In a searing opinion piece published on May 25, 2025, Al Jazeera highlights the brutal reality of life in war-torn Gaza, where even the most basic acts of survival — such as selling, cooking, or distributing food — have become deadly acts under Israel’s ongoing military campaign. The article exposes how civilians attempting to feed their communities are being targeted and killed, as famine tightens its grip and humanitarian conditions collapse.

“Baking bread, boiling rice, or handing out water is now a death sentence,” writes the unnamed author, a Palestinian eyewitness and contributor from Gaza.

The piece serves as a harsh indictment of what the writer and others describe as the criminalization of survival, where Israel’s military actions have allegedly turned food access into a war zone.

🍞 Food as a Target

The article recounts several firsthand accounts of people being killed while operating soup kitchens, selling vegetables from carts, or simply trying to share meals with neighbors. It argues that no place is safe, and no act of charity is spared, describing a reality where cooking fires invite drone strikes and aid lines attract gunfire.

Humanitarian workers, grocers, and even children carrying bread have reportedly been hit during operations, with Israel’s justification being the presence of Hamas fighters in crowded civilian areas — a claim that Palestinians and human rights groups increasingly dispute or challenge.

“The smell of food is now the smell of fear,” the author says. “It marks you for death.”

🧭 A Moral Breakdown

The essay goes beyond physical suffering to examine psychological torment, describing how Gaza’s population is being forced to choose between starvation and risk of execution. The writer accuses the Israeli military of waging a total war on human dignity, weaponizing hunger to exert control and break civilian resistance.

“They want to make us feel that even kindness — even cooking — is resistance. And resistance must be crushed.”

🌍 Silence and Complicity

The author directs harsh criticism not only at Israel but also at international actors, particularly the U.S., UK, and EU, for their continued military and diplomatic support of Israel. The piece suggests that Western governments have enabled what the writer calls a systematic starvation strategy by blocking ceasefire resolutions, restricting humanitarian corridors, and failing to hold Israel accountable.

“We are not dying in secret. The world sees. And still, we starve.”

🕊️ Final Plea

The piece closes with a chilling message: in Gaza, the war has moved beyond combatants — it now targets sustenance itself. The writer calls on global civil society, human rights organizations, and religious leaders to raise their voices and demand an end to what they describe as the siege on humanity.

“They are not just killing us. They are killing the meaning of being human.”

This opinion article is not just a reflection of despair — it is a powerful cry of defiance, insisting that even under siege, the will to survive and to feed one another remains an act of resistance.

Source; Al Jazeera