A recent UN report highlighted “catastrophic” famine in Gaza. According to the Integrated Food Security Classification (IPC), between April and July 2025, more than 20,000 children were hospitalized for treatment of acute malnutrition. Among them, over 3,000 were classified as severely malnourished. The humanitarian crisis was exacerbated by Israel’s blockade, which cut off humanitarian aid from the Gaza Strip. Announced in early March, the Israeli government defended the blockade as a way to pressure Hamas to release hostages:
Since 2 March Israel has reimposed a total siege, closing border crossings and blocking goods and supplies. A limited flow of aid has been allowed into the enclave since 19 May under an alternative United States (US)-and Israeli-backed humanitarian distribution scheme, which the UN has rejected as a violation of humanitarian principles. Since the operationalization of this scheme – the so-called “Gaza Humanitarian Foundation” (GHF) – United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) has documented at least 875 Palestinians killed, with 674 victims in the vicinity of GHF sites and 201 others on the routes of other aid convoys. (Global Centre for the Responsibility to Protect, 2025)
Only after 11 weeks of blockade, in May, did Israel re-authorize the entry of humanitarian aid into the region, under strong pressure from its main international allies. Even the United States, which in April defended Israel’s blockade of humanitarian aid in Gaza at the UN, expressed concern over the disturbing images created by the blockade of food supplies into the region. The European Union, the United Kingdom, and Japan have also called for measures to stem the humanitarian suffering in Gaza. Given this scenario, the question arises: when the whole world is discussing war, who is paying attention to the hunger and humanitarian suffering in Gaza?
The Security vs. Hunger Dilemma
According to the World Health Organization (WHO), 2.1 million Gazans face prolonged food shortages, with nearly half a million people experiencing catastrophic hunger, acute malnutrition, starvation, disease, and death (WHO, 2025). One of the world’s worst humanitarian crises is unfolding in real time. Hunger is being used as a weapon of war, affecting thousands of civilians, especially Palestinian children. According to UNICEF (2025):
As of July 2025, over 320,000 children, the entire population under five in the Gaza Strip, are at risk of acute malnutrition, with thousands suffering from severe acute malnutrition, the deadliest form of undernutrition. Essential nutrition services have collapsed, with infants lacking access to safe water, breastmilk substitutes, and therapeutic feeding.
The need for humanitarian aid to the Palestinian population has been relegated to the background, overshadowed, and conditioned by Israel’s security strategy and demands. To understand how the denial of humanitarian aid constitutes a clear form of direct and structural violence against the Palestinian population, we can draw on the contributions of Norwegian sociologist Johan Galtung.
Peace Studies and the Gaza Conflict
By examining this issue through the lens of Peace Studies, we can revisit the debate presented by Johan Galtung, who points to the existence of three types of violence in society: direct, structural, and cultural. For the purposes of this text, the concepts of direct and structural violence will be presented, as they are more closely related to the characteristics of the Gaza conflict.
Regarding direct violence, Galtung argues that it presupposes the presence of an agent who, in addition to preventing an individual or society from achieving a certain objective, also acts deliberately to cause harm or destruction. Therefore, direct violence is visible, usually inflicted by weapons or physical attacks. In the context of the Gaza conflict, we have direct violence, which can be observed through Israeli military offensives and bombings in Gaza.
Structural violence, on the other hand, is indirect and impersonal and occurs in a context where there are those in power—top dogs—who benefit more from the structure than other individuals, and the oppressed—underdogs—who suffer from a type of non-direct violence, such as hunger or poverty. Galtung classifies structural violence as unintentional harm to other individuals, such as hunger and poverty. However, in the context of the humanitarian crisis in Gaza, it can be argued that structural violence occurs intentionally, since Israel has denied and blocked humanitarian aid to the region as a war strategy. Hunger, therefore, has been used as a weapon in the conflict.
