Israel Brings Influencers to Aid Sites to Fight Starvation and Famine Narrative in Gaza: What’s Really Happening?

Editing TeamAugust 23, 2025Last Updated: August 23, 2025

Gaza (Quds News Network)- Israel has brought American and Israeli social media influencers to aid sites run by the controversial US- and Israeli-backed Gaza Humanitarian Foundation (GHF), as part of a counter-campaign to fight the narrative that Israel is starving people in Gaza, where famine has been officially declared.

What’s the Story?

According to Haaretz, the tour, organized by Israel’s Diaspora Affairs Ministry, was arranged last week for 10 American and Israeli social media influencers to briefly enter the Gaza Strip as part of a campaign to “reveal the truth” about the humanitarian conditions for Palestinians.

It was framed as a showcase of “the mechanism of humanitarian aid delivery in Gaza” to “refute Hamas’ lies that are distributed by foreign media,” a ministry statement said.

“The tour took place as part of the fight against Hamas’ campaign to discredit [Israel] – the ‘hunger campaign’ – which is meant to damage Israel’s image in the international arena,” the ministry claimed.

Among those on the tour was American journalist Cam Higby who claimed, there is “enough aid to feed EVERY GAZAN for days. LOOK AT THE PALLETS BEHIND ME. YOU ARE BEING LIED TO.”

Brooke Goldstein was also among them. In a post on X, she claimed, “When food gets released into Gaza and given directly to the people, it disrupts Hamas’ ability to use food as a weapon, to steal it and sell it at highly inflated prices in order to fund its operations,” alongside photos of herself touring the GHF’s Khan Younis aid site.

“Prior to [the entry of] GHF, food was being delivered by UNRWA directly into the hands of Hamas terrorists,” Goldstein claimed, writing that what she saw in Gaza proves “that what the media is reporting about the situation is absolutely false.”

Xaviaer DuRousseau published a picture of himself dressed in protective military gear, claiming that “Israel is NOT blocking food from entering Gaza.”

In a follow up post showing pallets of food and other aid awaiting delivery, DuRousseau wrote, “You guys can hate me for going to see the truth all you want, it won’t change the facts. Israel is NOT the reason many Palestinians are starving,” adding “you soup kitchen antisemites want to pretend to care about the Gazan struggle, go there and volunteer to distribute the food!”

Earlier this month, Haaretz reported that Israel’s Foreign Ministry has funneled tens of thousands of dollars toward bringing social media influencers from the US to Israel. Funding flows through Israel365, a pro-settlement organization attempting to bolster evangelical support for Israel, which was awarded the contract without a tender due to its “unique position to convey a pro-Israel stance that aligns entirely with the MAGA and America First agenda.”

Famine Declared in Gaza for First Time

The Integrated Food Phase Classification (IPC), the UN-backed global hunger monitor, issued a report on Friday morning in which it said that famine was taking place in Gaza City and surrounding areas, in an area home to around 500,000 displaced Palestinians.

It has raised its classification for Gaza Governorate to Phase 5, the highest level, which is characterised by starvation, destitution and death.

The same classification is projected to be extended to Deir al-Balah in central Gaza and Khan Younis in the south by the end of September.

While the body had previously warned that famine was imminent across Gaza, it had stopped short of making a formal declaration.

Another 1.07 million people – or 54 percent of Gaza’s population – are classified as being under Phase 4, or “emergency” conditions, while 396,000 people (20 percent) are under Phase 3, or “crisis” conditions.

At least 132,000 children under five in Gaza are expected to suffer from acute malnutrition through next June, according to the latest IPC snapshot on the food security crisis in the territory.

That’s more than double the estimates from the IPC in May.

This includes more than 41,000 severe cases of children at heightened risk of death.

The report said “large segments” of Gaza’s population were consuming diets “that fall extremely short in both nutritional quantity and quality”.

“Nutrition supplies for treating and preventing acute malnutrition are close to depletion due to entry restrictions, which may force health facilities to halt treatment,” it said.

Meanwhile, nearly 55,500 malnourished pregnant and breastfeeding women will require urgent nutrition responses, the body said.

It declares famine if three criteria are met: at least 20 percent of households face an extreme lack of food, at least 30 percent of children are suffering acute malnutrition, and two out of every 10,000 are dying each day due to “outright starvation”.

