Israel, led by Prime Minister Netanyahu, is using starvation as part of the genocide it is committing against the people of Gaza. This is agreed by the UN General Assembly, Amnesty International, Médecins Sans Frontières, a UN Special Rapporteur and other experts.

In late July 2025 the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA) appealed to Netanyahu on X

UNRWA has enough food for the entire population of Gaza for over three months stockpiled in warehouses…awaiting entry. The supplies are available. The systems are in place. Open the gates, lift the siege, allow UNRWA to do its work and help people in need among them 1 million children.

But Netanyahu denies there is any problem. During the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance Conference 2025, presided over by Israel in April, Netanyahu denied that people in the Gaza Strip are starving and also denied that Israel has a policy of starvation, despite international assessments that the territory is at a critical risk of famine.

Netanyahu seems to be living in a world of his own. Even the Israeli government’s own website shows that the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation is delivering only about 10% of the number of truckloads of food that the people of Gaza need every day. In other words it is admitting that Israel is starving the people of Gaza to death.

Israel is not the first country to use mass starvation as a weapon of war. The fact that Netanyahu made his comments at a Holocaust Remembrance event is ironic. For the Nazis, intent on starving Jews in the Warsaw Ghetto, allowed no more than a daily intake of 180 calories per prisoner, less than 10% of the recommended energy intake for a healthy human being.

A recent assessment by the World Food Programme found that nearly one person in three is not eating for days at a time. Findings from the latest Integrated Food Security Phase Classification (IPC) report, show a high risk that famine will occur as conflict persists and humanitarian agencies are unable to provide essential aid. Some 470,000 people are expected to face catastrophic hunger this year. Malnutrition is surging and some 90,000 children and women urgently need treatment. Food aid is the only real way for people to eat. Flour for bread costs 23 euros per kilo, 3,000 times more expensive than before the war. And cooking fuel is simply nowhere to be found.

Does Netanyahu really want to be compared with Hitler in his treatment of people? Is that the legacy that this man intends for his conduct during this war?

And while Netanyahu does not openly call for Palestinians to be killed, many Israeli lawmakers and influencers do. 20 examples were listed in the Guardian in June. For example on 27 February an Israeli media figure affiliated with Hebrew Channel 14, Elad Barashi, posted the following on X. This post has since been deleted but a copy can be found here.

Gaza deserves death. The 2.6 million terrorists in Gaza deserve death! They deserve death! They deserve death! Men, women, and children — in every way possible, we must simply carry out a Holocaust on them — yes, read that again — H-O-L-O-C-A-U-S-T! For me, gas chambers. Train cars. And other cruel forms of death for these Nazis. Without fear, without hesitation — simply crush, eradicate, slaughter, flatten, dismantle, smash, shatter.

Middle East Eye reported that Nissim Vaturi, deputy speaker of the Israeli parliament and a member of Netanyahu’s Likud party, said during an interview with Kol BaRama radio in February 2025 : “separate the children and women and kill the adults in Gaza. We are being too considerate.” He also called Palestinians “subhumans”.