We, people working in and supporting food and farming in UK, unequivocally condemn Israel’s destruction of Palestine’s food system and the use of starvation as an exceptionally cruel weapon targeting civilians.

We have read with horror the August report on starvation in Gaza, produced by B’Tselem, Israel’s leading human rights organisation.

From this report we learn….

In January 2024, UN experts concluded: “Israel is [...] using food as a weapon against the Palestinian people.” In May, the UN designated Gaza “the hungriest place on Earth”.

• Almost 100% of the population are experiencing acute food insecurity. 54% of the population - 1,169,000 people - are experiencing emergency and catastrophe levels of food shortages.
• As of 21 August 2025, the Gaza Ministry of Health reported 271 deaths related to hunger and malnutrition, including 112 children.

Israel has deployed several measures to create starvation.

• Deliberately blocking and delaying entry of food aid into Gaza.
• Preventing the operation of community kitchens run by UNRWA and the World Central Kitchen (WCK), and also citizen-created community kitchens, including the killing of workers in these kitchens.
• Shooting people seeking food from distribution points, using guns, tanks and quadcopters. As of 20 August 2025, Israeli forces had killed 2,018 people in Gaza while they were attempting to obtain food and injured 14,947 others.
• Totally destroying all food production and undermining the viability of producing food in the future. Israel has destroyed:
  • 75% of farmland
  • 96% of livestock
  • 80% of irrigation wells
  • 70% of greenhouses
  • 100% of the fishing industry.

Meanwhile, in the West Bank in the city of Hebron in July, Israel destroyed Palestine’s Seed Bank, without warning. The Union of Agricultural Work Committees stated “This deliberate targeting of a civilian agricultural facility is a strategic attack on the very foundations of Palestinian resilience. The Seed Bank has played a critical role in safeguarding traditional seed varieties and empowering small-scale farmers through local seed reproduction and exchange…..We call on all international partners….to speak out forcefully against this crime.”

We are responding to this plea for international solidarity. We stand ready to offer our support to the people of Palestine to rebuild their food production after the current nightmare.

We call on the UK to deploy every possible measure to obstruct Israel’s plan to destroy Gaza, including sanctions and the complete cessation of all arms sales.

Photo credit: WHO.

Petition initiated by local food advocates in Wales, September 2025.