“After 22 months of relentless conflict, over half a million people in the Gaza Strip are facing catastrophic conditions, characterised by starvation, destitution and death,” the IPC briefing said.

Key Drivers of Famine in Gaza

The IPC report has identified four key drivers of the famine in Gaza.

These include the escalating Israeli assault, which has killed more than 62,000 people and injured 155,000, and the forced displacement, which has seen nearly 800,000 Palestinians forcibly displaced since mid-March.

The report said 1.9 million people – or 90 percent of the population – have been displaced multiple times since the start of the war, leaving most families living in unsafe, overcrowded conditions and others sleeping in the open.

Restricted access was another key factor, the report said, with access to both humanitarian and commercial supplies of food and other essential goods “critically restricted” since mid-March.

The report said a so-called “tactical pause” announced on July 27 had “failed to improve conditions as attacks continued throughout the Strip, including airstrikes, shelling, and shooting”.

Finally, the report said Gaza has experienced a “food system collapse” with more than 98 percent of the cropland in the territory damaged or inaccessible, livestock decimated, fishing banned, cash scarce and market prices unaffordable.

The UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said Gaza’s famine was a “man-made disaster, a moral indictment, and a failure of humanity itself”.

“Famine is not only about food; it is the deliberate collapse of the systems needed for human survival,” Guterres said. “People are starving. Children are dying. And those with the duty to act are failing.”

The UN chief said Israel, as the occupying power, has “unequivocal obligations” under international law, including the duty to ensure that food and medical supplies are made available to the population of Gaza.

Philippe Lazzarini, the head of the UN agency for Palestinians, UNRWA, has highlighted that “months of warnings have fallen on deaf ears”, but now that the famine is confirmed in Gaza City and the surrounding areas, it is “time for political will” to end it.

“We cannot allow this situation to continue with impunity,” he said. “No more excuses. The time for action is not tomorrow – it is now.”

The UN human rights chief Volker Turk said that the emergence of famine in northern Gaza is the “direct result of actions taken by the Israeli government” and added that deaths from starvation might amount to a war crime.

“The famine declared today in Gaza Governorate by the Integrated Food Security Phase Classification (IPC) is the direct result of actions taken by the Israeli government,” Turk said in a statement to reporters, referring to the IPC report.

“It is a war crime to use starvation as a method of warfare, and the resulting deaths may also amount to the war crime of willful killing,” he added.

The famine in Gaza should “haunt us all” and was entirely preventable had the United Nations not been systematically prevented from bringing in food, UN aid chief Tom Fletcher told reporters in the Swiss city of Geneva.

“It is a famine that we could have prevented if we had been allowed. Yet food stacks up at borders because of systematic obstruction by Israel.”

“No Famine in Gaza”

Israel’s Foreign Ministry has rejected the findings of the UN-backed food security report, claiming there was no famine in Gaza and that the findings were based on “Hamas lies”.

Starving Two Million Palestinians

At least 112 Palestinian children and infants among 271 people have died from malnutrition and starvation in Gaza, as Israel continues to block aid, including food, medicine, and fuel, from entering the enclave for five months, the Palestinian Health Ministry confirmed on Thursday.

On Monday, the UN World Food Programme (WFP) warned that as of July 2025, more than 320,000 children – the entire population under the age of five in Gaza – are at risk of acute malnutrition.

Families are surviving on the bare minimum of basic foods, with almost no dietary diversity, WFP said. The agency called for an immediate ceasefire to allow large-scale delivery of humanitarian aid.
Stephane Dujarric, the spokesperson of United Nations chief Antonio Guterres, also warned that the humanitarian crisis in Gaza is “beyond catastrophic”.

“Hunger-related deaths continue to be reported, including among children,” Dujarric told reporters.
He cited UN agencies as saying that the amounts of food entering Gaza are insufficient to meet the needs of the population amid the Israeli blockade.

Dujarric stressed that in order to prevent hunger-related deaths, “humanitarians must be able to deliver food at scale and consistently through all available crossings and routes to reach the population of 2.1 million people”.

UNICEF also warned that Gaza faces a grave risk of famine, with one in three people going days without food.