International Relations and Hunger
When considering international conflicts, especially war, it is common for public opinion and non-specialists to consider violence directly, as mentioned above in Galtung’s words. In the case of Gaza, the military offensives between the parties, the disputes between the Israeli army and Hamas, the bombing of Gaza, and the prolongation of the conflict, which has lasted since October 7, 2023, are televised and discussed. The perspective of scholars and specialists in International Relations does not differ much from this approach, since many analyses of the conflict focus on security issues and the reconfiguration of the international order in the face of conflict. Indeed, thinking about international relations involves discussing politics, economics, history, culture, sociology, and, of course, security issues. After all, the discipline of International Relations itself emerged in the 20th century as a way to understand war and learn how to build peace in the turbulent context of the post-1945 world.
Despite this, thinking about international relations also involves moving beyond the macro level (those topics most discussed by the general public) and looking at the micro level, that is, the individual level. The suffering inflicted by hunger and malnutrition, and the denial of humanitarian aid, need to be analyzed and discussed, because, as discussed above, hunger is a form of violence. While the world was discussing conventional international policy issues, thousands of people were starving in Gaza. And this is still a reality. Therefore, to consider conflict resolution and peacebuilding in the region, it is necessary to consider not only how to end direct violence. For Galtung, the end of direct violence constitutes a Negative Peace scenario. Only with the end of structural violence is it possible to achieve Positive Peace. Therefore, peacebuilding must seek to combat hunger and the humanitarian crisis in the region. Beyond the end of hostilities between the parties, it is necessary to ensure that hunger is not a long-term problem to be faced in Gaza. Finally, the use of hunger as a weapon of war raises serious questions about humanitarian law and the world’s lack of action in the face of one of the greatest humanitarian crises in recent years. To what extent can the suffering of the civilian population be justified by security and strategic concerns?
REFERENCES
CNN BRAZIL. Humanitarian crisis in Gaza worsens after a month of Israeli blockade. CNN Brasil, International, April 7, 2025. Available at: https://www.cnnbrasil.com.br/internacional/crise-humanitaria-em-gaza-se-agrava-apos-um-mes-de-bloqueio-israelense. Accessed on: August 17, 2025.
FERREIRA, Marcos Alan S. V. et al. Estudos para a Paz: conceitos e debates (Peace Studies: concepts and debates). São Cristóvão-SE: Ed. UFS, 2019.
G1. Israel authorizes entry of humanitarian aid into the Gaza Strip after 11 weeks of blockade. G1 – Jornal Nacional, Internacional, May 19, 2025. Available at: https://g1.globo.com/jornal-nacional/noticia/2025/05/19/israel-autoriza-entrada-de-ajuda-humanitaria-na-faixa-de-gaza-depois-de-11-semanas-de-bloqueio.ghtml. Accessed: August 17, 2025.
GALTUNG, Johan. Violence, Peace, and Peace Research. Journal of Peace Research, v. 6, n. 3, p. 167-191, 1969.
GLOBAL CENTRE FOR THE RESPONSIBILITY TO PROTECT. Israel and the Occupied Palestinian Territory. Global Centre for the Responsibility to Protect, July 15. 2025. Available at: https://www.globalr2p.org/countries/israel-and-the-occupied-palestinian-territory/. Accessed: August 17, 2025.
UN NEWS. Gaza: UN agencies warn of alarming levels of hunger and malnutrition. UN News, July 25, 2025. Available at: https://news.un.org/pt/story/2025/07/1850576. Accessed: August 17, 2025.
UNICEF. UN agencies warn key food and nutrition indicators exceed famine thresholds in Gaza. UNICEF, July 29, 2025. Available at: https://www.unicef.org/press-releases/un-agencies-warn-key-food-and-nutrition-indicators-exceed-famine-thresholds-gaza. Accessed: August 17. 2025.
UOL. UN points to “catastrophic” famine in Gaza; Israel denies it. UOL News, International, August 14, 2025. Available at: https://noticias.uol.com.br/internacional/ultimas-noticias/2025/08/14/onu-aponta-fome-catastrofica-em-israel.htm. Accessed on: August 17, 2025.
UOL; AFP. EU, UK, and Japan call for measures against ‘famine’ in Gaza. UOL News, International, August 12, 2025. Available at: https://noticias.uol.com.br/ultimas-noticias/afp/2025/08/12/ue-reino-unido-e-japao-pedem-medidas-contra-a-fome-em-gaza.htm. Accessed on: August 17. 2025.
