Gaza's 'famine' is the first entirely man-made starvation since 1945.

'never again' was a lie. The West's red lines vanish when Israel draws them and we're all complicit in the evil.

a 4-year-old Palestinian girl who was killed by Israel due to malnutrition and lack of treatment. (Credit to Ashraf Amra.)

Update 23.07.25: Since publishing, I have been informed of a similarly horrific case in Nigeria called the ‘The blockade of Biafra’ enacted by the Nigerian federal government and which resulted in a famine that cost at least a million lives. This happened between 1967 and 1970 and is shockingly similar to what we’re seeing in Gaza. Just another reminder that we don’t learn nearly enough about the Global South in the West.

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Good day, spectators,

And firstly, I’d like to begin this article with a fact so grotesque and dystopian that it borders on satire. We’re in the year 2025 and journalists—actual journalists—are drafting their own obituaries from tents where they’re being starved.

Not from war zones but tents.

The French press agency AFP, founded in the ashes of World War Two, has never in its 81-year history seen one of its reporters starve to death. That was until recently.

One AFP photographer, Bashar Taleb, posted this week:

‘I don't have the power to cover media anymore. My body is lean and I no longer have the ability to walk.’

Here’s the press release from AFP describing the situation with Bashar:

His older brother fell from hunger today.

There is no spin doctor in the world, for any government, who can sell this as collateral damage anymore. It’s simple policy. This starvation of the Palestinian people will continue because Israel faces zero consequences and it is perfectly in line with the state’s goal to destroy Palestine and take over the whole region. So why should it stop?

the arithmetic of genocide.

This blockade of Gaza isn't just a siege either, it's a meticulously engineered starvation machine and vital component in the plan. Since March, not a single morsel of food or drop of medicine has entered without Israel's explicit permission. And Israel doesn’t give permission often.

The result? 58,895 dead (70% of whom are women and children), 86 children dead from hunger alone, and 71,000 more under five expected to face acute malnutrition in the coming months.

The UN's famine threshold is two deaths per 10,000 daily, but that was breached long ago. So what the fuck is happening!? The answer, as we all know, is political cowardice delaying the declaration. Why? Because as soon as they admit there is a famine, it would force the West to confront its role in aiding and abetting it.

This is synonymous with the Genocide as a whole too, governments, like that of the UK, are lashing out trying to silence any resistance or push for accountability because they know they’ll be on the chopping block when the time comes. And it is coming.

The maths here are simple. The moral calculus even simpler.

the GHF death traps.

Enter the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation (GHF)—Israel and the US's sadistic parody of aid. These privatised distribution points aren't relief centres; they're killing fields where Palestinians are pepper-sprayed, shot at, and murdered for the crime of queuing for bread.

Watch: Clear footage of the GHF (probably with the IGF) firing on starving Palestinians who are waiting for food at an ‘aid distribution checkpoint’.

Over 891 people have been slaughtered at these sites since May, including 73 in a single day last week.

891 people. That’s a whole village, a whole school. All of them individuals with lives, personalities and dreams for the future.

Don’t mistake this for incompetence though, it's actually a feature. As Amnesty International notes, the GHF scheme ‘placates international concerns whilst constituting another tool of Israel's genocide.’

In other words, Israel has managed to convince compromised western politicians that it’s doing something to help starving Palestinians whilst in actuality, it’s added another genocidal tool to its belt. Great.

This drip feeding of aid isn't relief; it's an effective kill box with a tattered humanitarian logo slapped on top.

the west's ongoing complicity.

Let me be explicitly clear, the UN has stockpiles of food and aid that could take care of the whole of Gaza for months and it’s sitting minutes from Gaza's borders—whilst Israel blocks every truck. Not only bureaucratically but physically. Israelis despise Palestinians so much that they spend their days blocking and destroying any aid that tries to get through:

Watch: Israelis gleefully dance and block desperately-needed aid from entering Gaza.

On top of that we have the US, which defunded the UN to shield Israel. Still vetoing ceasefires with clockwork precision. Germany debating rolling out red carpets for Netanyahu as it brutally arrests pro-Palestine protesters for ‘antisemitism.’

And the ICC, despite its warrants, watches as Israel starves 2.1 million with complete impunity.

This famine isn't an accident. It's not even a by-product of war.

It's a choice and it’s one the West signed off on. And that choice to let people starve is something we Irish people know very, very well. So before I wrap this up, I’d like to share a fantastic, touching video by two of my favourite Irish artists explaining one of the many reasons we share such great solidarity with Palestine.

You can find the artists here.

the takeaway?

Gaza's children are now so malnourished their hair is falling out. One girl, hospitalised for oedema, asked her doctor: ‘Will my hair grow again? Am I still beautiful?’

Her hair will grow back, if she survives what we're doing to her.

But I am not so sure about our humanity, I have the feeling that may have been starved to death already.

The first man-made famine since 1945 is happening in Gaza. But there's another famine happening simultaneously. What I am talking about is a deliberate starvation of conscience, compassion, and basic human decency in the West. And unlike Gaza's children, we're doing this to ourselves willingly. Only we can force this change.

And on that note, I will let you go for the day,

(If you're not too sickened yet, give this post a ❤️ and a restack to amplify it. Also, make sure to subscribe.)

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Read more from the spectacle:

there has never been a war in which 80% of the land was destroyed, 100% of the population was displaced, and 50% of the dead were children.

Israel attacks Iran and the US and friends will dutifully help out.

there are no more words to describe the depravity of the Israeli Genocide Forces.