Where is the Food Going? Understanding the Gaza Food Security Situation

By: David Litman August 19, 2025

While media claims of a “famine” in Gaza appear overwrought, unreliable, and in some cases fabricated, there is hunger in the Gaza Strip. What is the extent of hunger? There is simply not enough information to know with any certainty. So what are media consumers to make of the Gaza hunger story?

Begin with what is known.

One perhaps surprising fact is that food aid is and has been entering the Gaza Strip at historically high rates. One study found that during a four-month period in 2024, the amount of food aid entering Gaza equated to nearly 3,200 calories per person per day. That amount has grown: approximately 4,000 calories per person per day entered Gaza between May 19 and August 12. That’s nearly twice the daily recommendation. COGAT, which tracks and itemizes the entry of all humanitarian aid, says that during the same period, over 182,000 tons of aid entered Gaza, 95% of which was food.[1]

But if the data shows that getting food into Gaza isn’t the problem, then what is?

Where is the Food Going?

That aid is entering to Gaza does not mean that it’s being delivered to the intended recipients. There are several reasons for this.

First, looting has been a major problem. This is particularly true for aid delivered by the United Nations (UN), which admitted earlier this month that 88% of aid trucks were being “intercepted” by armed men or mobs of civilians. Much of this looted aid, intended for the neediest Gazans, is instead sold at exorbitant prices.

Problems arise even for the aid delivered by the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation (GHF). Although the GHF’s mechanism prevents large-scale looting by delivering directly to needy civilians, certain complications have still arisen. There have been reports of adult Gazan men either pushing to the front of lines or robbing women and children as they leave distribution sites. There has also been a concerted campaign by Hamas to intimidate Gazans into refusing aid from the GHF and other private aid initiatives over which the terrorist organization has no control. GHF aid workers have also been attacked and even murdered by Hamas, all with the disturbing complicity of other “humanitarian” organizations such as Doctors Without Borders.

The GHF has introduced changes to its distribution system to alleviate these issues, such as allowing families to reserve aid packages in advance and implementing women-only days and lanes. Whether these modifications will make a substantial difference remains to be seen.

Aid sitting inside Gaza left undelivered by the United Nations. Courtesy: COGAT

Another problem is the UN’s failure to scale up its capacity. Throughout the conflict, Israel has pointed to massive backlogs of aid piling up at collection sites inside of Gaza which the UN has failed to deliver. The UN has blamed Israel for this, claiming that Israel is refusing to guarantee the safety of their aid convoys. However, as recently pointed out by one journalist at a UN daily briefing, the UN’s position seems to rely on an inherent contradiction. On the one hand, they demand Israel guarantee their security, while on the other hand they refuse to accept any security support from Israel. Simultaneously, the UN has insisted on Hamas “security” for its aid convoys, notwithstanding the abundant evidence of Hamas stealing aid. This belies the UN’s justification for refusing Israeli security support – that it won’t work with warring parties.

Finally, there is the simple fact that Gaza remains a complex and challenging war zone. Hamas continues to utilize tactics that intentionally place civilians in harm’s way and exploit their suffering. Just last week a large group of Hamas terrorists was caught disguising themselves as aid workers to carry out an attack on Israeli forces. Such tactics aren’t just immoral and unlawful. Hamas’s systematic practice of disguising itself in civilian attire makes it all the more difficult for Israeli forces to distinguish between civilians and combatants, substantially raising the likelihood of mistakes. This threatens legitimate aid workers and forces Israel to adopt security measures that inevitably complicate aid delivery.

Humanitarian crises inevitably arise from war. Israel did not start this war. While its policies on aid delivery are open to fair criticism, attempts to portray Israel as solely at fault for hunger in Gaza conflict with reality and do little to actually remedy the situation. Israel is allowing food into Gaza. The question all parties – including Israel, the UN, and other aid agencies – need to answer is how to guarantee that food gets to those who need it, not those who seek to profit off of it.

 

 

[1] United Nations data accounts only for aid it delivers, which is why UN data shows lower numbers.

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