Hunger increasingly used as weapon of war as ‘food-related violence’ surges, analysis shows
Key takeaways
- Displaced Palestinians jostle for bags of flour from an aid truck near a food distribution point in the northern Gaza Strip in July 2025.
- Attacks include 1,261 strikes on markets used by families for daily groceries and 863 incidents in which food distribution systems were targeted and workers killed.
- The analysis looked at the period since UN resolution 2417 unanimously condemned the deliberate starvation of civilians in 2018.
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Displaced Palestinians jostle for bags of flour from an aid truck near a food distribution point in the northern Gaza Strip in July 2025. Photograph: Mohammed Saber/EPAView image in fullscreen Displaced Palestinians jostle for bags of flour from an aid truck near a food distribution point in the northern Gaza Strip in July 2025. Photograph: Mohammed Saber/EPAGlobal development Hunger increasingly used as weapon of war as ‘food-related violence’ surges, analysis shows More than 20,000 attacks on markets, farmland and food distribution systems have been recorded since 2018
About this contentMark TownsendSun 24 May 2026 07.00 BSTLast modified on Sun 24 May 2026 07.01 BSTSharePrefer the Guardian on GoogleHunger is being increasingly exploited as a weapon of war with more than 20,000 documented incidents of “food-related violence” in the past eight years, new analysis reveals.
Attacks include 1,261 strikes on markets used by families for daily groceries and 863 incidents in which food distribution systems were targeted and workers killed.