GENEVA

The International Crisis Group on Friday issued a stark warning that Israel's aid blockade is pushing Gaza toward mass starvation and catastrophic loss of life, urging both immediate humanitarian access and a ceasefire.

"Israel is starving Gaza," the group said in a statement, accusing Israeli authorities of imposing "draconian restrictions on humanitarian aid and commercial deliveries" since March. While Israel claims the measures aim to block Hamas from diverting supplies, the Crisis Group argued "it is not Hamas that is bearing the brunt of this policy."

Describing the situation as "predicted," the group said: "Israel must end its siege immediately. Every truck matters. Every calorie counts. But opening the gates is only the beginning: only a ceasefire can alleviate the humanitarian catastrophe engulfing Gaza."

It also criticized the new Gaza Humanitarian Foundation (GHF) aid mechanism as ineffective and harmful. "The new ostensibly 'Hamas-free' GHF model leaves Gaza’s weakest and poorest to starve," it said, describing chaotic food distributions where Israeli troops have repeatedly opened fire on the aid seekers, killing more than 1,000 of them since May.

Highlighting alarming health data, the group said that UN nutrition screenings of 15,000 children in Gaza in July have assessed over 16% as being acutely malnourished, crossing the UN's famine threshold.

"The lack of a ceasefire provides no excuse for this starvation policy," it said and urged: "The machinery of death must be stopped, not merely slowed."

Rejecting international calls for a ceasefire, the Israeli army has killed more than 59,500 Palestinians, most of them women and children, in Gaza since October 2023. The relentless bombardment has destroyed the enclave, rendering it uninhabitable. The number of starvation deaths has reached 122 since then, according to the enclave’s Health Ministry.

Last November, the International Criminal Court issued arrest warrants for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and his former Defense Minister Yoav Gallant for war crimes and crimes against humanity in Gaza.

Israel also faces a genocide case at the International Court of Justice for its war on the enclave.