of thousands of women, pregnant individuals, and elderly people suffer from weakened immunity and chronic deficiencies in essential nutrients due to the lack of access to sufficient and diverse food.
A temporary halt to attacks or the entry of limited aid cannot be considered an adequate solution. No ceasefire agreement holds genuine meaning unless it guarantees a complete end to hostilities and a full lifting of the blockade. It is essential to allow the unrestricted and sustained flow of food, medicine, fuel, and reconstruction materials, alongside the restoration of basic services that enable people to live in dignity and safety after two years of systematic destruction of infrastructure and the stripping of the population’s means of survival.
Any agreement must include clear international guarantees to prevent the re-imposition of the blockade or the obstruction of aid under any pretext. Lifting the blockade is a prerequisite for restoring life in Gaza; maintaining it means the continued strangulation of the population, depriving them of their right to survive, and using Israel’s control over food, water, medicine, and fuel as a means of domination to advance a colonial project aimed at emptying Gaza of its population and erasing their right to exist and return.
Ongoing Israeli practices in Gaza must be closely monitored to ensure an end to the crime of genocide in all its forms. Preventing genocide is not a political choice or a matter of discretion—it is an absolute legal and moral duty that requires immediate and effective action by states and international actors to fulfil their obligations of prevention and accountability.
Any leniency or complacency toward the grave violations committed, or reliance on temporary promises, would mean accepting the re-creation of the same conditions that enabled genocide and the continued suffering of civilians in Gaza. Justice can only be achieved through activating international accountability mechanisms, prosecuting those responsible, and ensuring full and fair compensation for victims, thereby reinforcing the principle of non-impunity as a fundamental safeguard against the recurrence of such crimes.
The international community must take immediate and decisive action to address the root causes of the Palestinian people’s decades-long suffering and persecution, guarantee their inalienable right to freedom, dignity, and self-determination in accordance with international law, end the unlawful Israeli occupation, dismantle the system of settler colonialism and apartheid imposed on Palestinians, ensure Israel’s full withdrawal from the territories occupied since 1967, lift the illegal blockade on Gaza, and ensure comprehensive accountability and redress for victims, conditions essential to achieving justice and ending the cycle of impunity.
