[News] 'Israel' calculated Gaza’s food needs, then ignored its own math

[Anti-Imperialist News]

english.almayadeen.net 
<https://english.almayadeen.net/news/politics/-israel--calculated-gaza-s-food-needs--then-ignored-its-own> 



  'Israel' calculated Gaza’s food needs, then ignored its own math

Al Mayadeen English
july 31, 2025
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"Israel" has systematically controlled food access to Gaza through 
calculated restrictions.

  * How 'Israel' engineered starvation in Gaza
    <https://alpha-en-media.almayadeen.net/media/image/2025/7/31/346c2729-e957-4d06-b320-7e8de53468b2.png?width=1000>
    Yazan Abu Ful, a 2-year-old malnourished child, sits at his family
    home in the al-Shati refugee camp in Gaza City, on July 23, 2025 (/AP/)

"Israel" has long controlled food access to Gaza, using detailed 
calculations to limit calorie intake for the population, /The Guardian 
/reported.

Since 2006, it has enforced what one advisor called a policy to "put the 
Palestinians on a diet, but not to make them die of hunger."

According to documents released by court order, Israeli authorities 
determined the minimum food needed to sustain life in Gaza, roughly 
2,279 calories per person daily, or 1.8 kg of food. Today, humanitarian 
groups request even less: about 1 kg of food per person per day.

With Gaza’s own food production halted due to war and blockade, nearly 
all food must be imported. As famine deepens, 
<https://english.almayadeen.net/news/politics/famine-tightens-grip-on-gaza--89-children-among-154-starved> 
Israeli officials deny responsibility, claiming Hamas mismanages aid or 
that logistical failures are to blame, despite widespread hunger and 
mounting evidence of calculated restriction.


    Famine foreseen, ignored

Between March and June, only 56,000 tonnes of food entered Gaza, less 
than a quarter of the minimum required to meet the population’s basic 
needs 
<https://english.almayadeen.net/news/politics/destruction-of-gaza-s-health-system-is-genocide--phri>, 
according to records from COGAT, the Israeli agency overseeing aid flows.

Even under ideal conditions, if every UN flour delivery had been 
successfully distributed and the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation (GHF) had 
implemented safe and efficient systems, there still wouldn’t have been 
enough food. Hunger was unavoidable.

Now, a “worst-case scenario” famine is unfolding, according to UN-backed 
food security experts. The Integrated Food Security Phase Classification 
(IPC) warned this week that food deliveries remain “far below what is 
needed,” citing “drastic restrictions on the entry of supplies 
<https://english.almayadeen.net/news/politics/gaza-faces-total-blockade-under-new-israeli-plan--israeli-me>” 
based on Israeli figures.

The Famine Review Committee, an independent expert panel reviewing IPC 
assessments, echoed these concerns, concluding that food shipments have 
been “highly inadequate” and criticizing the GHF’s role in the failing 
distribution effort.


    Crisis framed as logistics, not policy

Gaza faced a complete blockade in March and April, with no food allowed 
in. Under mounting international pressure over a growing “starvation 
crisis", Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu announced in mid-May 
that aid shipments would resume.

Earlier in the year, during a brief January-February ceasefire, a surge 
of food deliveries 
<https://english.almayadeen.net/news/politics/israeli-forces-target-aid-seekers-across-gaza-amid-ongoing-s> 
had successfully pushed Gaza back from the edge of famine, according to 
UN data. But when aid resumed in May, it returned only in limited 
quantities, insufficient to halt starvation, merely slowing its pace.

Now, two months later, widespread suffering has reignited global 
outrage, and Netanyahu has pledged only “minimal” increases in aid. 
While the number of food trucks entering Gaza has risen, it remains well 
below the threshold needed to meet basic nutritional needs, let alone 
end famine.


    Futile airdrops

To supplement ground deliveries, countries including France, Germany, 
the UK, Egypt, Jordan, and the UAE have resumed airdrops. However, these 
efforts remain costly, inefficient, and at times dangerous, prompting 
the MSF to describe this method as “a futile initiative that smacks of 
cynicism."

“It is not a matter of lacking resources or logistics. The roads are 
there. The trucks are there. The food and medicine are just a few 
kilometers away. What’s missing is political will," stated Jean Guy 
Vataux, MSF’s emergency coordinator in Gaza.

According to Israeli data, just 104 airdrop missions were conducted in 
the first 21 months of war, delivering the equivalent of only four days’ 
worth of food for Gaza, at a cost of tens of millions of dollars. That 
same budget, if spent on truck deliveries, could have brought in far 
greater quantities of aid. But the true cost of airdrops isn’t just 
financial.


    Reframing Gaza’s hunger crisis as logistical emergency

By resorting to these dramatic, last-resort measures, "Israel" and its 
allies have reframed Gaza’s hunger crisis as a logistical emergency, 
rather than the result of deliberate state policy.

Airdrops are typically used when geography or hostile forces make land 
access impossible. In Gaza, however, the only thing blocking aid from 
crossing the border by truck is "Israel’s" own restrictions, despite its 
close ties to Western powers like the US and UK, who continue to supply 
it with weapons.

Since March, the sharp disparity between Gaza’s nutritional needs and 
the limited aid allowed in has shown a shift in policy. The numbers no 
longer aim to prevent famine but rather enable it.

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