Israel is starving Gaza' UN expert says no one should be surprised by famine

The UN expert who first warned that Israel was orchestrating a campaign of deliberate mass starvation in Gaza more than 500 days ago has said that governments and corporations cannot claim to be surprised at the horror now unfolding.

- Nina Lakhani

"Israel has built the most efficient starvation machine you can imagine. So while it's always shocking to see people being starved, no one should act surprised. All the information has been out in the open since early 2024," Michael Fakhri, the UN special rapporteur on the right to food, told the Guardian.

"Israel is starving Gaza. It's genocide. It's a crime against humanity. It's a war crime. I have been repeating it and repeating it and repeating it, I feel like Cassandra," said Fakhri, referring to the Greek mythological figure whose warnings and predictions were ignored.

On 9 October 2023 - two days after the deadly Hamas attack - Israel's then defence minister, Yoav Gallant, declared a "complete siege" of Gaza and said he would halt the supply of electricity, food, water and fuel. By December 2023, people in Gaza accounted for 80% of those globally experiencing catastrophic hunger, according to UN and international aid agency figures.

Now, widespread starvation, malnutrition and disease are driving the sharp rise in hunger-related deaths across Gaza, with more than 20,000 children hospitalised for acute malnutrition between April and mid-July, according to the Integrated Food Security Phase Classification (IPC), a global initiative that provides real-time data on hunger and famine for the UN and aid groups.

Fakhri was among the first to warn about the famine - and the need for urgent action to stop Israel from starving 2 million people in Gaza.