Over 100 humanitarian organizations, including Amnesty International, Doctors Without Borders (MSF), and Oxfam, said “mass starvation” is spreading across Gaza, with their colleagues in the enclave wasting away from hunger.

The World Health Organization (WHO) said Gaza City has been the area “worst-hit” by malnutrition in the Gaza Strip, with nearly one in five children under five there now acutely malnourished.

The WFP warned that thousands of Palestinians in Gaza are “on the verge of catastrophic hunger,” with one in three people in the enclave going days without food.

Health officials in Gaza issued a stark warning lately: Hundreds of severely emaciated Palestinians are on the verge of death, their bodies too weak to resist any longer.

The Director of Al-Shifa Hospital said hospitals are dealing with hundreds suffering from severe hunger and malnutrition. “We don’t have enough beds or medicine,” he said. “We’re seeing symptoms like memory loss, exhaustion, and collapse from extreme hunger.” He added: “We have 17,000 children suffering from severe malnutrition. This is a generation being starved to death.”

According to the Government Media Office in Gaza, over 650,000 children under the age of five face an imminent and severe risk of acute malnutrition in the coming weeks, out of a total of 1.1 million children in the Gaza Strip.

Currently, around 1.25 million people in Gaza are living under catastrophic hunger conditions, while 96% of the population is suffering from severe levels of food insecurity, including more than one million children, according to the Office.

UNRWA said, “The Israeli Authorities are starving civilians in Gaza. Among them are 1 million children.”

Jagan Chapagain, the secretary-general of the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies, said Palestinians in Gaza face “an acute risk of famine”.

“No one should have to risk their life to get basic humanitarian assistance,” he said.

According to the Integrated Food Security Phase Classification in July, “Mounting evidence shows that widespread starvation, malnutrition, and disease are driving a rise in hunger-related deaths.”

“The worst-case scenario of Famine is currently playing out in the Gaza Strip.”

“It’s clearly a disaster unfolding in front of our eyes, in front of our television screens,” said Ross Smith, UN World Food Programme (WFP) Director of Emergencies.

“This is not a warning, this is a call to action. This is unlike anything we have seen in this century,” he told journalists in Geneva.

The May IPC analysis on Gaza forecast that the entire population would likely experience high levels of acute food insecurity by the end of September, with 469,500 people projected to likely hit “catastrophic” levels.

Michael Fakhri, the UN special rapporteur on the right to food, said: “Israel has built the most efficient starvation machine you can imagine. So while it’s always shocking to see people being starved, no one should act surprised. All the information has been out in the open since early 2024.”

“Israel is starving Gaza. It’s genocide. It’s a crime against humanity. It’s a war crime. I have been repeating it and repeating it and repeating it.”

Is Humanitarian Aid Reaching Gaza?

On March 2, Israel announced the closure of Gaza’s main crossings, cutting off food, medical and humanitarian supplies, worsening a humanitarian crisis for 2.3 million Palestinians, with human rights organizations accusing it of using starvation as a weapon of war against Palestinians.

After more than 80 days of total blockade, starvation, and growing international outrage, limited aid has allegedly been distributed by the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation (GHF), a scandal-plagued organization backed by the US and Israel, created to bypass the UN’s established aid delivery infrastructure in the Gaza Strip.

Most humanitarian organisations, including the UN, have distanced themselves from GHF, arguing that the group violates humanitarian principles by restricting aid to south and central Gaza, requiring Palestinians to walk long distances to collect aid, and only providing limited aid, among other critiques. They have also said the model would increase forced displacement in Gaza.

Moreover, mass killings of aid seekers near and at GHF aid sites have become a grim daily reality amid chaotic scenes, as desperate Palestinians are given only a narrow window to rush for food and are targeted by Israeli forces and American mercenaries. Testimonies and evidence from US mercenaries working with GHF, as well as from Gaza civilians, reveal that aid seekers are being directly and deliberately targeted, despite posing no threat.

Palestinians in Gaza and the UN described these sites as “mass death traps” and “slaughterhouses”.

According to the UN human rights office, at least 859 people have been killed while seeking food near or at the GHF sites since the GHF began operating in late May. The Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) said: “Most of these killings were committed by the Israeli military.”

More than 514 were also killed by Israeli forces along the routes of food convoys, OHCHR added.

