Dear friends,
We want to share a reflection from one of our Palestinian staff members — a voice among many who are witnessing the ongoing humanitarian catastrophe in Gaza with growing distress:
“Today I feel overwhelmed with helplessness and pain over what’s happening in Gaza. The starvation, the hunger, the slow death from lack of food - it’s unbearable.
A friend of mine from Gaza, who’s never asked for anything throughout all these years, reached out today for the first time in four years. She simply said, ‘I’m hungry.’
She didn’t ask for money — just food. And I have no way to get it to her. I don’t know how to help. And that breaks me.”
It is hard to express the sense of helplessness we are feeling right now — as people, as a movement, and as a joint Israeli-Palestinian team committed to nonviolence and dignity for all. We are watching a slow and entirely preventable humanitarian disaster unfold in real time.
In Gaza today, hunger is everywhere. According to the UN and humanitarian agencies on the ground, the risk of famine is now severe. Food is not reaching those who need it most.
Children are dying of malnutrition. Mothers are unable to feed their families. Men are being shot as they try to access aid convoys.
This is not a natural disaster. It is a political crisis. And it is deeply wrong.
The deliberate blocking of food and humanitarian aid — the militarisation of basic survival — is a violation of international law and an assault on our shared humanity.
We support the recent Joint Statement led by the UK and signed by 12 other governments, calling on the Israeli government to:
Allow unimpeded humanitarian access — food, water, medicine, and fuel
Open and expand humanitarian routes, including through the Port of Ashdod and the Erez crossing
Protect aid workers and humanitarian convoys from harm
“Starvation as a method of warfare is prohibited under international law.”
(Joint Statement, 13 July 2025)
We urge you — our community of supporters, allies, and partners — to not look away. This moment demands moral clarity and courage. We must stay engaged, even when it feels overwhelming, and we must raise our voices against policies that treat food as a weapon.
Speak out. Support humanitarian organisations. Contact your representatives. Share verified information. And join us in demanding that the blockade on food and aid be lifted now.
Let us refuse to become desensitised and let us not accept a world where hunger is used as a tactic of war.
In solidarity,
Rana Salman & Eszter Koranyi
Co-Directors, Combatants for Peace
