Starvation and detention in Gaza
Two parts of the same catastrophe: a population pushed to famine, and thousands of people held in Israeli custody.
Figures here come from news reports of the UN-backed IPC and from rights groups, checked in October 2026. Where sources disagree, both are shown. “Those in prison” is read here as Palestinian detainees in Israeli custody.
Genocide: who says so
Genocide is a legal term with a defined meaning under the 1948 Genocide Convention. A growing number of bodies say it applies to Gaza. Israel rejects this, and no court has yet ruled.
UN Commission of Inquiry
In September 2025 it found Israel responsible for committing genocide in Gaza, and for failing to prevent and punish it. A report on 27 October 2026 said genocide continued after the October 2025 ceasefire.
Rights groups
B’Tselem and Physicians for Human Rights Israel, both Israeli, describe Israel’s actions in Gaza as genocide. Amnesty International’s South African branch used the same term in September 2026.
South Africa v. Israel (ICJ)
Filed December 2023. The court has issued three provisional-measures orders but has not ruled on whether genocide occurred. South Africa’s next filing is due in November 2027 and Israel’s reply in May 2029.
A UN commission of inquiry does not speak for the UN as a whole, and its findings are not court judgments. The court that can decide the question has years of proceedings left.
Latest: October 2026
People reached by WFP food and cash aid in October, down from 1.6 million in September. WFP announced on 19 October that funding shortages forced a cut of about one third, leaving roughly 500,000 people without assistance, and that it needs $450 million for Gaza and the West Bank from October 2026 to March 2027.
The UN’s OCHA reported on 22 October that fewer than a million of Gaza’s estimated 2.1 million people will get monthly food aid, that food prices have soared, and that 14 of 17 WFP-supported bakeries closed temporarily on 23 October after commercial flour stopped entering from 14 October. Almost everyone is still in tents or makeshift shelters, facing a fourth winter. Without funding, WFP warns up to 90 percent of people could face high acute food insecurity by year-end.
WFP attributes the cuts to funding. Palestinian officials also blame Israeli restrictions on aid.
How hunger moved, month by month
The Integrated Food Security Phase Classification (IPC) is the UN-backed system that rates hunger from Phase 1 (minimal) to Phase 5 (famine). Move the slider.
If Gaza were a queue of 100 people
Each figure is one in a hundred. Choose a moment.
People in custody
Palestinians who have died in Israeli custody since 7 October 2023, per the Palestinian Commission of Detainees and Ex-Detainees Affairs (9 August 2026). The Commission says 53 of them were from Gaza and counts 328 deaths since 1967.
Anadolu, citing prisoner advocacy groups, put the number held at about 9,500 in June 2026; the groups’ July 2026 statistics list about 9,400, including 99 women and 360 children. Israeli independent monitors count differently, and Israel stopped giving full figures in 2024, so every number below is an estimate.
Physicians for Human Rights Israel
Documented at least 98 deaths between October 2023 and August 2025. It says autopsies showed injuries consistent with beatings, and that hundreds of Gazans held by the military have unknown fates. It calls for an international investigation.
B’Tselem (Israeli)
Its January 2026 report is based on interviews with 21 people freed under the ceasefire. It alleges an institutional policy of torture and abuse, including sexual violence.
Israel Prison Service and IDF
Both reject the allegations. The IPS says it operates lawfully, under oversight by official bodies including the State Comptroller. The IDF denies systematic abuse and says complaints are examined.
What reporting adds
+972 Magazine, drawing on PHRI data, reported that fewer than a third of Gaza detainees were classed as militants by the army itself. Israel holds that detainees are held on security grounds.
Note: many detainee deaths are disputed in cause, and Israel has not accepted most of the rights groups’ conclusions.
What is disputed
Help now
Days since the IPC confirmed famine in Gaza Governorate (22 August 2025). Aid is being cut again as the fourth winter in tents begins.
The fastest help is food, medical care and shelter funding, and pressure on the governments that can open the gates and pay the bills.
Give
WFP says it needs $450 million to keep Gaza and West Bank operations running to March 2027. Donate through official sites: WFP, UNICEF, Doctors Without Borders, Red Cross (ICRC).
Write to your government
Ask your representatives to fund the WFP appeal, to press for unrestricted aid entry, and to demand that the Red Cross and independent monitors be allowed to visit detainees.
Back the documentation
Independent records are how deaths, hunger and detention get counted. Support B’Tselem and Physicians for Human Rights Israel.
Share the facts
Send this page to someone who has stopped looking.
Give only through the official sites above. Fake fundraisers spread fast during crises. Check any charity’s web address before paying.
Check it yourself, and where help goes
- IPC: the full hunger analyses and methods.
- B’Tselem and Physicians for Human Rights Israel: detention reports by Israeli groups.
- ICRC: the Red Cross, whose access to detainees has been restricted for years, per reports.
- World Food Programme: food aid in Gaza.
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