Institute for Policy Studies

05/07/2025

On October 7, 2023, Hamas carried out a horrifying attack on Israel that left over a thousand dead and over 200 in captivity. Israel almost immediately declared war on Hamas. It then set about forcing all the residents of Gaza to pay for the crimes of a few.

The punishment has been appalling. More than 52,000 people have been killed by Israeli forces, according to the Gaza health ministry. But this number is probably an undercount by 40 percent, according to an article in The Lancet, if all war-related deaths like those from a ravaged health system are included. The vast majority of these tens of thousands of deaths—around 70 percent—are women and children.

These casualty numbers must now reflect deaths by starvation, as Israel has blocked all humanitarian aid to Gaza for the last two months. Israel has deployed this tactic to pressure the Palestinian population to force Hamas to capitulate and release the couple dozen Israeli hostages it continues to hold. No food, no medicine, and no fuel has made it into the enclave. In addition to starvation, people are dying because they don’t have access to common life-saving drugs.

The New York Times reports that the “only food available to many Gazans — particularly those among the 90 percent of the population that is displaced and mostly living in tents — comes from local charity kitchens, some of which have been looted as the hunger crisis deepens.” Compounding the tragedy is the fact that food and medicine is readily available nearby, but Israel is blocking its delivery.

The Israeli government claims that it is only targeting Hamas. But it continues to kill civilians indiscriminately in air strikes, including this week at a crowded restaurant and a school. It claims that Hamas fighters are hiding in hospitals, which justifies the destruction of the entire medical infrastructure of the area. Even if this assertion were true, and Israel has provided little in the way of proof, all of the civilian deaths would still qualify as collective punishment. It would still be a war crime.