Human Rights Watch stated that Israel’s killing of aid seekers at GHF sites amounts to war crimes.

With starvation across the Strip spreading, international outcry over images of emaciated children and increasing reports of hunger-related deaths pressured Israel to let more aid into the Gaza, the Israeli military announced a “tactical pause” in military activity in some areas of Gaza which it claimed would make it easier to send in UN convoys. However, attacks and killings have been reported across most of the Strip.

A UN worker said the “last minute” aid windows may not be enough to treat malnourished children.

The UN confirmed that Israel is still blocking food from reaching starving Palestinians with only a few trucks of aid having reached Gaza.

The WFP said it is not getting the necessary volumes of humanitarian assistance into Gaza despite Israel claiming it issued new measures to enable more supplies to enter the enclave.

“We have not gotten the authorisation, the permission to move in the volumes that we’ve requested,” Smith said.

Smith said the disaster unfolding in Gaza is “unlike anything we have seen in this century”, adding that it was reminiscent of famines seen in Ethiopia and Biafra, Nigeria, in the 20th century.

The Gaza Government Media Office and aid groups confirmed that only few aid trucks have entered the Gaza Strip since Israel announced on July 27 that it would allow the entry of aid, an average of just 84 trucks per day. This represents just 14% of the estimated 4,800 trucks required to meet minimum humanitarian needs.

It added that Gaza requires at least 600 aid and fuel trucks daily to provide for the essential needs of its health, public service, and food sectors.

The Office noted: “We confirm that there are more than 22,000 humanitarian aid trucks currently parked at the Gaza Strip crossing gates, most of which belong to UN and international organizations and various entities.”

Earlier this week, over 100 international NGOs signed an open letter rejecting claims by Israel that “there is no limit on humanitarian aid entering Gaza.” They said that “most major international NGOs have been unable to deliver a single truck of lifesaving supplies since March 2.”

“Engineering Starvation” in Gaza

Israel has deliberately engineered famine and chaos in Gaza, the Gaza Government Media Office said, as most of the aid trucks that entered Gaza were looted in a “systematic disorder fostered by the Israeli occupation”.

“What is happening in Gaza is a clear and deliberate model of how the Israeli occupation is consciously fostering chaos and engineering starvation,” the Media Office said, adding that aid is being intentionally prevented from reaching warehouses or intended recipients.

Gaza’s Ministry of Interior and National Security has also accused Israel of pursuing a policy of targeting its staff “carrying out their duty of securing aid trucks distributed by international organisations, preventing them from reaching those in need safely”.

It also accused Israeli forces of sponsoring “networks of thieves and thugs to seize control of aid trucks, depriving more than two million citizens of safe access and perpetuating famine in the Strip”.

“This is a blatant attempt by the occupation to absolve itself of legal responsibility for using starvation as a weapon in times of war,” the Ministry said in a statement.

This strategy forces Palestinians to travel long distances for aid, putting themselves at great risk, the statement read, adding that this has led to the “destruction of some of the aid supplies due to stampede and overcrowding”.

“Meanwhile, the occupation directly targets them and commits massacres, killing dozens daily near the routes leading to the entry of aid.”

Accusing Hamas of Looting aid

Israel and the US have accused Hamas of stealing aid meant for civilians without providing evidence, an accusation created to back the armed aid system run by the GHF and the ongoing blockade.

Hamas rejects the charge, saying a number of its own members have been killed securing the trucks from armed looters who are being protected and armed by Israeli forces.

In July, a USAID analysis found no evidence of systematic theft by Hamas of US-funded humanitarian aid entering Gaza. The analysis examined 156 incidents of theft or loss of US-funded supplies reported by US aid partner organizations between October 2023 and this May.

It found “no reports alleging Hamas” benefited from the supplies. The analysis found that at least 44 of the 156 incidents where aid supplies were reported stolen or lost were “either directly or indirectly” due to Israeli military actions.

In May, the WFP said it has found no evidence that Hamas is looting humanitarian aid. “No, not at all,” the UN agency’s executive director, Cindy McCain, told US broadcaster CBS, responding to the accusations, adding “this doesn’t have anything to do with Hamas.”

Editing TeamAugust 23, 2025Last Updated: August 23, 2025

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