GAZA, (The Palestine Foundation Pakistan)The Gaza municipality issued a dire warning on Wednesday, cautioning that a catastrophic humanitarian disaster is imminent in the city.
It stressed that the continued Israeli siege and full closure threaten to trigger a famine “worse and more severe than ever before,” amid the total disappearance of basic goods from the markets and a lack of cash flow.
“Hundreds of thousands of residents remain inside the city, but the markets are nearly empty, and what little goods remain are extremely limited and priced far beyond the purchasing ability of citizens,” the ministry added.
It added that the worsening cash crisis is compounding the situation, as there is no liquidity even to secure the most basic daily needs.
Earlier, the municipality had appealed to the world to protect the approximately half a million people in the city and ensure their access to essentials like food, water, medicine, and care.
Local and international estimates suggest that around 500,000 civilians, most of them children, women, and the elderly, are living under extremely harsh humanitarian conditions in Gaza City. According to the municipality, residents suffer from acute food shortages, lack of clean water, no access to basic healthcare, and relentless bombing and destruction.
These warnings come amid the continued Israeli blockade on the Gaza Strip since the outbreak of aggression on October 7, 2023, which has led to the widespread destruction of infrastructure and the collapse of vital sectors, including healthcare, water, and municipal services.
Now entering its third year, the war has cut off adequate deliveries of food and medical aid to Gaza, as UN reports show a large portion of the population suffers from “severe food insecurity” and warn of a total collapse of the humanitarian system in the region.
The Gaza Center for Human Rights has also raised alarms about the expanding famine and worsening humanitarian catastrophe in Gaza Governorate, which shelters over 300,000 displaced Palestinians. The center reports food has vanished from the markets, and families have exhausted their limited reserves, as Israel continues to enforce a total closure of the Zikim crossing and block the movement of goods and civilians from central Gaza to Gaza City.
“We have received dozens of complaints from residents reporting that food is no longer available and that they’re struggling to find sources of sustenance due to the intensified Israeli siege and ongoing military assaults. The occupation forces are also continuing efforts to forcibly displace residents toward central and southern Gaza,” the center said.
The center emphasized that this humanitarian collapse is happening while negotiations for a ceasefire continue in Sharm El-Sheikh, Egypt, yet the situation on the ground is rapidly deteriorating.
It further warned that tying the entry of humanitarian aid to the outcomes of political negotiations is a grave violation of international law. Food, water, and medicine are inalienable rights, not bargaining chips.
The center noted that since 12 September 2025, Israeli forces have closed the Zikim crossing, a critical route for bringing food into northern Gaza. As a result, all food shipments to hundreds of thousands of residents in Gaza City and surrounding areas have stopped.
It also stated that since October 1, Israeli forces have blocked Al-Rasheed Street (the coastal road), preventing people and goods from moving north from southern Gaza—bringing commercial and humanitarian supply routes to a near-complete halt.
This breakdown comes before any recovery from the ongoing famine, which the United Nations officially declared on August 22, 2025, as a man-made famine orchestrated by Israel in the governorate.
The statement also revealed that in September, Israel’s rejection rate for UN humanitarian missions tripled, with 26% of 478 missions denied, compared to 8% in August. Missions heading to northern Gaza faced a 52% rejection rate following the closure of Zikim crossing.
“The continued famine in Gaza, despite international awareness of the scale of the catastrophe, reflects a massive moral and legal failure by the global community. It exposes a deliberate strategy of using starvation as a weapon of war to subjugate the civilian population, constituting part of an ongoing genocide against Palestinians.”
It called for the immediate depoliticization of humanitarian work and the flow of food aid, along with the establishment of an urgent international monitoring mechanism to ensure the uninterrupted delivery of food, medicine, and water to Gaza City and other areas besieged by Israeli forces.
