Recently, the International Court of Justice (ICJ) redoubled its historic vendetta against the state of Israel and opened a hearing into the Israeli blockade of humanitarian aid into Gaza.
At the hearing, the United Nations (UN) leapt to condemn Israel for its “ban on humanitarian aid” and declared that the blockade of aid into Gaza has induced a litany of “devastating humanitarian consequences in the Gaza Strip.”
In fact, various politicians and political actors have claimed that the state of Israel seeks to starve the people of Gaza.
However, despite the baseless accusations that have recently been levied against the state of Israel by the UN and other Palestinian ‘allies,’ it is clear that Israel is not at all attempting to starve the people of Gaza or engineer any famine in Palestine.
More importantly, it is readily apparent that any politician, political actor, or organization that earnestly desires to end starvation in Palestine and allocate the Palestinian people with any basic human rights must endeavor to exile Hamas from Gaza, not abolish the Jewish state.
Firstly, the state of Israel has never displayed a desire to starve or exterminate the Palestinian people in any capacity. Instead, throughout the modern era, Israeli organizations have constantly provided humanitarian aid and medical services to Palestine, in an effort to improve the “life chances” of the Palestinian people, despite the brutal violence, terror, and hatred that Palestinian terrorist organizations enthusiastically cultivate against the state of Israel.
For example, since the most recent outbreak of the Israel-Palestine conflict on October 7th, the state of Israel has helped to facilitate the transfer of over one million tons of humanitarian aid and 800 000 tones of food into Gaza and the Palestinian territories. Furthermore, over the past decade, “Food and supplies [have been] shipped from Israel to Gaza six days a week.” and “Millions of dollars worth of international food aid [has] continually [flowed] through the Israeli humanitarian apparatus, ensuring that there is no food shortage in Gaza.
In truth, the state of Israel has only recently been forced to restrict the flow of aid into Gaza, due to the fact that Hamas has attempted to bargain with the lives of innocent people and has refused to release the final 59 hostages that it captured during its brutal attack against the state of Israel on Oct. the 7th. Sadly, Hamas has previously tortured and murdered many of its hostages, such as the Bibas children, and, therefore, Israel has been forced to explore every option to save the lives of the remaining hostages.
Moreover, even if Israel’s current blockade immediately evaporated, Gazans would still suffer incredibly, due to the fact that Hamas has, for years, consistently misappropriated the overwhelming majority of all international aid in Gaza and has refused to erect any of the socio-political infrastructure necessary to provide the people of Gaza with their most basic needs.
For instance, Hamas routinely embezzles the overwhelming majority of any international aid and funding, in order to enrich its senior officials and viciously attack the people of Israel. Furthermore, due to the fact that “Hamas allocates 55 percent of its budget to fund its military needs and … less than 5 percent … [of its budget towards] the rehabilitation of Gaza,” Palestinians in Gaza have long been left utterly bereft of countless basic necessities, such as clean drinking water, food, electricity, and hospitals.
Incredibly, Hamas has so severely neglected the needs of Gaza that in 2020, years before the current outbreak of the Israel-Palestine Conflict and any associated disruption to international aid, “over 60 percent of households in the Gaza Strip [were] moderately or severely food insecure.”
In fact, the Palestinian people have themselves already recognized Hamas as the source of their problems.
For example, Arab Barometer, the “longest-running and most comprehensive public opinion project in the [Middle East],” has recently confirmed that over 67 percent of Gazans are deeply distrustful of Hamas and that that 72 percent of Gazans believe that Hamas and its government institutions are overwhelmingly corrupt. Additionally, Arab Barometer has revealed, “The people of Gaza are disillusioned not only with Hamas but with the entire Palestinian leadership.”
Furthermore, huge anti-Hamas protests have started to erupt throughout Gaza. On March 25th 2025, for instance, the largest anti-Hamas protests since the October 7th pogrom erupted throughout nine locations in Gaza, as a triumphant wave of Palestinians bravely demanded their freedom from its decades of violent Hamas tyranny. In addition, on April 16th 2025, Palestinians filled the streets of Beit Lahia, a city in northern Gaza, in a vivid cry for freedom and an immediate end to Hamas’ murderous rule.
It is clear that Israel has not attempted to starve the people of Gaza or engineer any famine in Palestine.
More importantly, it is readily apparent that any politician, political actor, or organization that earnestly desires to end starvation in Palestine and provide for the basic human rights of Palestinians must endeavor to exile Hamas from Gaza, not abolish the Jewish state.
In truth, even if international aid floods into Gaza, Hamas will still take every step necessary in order to ensure that ordinary Gazans will suffer tremendous hardship.
READ MORE from William Barclay:
Palestinians’ ‘Allies’ Need to Abolish Hamas, Not Israel
William Barclay is a political theorist and private consultant. William’s work has been published by the Macdonald-Laurier Institute, Palgrave-Macmillan, The Hill Times, and the Journal of Liberty and International Affairs, among other publications. Follow him on Twitter/X @WillBarclayBBC.