Responding to the October 7, 2023 attacks by Hamas, the leaders of Israel apart from undertaking massive and indiscriminate military campaign have not cringed from explicitly stating their desire to put Gaza under complete siege implying cutting off supplies of food stuff, medical supplies, food and fuel to the civilians. Since, the beginning of Israeli retaliation, the country has been using starvation as a strategy of warfare not only to wipe out Hamas but to weaken the claim of statehood for Palestine and solidify its one state policy by lowering the morale of civilians. It was when the concepts of human rights and human security had not evolved to the status of international norms, the wars were considered total wars and no distinction was maintained between military and civilians. Depriving civilians of the enemy state of basic amenities of life was considered an effective instrument of war because a state could reduce the morale of an enemy by weakening its society without direct warfare and significant loss of its own military personnel. Adverse impacts arising from such deprivation on the enemy’s society could compel it from changing its course of foreign policy or surrender to the powerful state which used blockades effectively to bend the enemy to kowtow. For example, both the first and second World Wars were treated as total wars by the competing and warring blocs. For instance, Britain considered naval blockades and Germany hunger blockades as instrumental to weaken the enemy’s society and as the cheapest and effective means to compel the enemy to surrender. With the evolution of international norms such as human rights and humanitarian norms on the conduct of warfare in the Post-World War era, many such principles were expected to act as brakes on state’s brutal agression. However, despite the international efforts at embedding ethical and humanitarian principles into the conduct of warfare through Geneva Convention, 1949 and two additional protocols in 1977, closure and/or disruption of entry points and interdiction and/or sabotage of supply routes through which essential food items and other essential commodities including medical supplies, fuel and drinking water to the people of enemy state has been adopted by powerful countries in interstate conflicts or powerful actor in civil wars. The US used these strategies in Vietnam. In the civil war of Sudan, starving civilians has been used extensively as a war strategy by each party to weaken the other in the war.

A Case of Israel

In Israel, the Israel Defence Forces (IDF) has been actively involved in preventing and denying the humanitarian organizations from delivering the basic necessities to the people of Gaza and precipitating a famine-like situation in the strip defying all humanitarian principles underlying the conduct of warfare. The acuteness of humanitarian catastrophe in Gaza has led the humanitarian organisation that delivers medical supplies to people affected by conflicts, epidemics and disasters –‘Doctors Without Borders’ to underline and express dismay over the rising cases of acute malnutrition particularly among children and the elderly. Humanitarian apocalypse in Gaza has been noted by World Food Programme (WFP) in its July 2025 report when it warned that one in three Gazans do not eat for days at a time. It further made gruesome observations that around ninety thousand women and children desperately need medical treatment. Notwithstanding voluminous presence of food, clean water, medical supplies, shelter items, and fuel outside Gaza, these have been forcibly kept beyond the access of humanitarian organisations. The Israeli government’s deliberate approach of restricting and delaying the supplies of these essential commodities to people suffering from malnutrition, psychological distress and physical diseases particularly to the most vulnerable sections women, children and old people is swiftly turning Gaza into a hotbed of chaos, starvation and death. To avoid extreme international pressures, Israel at times keeps allowing very few trucks to deliver essential goods in Gaza that could hardly meet the acute and multifaceted needs of people. The Israeli objective of putting Gaza under complete siege is clear from the reports that clearly pointed to more than a hundred of inhabitants of Northern Gaza being killed and more than seven hundred being wounded by Israeli forces when they waited for and tried to access these essential commodities in large numbers. These sordid incidents have come to be known as “flour massacres”. Even while International Criminal Court (ICC) has begun proceedings against Israel on the grounds of its involvement in such macabre war crimes, the country enjoys unqualified support from the US and European countries. The US has already demonstrated its unwavering support for Israel by putting the judges under sanctions. International laws cannot have teeth without the backing of powerful countries. Such war crimes are also difficult to establish as Israel can wash its hands off by deflecting the blames to radical groups in compelling Israel to take measures that resulted in the unintended humanitarian catastrophe. Nonetheless, the intentions of Israel are more or less clear from its leaders’ categorical remarks to put Gaza under complete siege.