Time Has Run Out: Mass Starvation in Gaza and the Global Imperative

August 2, 2025

By Tom Dannenbaum and Alex de Waal

Conditions of life for Palestinians in Gaza are collapsing. Yesterday’s Alert from the United Nations’ Integrated food security Phase Classification (IPC) mechanism begins, “The worst-case scenario of Famine is currently playing out in the Gaza Strip.” All evidence points to a horrifying reality that the enclave has crossed the tipping point into a period of accelerating mass starvation mortality and societal devastation.  As a matter of moral, legal, and basic human imperative, States with any leverage at all over the Israeli government must use that leverage now to bring this abomination to an end. To delay further does not bear contemplating. Time has run out.