The United Nations has now confirmed the unthinkable: famine has been declared in Gaza City and the Gaza Governorate. This is not a number in a report, it is a stain on humanity. Declaring famine means that children are dying in their mothers’ arms, that parents are watching their families starve, and that an entire population is being deliberately pushed beyond the limits of human survival.  

What we witness today is not a result of drought, flood, or natural disaster. It is the direct outcome of a man-made catastrophe, imposed on Gaza through continuous bombardment, suffocating siege, and the systematic denial of food, water, medicine, and humanitarian access. After nearly two years of announcing the war on Gaza and after killing more than 61,000 people, the destruction of homes, hospitals, schools, and infrastructure has been compounded by a policy of starvation. Hunger has been weaponized. Human life has been devalued. The dignity of the Palestinian people in Gaza has been violated.  

Humanitarian organizations, both local and international, have been blocked from doing their humanitarian work. Aid convoys are obstructed, lifesaving supplies are restricted, and humanitarian principles have been violated in plain sight. This is a crime under International Humanitarian and Human Rights Law(1) , a crime against morality, and a crime against humanity.  

The ACT Palestine Forum (APF) declares with urgency: this famine must be stopped. The international community cannot remain silent while the people in Gaza are starving, and it adds its voice to the voice of international agencies to “reiterate the call for immediate ceasefire and unhindered humanitarian access to curb deaths from hunger and malnutrition.”   

Accordingly, the ACT Palestine Forum urgently calls on:  

• Governments to move beyond words and take decisive measures, including sanctions on Israel, to end the siege and allow full humanitarian access.  

• Churches and faith-based organizations to raise a prophetic outcry, reminding the world that silence in the face of starvation is complicity. They must put pressure on their governments to act with courage and place human life above political interests.  

• The global community to demand accountability for those who deliberately starve civilians and uphold the fundamental principle that no political agenda can justify the destruction of a people.  

Every hour of inaction costs lives. The famine in Gaza is a defining moral test of our time. History will remember not only those who caused it, but also those who stood by and did nothing. On day 690, we re-emphasize our call to move words into action to end the genocide in Gaza. 

“Speak up for those who cannot speak for themselves, for the rights of all who are destitute. Speak up and judge fairly; defend the rights of the poor and needy.” (Proverbs 31:8–9)  

  (1) Using starvation as a method of warfare is explicitly prohibited under Article 54 of Additional Protocol I to the Geneva Conventions and is defined as a war crime under Article 8(2)(b)(xxv) of the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court.