Global & US Headlines
Israel Green-Lights Gaza City Offensive Amid Accusations of State-Engineered Famine
On 12 Aug 2025 Israel’s war cabinet confirmed plans to seize Gaza City even as 24 nations publicly warned that famine is unfolding and at least 89 Palestinians were killed in the previous 24 hours.
Focusing Facts
- Gaza Health Ministry tallies 227 starvation-linked deaths since 7 Oct 2023, 103 of them children.
- Civil-defence teams say 89 Palestinians, including 15 queuing for food, were killed between 11-12 Aug 2025 during intensified Israeli air- and tank-fire.
- A joint diplomatic note signed by the UK, Australia, France, Japan, Spain and 19 other states demanded Israel authorize all NGO aid shipments and halt lethal force near convoys.
Context
Modern wars rarely combine siege, displacement and high-tech surveillance as tightly as Gaza 2023-25 now does; but there are precedents. The 1941–44 Siege of Leningrad killed >1 million civilians largely through starvation, and Nigeria’s 1967–70 blockade of Biafra provoked a global relief airlift—both episodes eventually eroded the besiegers’ political capital. Today, data show 86 % of Gaza demarcated as combat or evacuation zones and only 4 aid hubs replacing UNRWA’s former 400, suggesting a systemic, not incidental, supply choke. The cabinet’s decision reflects a century-long pattern—from the 1920 San Remo mandates through the 1967 occupation—where territorial control is pursued even when diplomatic costs mount. Whether Gaza’s current famine snapshot becomes a footnote or a Nuremberg-style legal watershed will shape norms on siege warfare for decades; if a precedent of impunity is set, future urban conflicts (think Taipei 2060 or Lagos 2080) could normalise starvation as a force-multiplier.
Perspectives
Arab and advocacy media
Al Jazeera Online, Common Dreams, Palestine Info Center — Portray the Gaza offensive as a deliberate Israeli campaign of genocide and engineered famine aimed at ethnically cleansing Palestinians. Stories lean heavily on Gaza’s Hamas-run ministries and activists, use highly charged language, and give scant attention to Hamas’s October-7 attack or Israeli security concerns.
Mainstream Western media outlets
BBC, Reuters, The Guardian — Report an acute humanitarian crisis and looming famine in Gaza while noting international pressure on Israel and including Israeli denials of a ‘starvation policy’. Their effort to balance quotes from all sides can dilute or defer judgment on war-crime allegations and relies heavily on official Western and UN sources rather than on-the-ground Palestinian testimony.
Israeli government–aligned narrative as quoted in international coverage
Indian Express, statements within other outlets — Insists Israel is not responsible for hunger, blames Hamas for diverting aid, and frames the expanded offensive as essential to free hostages and dismantle the last Hamas strongholds. Positions seek to deflect culpability for civilian suffering and to sustain domestic and international backing, downplaying evidence of widespread malnutrition and civilian deaths.