I’m Gerd Dani, president and curator of FreeAstroScience, and today I’m writing not as a distant observer, but as a scientist, a citizen, and a human being who refuses to look away. I want to talk to you—yes, you, scrolling on your phone, maybe on a train, maybe tired, maybe numb—about Gaza. Because what’s happening there isn’t just a tragedy. It’s a test of our collective conscience.
Let’s start with three ideas you’ve probably heard, maybe even believed:
First, “Famine in Gaza is just a byproduct of war, not a deliberate policy.”
Second, “Israel is doing everything it can to allow humanitarian aid in.”
Third, “There’s no real starvation—just propaganda and exaggeration.”
Now, let’s be clear. Each of these claims collapses under the weight of evidence and basic decency. Famine in Gaza is not a natural disaster—it’s a man-made catastrophe, engineered through deliberate policy choices. Israel’s restrictions on aid are not accidental or unavoidable; they are systematic and strategic. And the starvation is real, documented, and devastating—no amount of denial can erase the images of skeletal children and desperate parents, or the data pouring in from international agencies and medical workers on the ground.
The Science of Starvation: When Hunger Becomes a Weapon
As a science communicator, I’m trained to look for patterns, to interrogate causes, and to demand evidence. The evidence here is overwhelming. According to the World Health Organization, nearly one in five children under five in Gaza City is now acutely malnourished. In July 2025 alone, 63 people—24 of them children—died from hunger. These are not just numbers. These are lives, stories, futures erased.
But here’s the most chilling part: this famine is not a side effect. It’s a strategy. The deliberate blocking and delaying of food, medicine, and humanitarian aid has turned hunger into a weapon of war. The data shows that acute malnutrition rates have tripled in Gaza City since June. In Khan Younis and the Central Area, they’ve doubled in less than a month. Over 5,000 children under five were admitted for malnutrition treatment in just the first two weeks of July, with nearly one in five suffering from the most severe, life-threatening form.
The Human Cost: Beyond the Headlines
Let’s pause and imagine what this means. Parents forced to choose which child gets the last piece of bread. Pregnant women and new mothers—over 40% of them—so malnourished they can barely stand, let alone care for their babies. Journalists collapsing live on air from hunger. Doctors treating patients while starving themselves. Since late May, over a thousand people have been killed and more than 7,200 wounded just trying to reach food.
This isn’t just about calories and statistics. It’s about dignity, about the slow, grinding destruction of a people’s spirit. When leaders claim, “There is no starvation in Gaza,” they’re not just lying—they’re dehumanising an entire population, reducing suffering to a talking point.
The Politics of Denial: When Words Kill
Benjamin Netanyahu’s recent statement—“There is no starvation in Gaza, no policy of starvation in Gaza”—rings hollow against the backdrop of mass graves and empty pantries. Even figures like Donald Trump, not exactly known for subtlety or compassion, have publicly contradicted this narrative, acknowledging the reality of widespread hunger.
What’s especially cruel is the way these denials weaponise cynicism. They invite us to doubt our own eyes, to question the testimony of doctors, aid workers, and survivors. But science doesn’t care about spin. The data is clear, the suffering is real, and the responsibility is undeniable.
The International Failure: When Diplomacy Means Delay
Here’s the bitter truth: this crisis could end tomorrow. If Israel opened the crossings and allowed a sustained, massive flow of aid, the famine would stop. But instead, we see a deadly game of delay and denial, with international diplomacy reduced to empty statements and symbolic gestures.
The world’s response? At best, a collective shrug. At worst, complicity. Every day that passes without action is another day that children die, families starve, and hope fades. The science is unambiguous: famine is preventable. The only thing missing is the political will.
A Call to Conscience: Why Science—and Humanity—Demand Action
So, what do we do with this knowledge? As scientists, as citizens, as human beings, we have a duty to speak out. Silence is not neutrality—it’s complicity. The facts are in: famine in Gaza is a crime, not a coincidence. The blockade is a policy, not an accident. And every day we delay, we become more entangled in the web of responsibility.
I’m not asking you to take my word for it. Look at the data. Listen to the voices from Gaza. Ask yourself: if this were happening in your city, to your children, would you accept excuses and denials? Or would you demand action, now?
The Bottom Line: Science Is Not Silent
At FreeAstroScience, our mission is to explain complex realities in simple terms. Here’s the simplest truth of all: when hunger is used as a weapon, it’s not just a violation of science or law—it’s a betrayal of our shared humanity.
The famine in Gaza is not an abstract problem. It’s a moral emergency. And as long as we have a voice, we must use it to demand an end to this engineered catastrophe. Because science, and conscience, demand nothing less.
Written for you by Gerd Dani, FreeAstroScience—where we refuse to look away, and where we believe that understanding the world is the first step to changing it.
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