Does the world understand the gravity of a full-scale famine in Gaza?

This Ramadan, people in Gaza are literally starving to death.

At least 25 people have died of hunger and malnutrition in the northern part of the enclave, according to the Palestinian Ministry of Health. Half a million more are at risk of experiencing famine levels of hunger, with the United Nations expecting to issue a formal conclusion this week on the extent of starvation gripping Gaza.

Underfed mothers face significant difficulties in breastfeeding their children while the prevalence of diarrhoeal diseases continues to climb.

"If nothing is done, we fear widespread famine in Gaza is almost inevitable and the conflict will have many more victims," warned Ramesh Rajasingham last month. He heads the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA).

Frustratingly, much can actually be done to stop famine in its tracks. But there's no political will to do it.

Israel’s blocking of land aid routes, and the West’s divided support for UN-backed emergency operations in Gaza, are holding up any and all potential solutions in the near term.

As scores of Western countries offer muted criticism of Israel’s obstruction of land aid operations, families in Gaza’s north are forced to eat weeds and animal fodder. Opening of these land routes is critical to alleviating Gaza’s severe hunger crisis, and preventing a full-scale famine from taking over the north, where acute malnutrition dominates one in six children under the age of two years old.

Washington insists it is building a temporary seaport off Gaza’s coast that will accelerate the delivery of urgently needed aid. But in reality, it is navigating around Israel’s chokehold on key land entry points, making any sustained relief untenable.

Research published this month by Refugees International – an independent humanitarian organisation – shows a systemic Israeli effort to impede huge amounts of incoming aid through a burdensome inspection regime at the borders.

Moreover, aid deliveries continue to face arbitrary denials, refusal of entry, and arbitrary blocks of critical humanitarian aid, all of which have already intensified the early risks of famine and pushed one quarter of Gaza’s population to the brink.

Additionally, a West-backed alternative port arrangement could take weeks to materialise, and there is no meaningful pressure from the US or key European partners to pressure Israel into ending its blockade.

In the wake of Hamas’s October 7 offensive, Israel used starvation as a deliberate weapon of war and continues to resist domestic pressure to prevent famine in Gaza. Lax Western attitudes towards opening land aid routes are only helping to intensify mass starvation risks, and undermine coordination with major aid groups.

The costs of inaction are impossible to ignore. About 700,000 people in northern Gaza are in the throes of starvation, demonstrating the perils of delayed aid delivery through any makeshift seaport. Major land connectivity routes are still subject to firm Israeli occupation control, while critical crossings such as the northern Erez/Beit Hanoon and Karni/Al Muntar remain shut off.

All this challenges the credibility of alternative air and sea delivery routes floated by the West. One is a multinational commercial vessel route between Greek-administered Southern Cyprus and Gaza, and the other is a US military-led initiative to construct a floating pier off the strip. Both effectively protect and reinforce Israel’s restrictive and oppressive status-quo at major land crossings.

That is an outcome that runs counter to the UN’s own advice, that "the most straightforward way of getting aid" into Gaza is to utilise existing land infrastructure.

Northern Gaza alone requires 300 aid trucks per day to offset the serious risks of famine. And yet, maritime aid initiatives operating out of Greek-administered Southern Cyprus lack the capacity to deliver life-saving aid that is secure and easily accessible to local distribution partners in Gaza.

Famine represents a serious long-term challenge to sustaining life in Gaza, and demands equally serious, lasting solutions to ameliorate suffering. The West’s push for short-term airdrops, temporary sea ports and a maritime aid corridor has raised logistical costs for humanitarian aid groups and extended aid delivery times.

Over the weekend, an aid ship carrying 200 tonnes of food to counter famine risks failed to depart from Greek-administered Southern Cyprus as planned for unclear reasons. For aid that arrives, there is no telling how it will be distributed on land.

This puts the spotlight on the UN Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees (UNRWA), which has long provided a measure of certainty to humanitarian groups regarding local aid delivery, as well as food, water and critical healthcare services.

But the West’s drastic funding cuts and divided support for UNRWA have dealt enduring damage to agency-run clinics, food distribution networks and other social services. All this severely undermines the agency’s capacity to tackle famine concerns through local aid distribution operations.

The situation in Gaza has already breached one of the three thresholds for famine, according to the Integrated Food Security Phase Classification (IPC), and represents the "worst level of child malnutrition anywhere in the world."

Canada and Sweden have now decided to resume UNRWA funding, but this is no silver bullet: it comes after weeks of defiance amid famine warnings that pushed an entire population to the brink.

Thus, no peace imperative in Gaza can prevail if mass starvation and unprecedented human suffering continue unabated. This should serve as a wake-up call for the West, which refuses to confront Israel over its obstruction of land aid, downplaying the threat of an all-out famine in Gaza.