Why is Gaza starving? The answer is tragic but simple: starvation is Hamas’s strategy. A suffering populace makes for effective leverage on the global stage. By keeping its people hungry and shifting blame to Israel, Hamas’s terrorist enterprise gains favor, appeasement, and approval from a watching world. Too many are falling for Hamas’s propaganda.
It wasn’t long ago that I stood looking into the Gaza Strip. Buildings flattened to rubble, the sounds of distant explosions, and the ugliness of war broke my heart. I knew that image-bearers were suffering not far beyond the border where I stood. I prayed, I sang to the Lord, and I left burdened with care for the victims of Hamas’ terror, Israeli hostages and Gazan civilians alike.
In the past week, there has been a noticeable uptick in international talk of a humanitarian crisis in the Gaza Strip. Graphic photos and stories have dominated news cycles, taken social media by storm, and captured the attention of global leaders—and for good reason. When children are suffering, the world should listen. But right now, lies are spreading faster than facts.
Images and stories stir emotion and outrage, but the only way to solve the growing crisis in Gaza is to identify and expose the truth: Hamas is starving its own people for political gain, and the United Nations (UN) is standing by idly. Contrary to the popular narrative, Israel and the Israel Defense Force (IDF) are not to blame for civilian suffering in the Gaza Strip.
While it is simply unprecedented that any nation defending itself from a bloodthirsty enemy be expected to ship aid into its aggressor’s territory, the IDF has made an outstanding effort to minimize civilian casualties in Gaza. Since October 7th, 2023, Israel has shipped almost 2 million tons of humanitarian aid in 100,000 trucks into the territory, including 4,000 tons of baby formula in the last few weeks. On July 26, the IDF announced it would drop seven pallets of canned food, flour, and sugar into Gaza via plane.
Hamas is deliberately holding this humanitarian aid hostage, seeing to it that shipments do not reach their intended destinations. In September 2024, Journalist David Isaac found that Hamas had compiled 500 million dollars in wealth from stealing, hoarding, and selling food to desperate civilians. Hamas profits from starving Gazans—it is their war strategy.
Naturally, Hamas is well fed. In a tragic video released in the final days of July, Hamas terrorists forced an emaciated Israeli hostage Evyatar David to dig his own grave. When the terrorist behind the camera offered David a can, the terrorist’s healthy, muscular arm struck an eerie visual comparison with David’s arm—nothing but skin and bones. There is food in Gaza, but Hamas hoards it as hostages and civilians starve.
Simultaneously, the United Nations is sitting on parking lots full of food rotting in the Middle Eastern sun. In July 2025, Wall Street Journal contributor Eitan Fischberger reported visiting a “graveyard” of 600 truckloads worth of humanitarian aid (food, diapers, and water) that the United Nations refuses to ship to Gazan civilians. The UN claims it is unable to ship the aid due to security concerns while continually denying offers for assistance from both the IDF and the U.S.-backed Gaza Humanitarian Foundation.
Gazans would not be starving if Israel’s humanitarian aid actually reached the civilians it is intended for, but Hamas will keep its people hungry until it achieves its objectives: total annihilation of the nation and people of Israel (the “Little Satan”), with the total annihilation of the United States (the “Great Satan”) close behind. If Hamas cared for the Gazan people, it would release the Israeli hostages and seek an end to the war it started on October 7, 2023.
Israel has no intention of wiping out innocent Gazans in their defensive war. Hamas, on the other hand, exists to wipe out Israel and the Jewish people. They will starve their own people to do it.
Please join Concerned Women for America (CWA) in fervent prayer for peace in Israel and Gaza. CWA hopes for a day when the Israeli hostages are freed to return safely home to their families, and we will continue to speak the truth in love: innocent Gazan civilians must be freed from Hamas’s terror.
