A new report, “The Architecture of Genocidal Starvation in Gaza, March -August 2025“, by Forensic Architecture (FA) and the World Peace Foundation (WPF) examines two models for aid distribution in Gaza, revealing how since March 18, 2025, Israel has dismantled the proven and internationally-backed ‘civilian model’ of aid distribution, replacing it with a ‘military model’ which furthers Israel’s military and political objectives in Gaza while starving the region’s civilian population.
‘Aid can be lethal when used in a manipulative way. We have unpacked the architecture of starvation imposed by Israel in Gaza. It is composed of acts of construction and destruction: the destruction of Palestinian agriculture and food sovereignty, the destruction of Palestinian civil society, and the construction of death traps.’
FA’s investigation uses spatial analysis and open-source research and is supported by comparative and theoretical research from the WPF , examining conditions in Gaza in relation to a social scientific framework for starvation and the duty to prevent of genocide and preserve humanity and community.
This report coincides with the release of a new report by the Integrated Food Security Phase Classification (IPC), also published today, which will determine if the threshold for ‘famine’ has been reached in Gaza.
The report outlines in detail the two models of aid distribution in Gaza: the ‘civilian model’, and the ‘military model’. The civilian model distributes aid through international humanitarian organizations including the UN Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA), with the support of local organizations and local community leaders. The ‘military model’ is currently implemented through a series of ‘ration stations’ operated by the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation (GHF), a newly established organisation backed by Israel and the US, as well as airdropped aid distributed by Israel and other countries.
‘The dehumanization of Palestinians, the stripping of basic dignity, and the tearing apart of the fabric of the community are not accidental byproducts of the mass starvation inflicted on the people of Gaza. There is every reason to believe that these are what Israel intends through its militarized ration system.’
This report builds on FA’s previous analysis of Israeli military attacks on aid in Gaza between October 2023 and September 2024, to focus on aid distribution in Gaza between 18 March 2025—the date on which Israeli military action ended the ceasefire with Hamas—and 1 August 2025.
Findings
In Gaza, under the Israeli system of aid distribution, intentional mass starvation is happening on two levels:
- The biological starvation of individuals through the provision of starvation rations, or no rations at all.
- The destruction of the group as a whole, through collective dehumanization, separating he population from its land, and the disintegration of a functioning Palestinian society in Gaza.
Israel has dismantled the ‘civilian model’ by:
- Attacking essential aid infrastructure like warehouses, distribution points, kitchens and bakeries.
- Restricting the supply of aid into Gaza by international humanitarian organizations.
- Creating the conditions for aid diversion, including attacking groups tasked with securing aid routes, and failing to intervene in the diversion of aid in areas controlled by the Israeli military.
In its place, Israel has imposed the ‘military model’. The military model is designed in a way that is dangerous and deadly to Palestinians.
- There are only four GHF ‘ration stations’, all located in military zones. Often, Palestinians must travel dangerous journeys over long distances to receive rations, while ration stations are commonly open only for short periods, and with little or no advanced notice.
- Airdropped aid landed in active combat zones, or in densely populated areas, where airdrops have killed people, and destroyed shelters.
Three key patterns emerge from the analyzed data:
- The ‘military model’ facilitates the forced displacement and re-concentration of Palestinians in areas unsafe for habitation.
- Seeking aid under the ‘military model’ is consistently dangerous and deadly for Palestinians in Gaza.
- Through the pressures of starvation and continued military violence, social structures are being dismantled, and civil order in Gaza is being undermined.
In line with other investigations, FA found no evidence of systematic aid diversion by Hamas.
Quantitative findings:
FA verified the following incidents occurring between 18 March and 1 August 2025:
- At least 64 incidents of civilians being attacked by the Israeli military while seeking aid, including 25 incidents at and around GHF ration stations.
- 9 incidents of police and aid workers being attacked by the Israeli military.
- 23 incidents of aid infrastructure being attacked (including warehouses, distribution points, communal kitchens, restaurants, cafeterias, bakeries and water points).
- Palestinians in Gaza have been subject to 58 evacuation orders.
- Palestinians are required to walk an average of 6km to arrive at a GHF ration station.
- Between 29 May and 4 July 2025: GHF ration stations were open for an average of 23 minutes at a time. Between 19 June and 4 July, this average fell to 10 minutes.
- 60% of the announcements on the GHF’s Facebook page were published less than one hour before the station in question was due to open.
- In 23% of cases, the closure of a ration station was announced before the previously communicated opening time had been reached.
Conclusions
In the face of well-established humanitarian principles that require that humanitarian aid not be misused for military or political ends, Israel is instrumentalizing aid:
- To enforce displacement and re-concentration. The military model only provides rations in places towards which Israel wants Palestinians to be displaced (including areas south of Wadi Gaza, and close to Rafah, near the border with Egypt). The military model has limited the availability of aid in places that Israel wants to clear of Palestinians (north Wadi Gaza, including Gaza City).
- To make reaching aid deadly and dangerous. The Israeli military has repeatedly killed and injured Palestinian civilians when they sought aid through either the civilian or military model.
- To undermine civil order, dismantle the social fabric of Palestinian society, and dehumanize Palestinians. Israel has used aid to break down existing social and civil structures in Gaza, grounded in relations between family networks, political groups, and international aid organizations, to generate dependency and, as a result, to establish political control over the Palestinian population.
- To permit and enable the diversion of aid. Despite the stated rationale for shifting from the civilian to the military model—to eliminate purported theft of aid by Hamas—Israel’s military model has no means for preventing diversion of aid. Israel is attacking groups tasked with protecting aid, like the Palestinian Civil Police, and permitting aid diversion in military areas.
