Famine in Gaza? The Israelis are Not Moved

Omer Yair, the Institute for Liberty and Responsibility

The issue of hunger in the Gaza Strip has received extensive international coverage in recent months, leading to strong international criticism of Israel. As of the time of writing, according to the Ministry of Health in the Gaza Strip, a Hamas-controlled organization, more than 300 Gazans have died of starvation since the outbreak of the war, most of them since Israel violated the ceasefire in March 2025. Since May, the Gaza Humanitarian Fund (GHF) has been operating in Gaza, with the encouragement of the State of Israel. This organization was established to distribute humanitarian aid to the residents of the Gaza Strip, but has not done so effectively. Images of starving Gazans, including emaciated and starving children, were widely circulated in the international media during July and August, arousing outrage against Israel.

What is the Israeli public's attitude towards the famine situation in the Gaza Strip? Does the public even believe that there is widespread famine in Gaza? And who, in the opinion of the Israeli public, is to blame for the situation? We investigated these and other questions in a survey we conducted at the Institute for Liberty and Responsibility on August 10-14 among a representative sample of 1,505 Israeli respondents. The survey findings show that most of the Israeli public is skeptical of the claims of famine in Gaza and does not blame Israel for the current state of affairs.

First, most Israelis, 64%, disagreed with the claim that "there is widespread famine in the Gaza Strip," compared to 28% who agreed (the rest answered "don't know"). We found significant differences here between coalition voters (90% disagreed) and opposition voters (55% disagreed), but the largest differences were between Jewish respondents (77% disagreed and 16% agreed) and Arab respondents (13% disagreed compared to 76% who agreed). Even more sweeping agreement concerns international coverage: No less than 80% of Israelis disagreed with the claim that international media outlets cover the issue of food entry and famine in Gaza fairly and professionally, with relatively small differences between coalition voters (95% disagreed) and opposition voters (79% disagreed). The Israeli public is clearly very critical and skeptical of international coverage of the issue of hunger in the Gaza Strip.

In another question, we examined whether, in the public's opinion, Israel or Hamas is primarily responsible for the famine situation in Gaza. Seventy-two percent of respondents answered that it is Hamas, compared to 15% who answered that it is Israel (the rest answered "don't know" or specified a different answer). There were also very large differences between Jewish and Arab respondents in this answer: Eighty-seven percent of Jewish respondents indicated Hamas as primarily responsible for the famine in Gaza and 3% of them answered that it is Israel, while among Arab respondents 17% indicated Hamas as primarily responsible and 61% indicated Israel as primarily responsible.

Our survey also shows that most Israelis do not believe that Israel should do more about the famine situation in Gaza. Sixty-seven percent of respondents disagreed with the statement that Israel should do more to prevent mass starvation in the Gaza Strip, compared to 25% who agreed. Again, there were notable differences between coalition and opposition voters (92% disagreed and 53% disagreed, respectively), and especially between Jewish and Arab respondents (78% disagreed and 21% disagreed, respectively). And do Israelis feel sad when they hear about the famine situation in the Gaza Strip? Twenty-seven percent of respondents answered yes, compared to 67% who disagreed with the statement, with very large differences between Jewish and Arab respondents (16% of Jews said they felt sad, compared to 78% of Arabs).

Finally, in early August, Minister of Finance Bezalel Smotrich said in an interview that "no one will let us starve 2 million citizens, even though it may be right and moral until our hostages are back." We asked respondents in the survey a question that corresponds with the Minister of Finance's words: Do they agree that it is legitimate to starve the population of Gaza in order to win the war? In this case, the majority of the Israeli public, 64%, indicated that it is not legitimate, compared to 27% who answered that it is legitimate. At the same time, almost half of coalition voters (47%) answered that it is legitimate, while a small minority of opposition voters (13%) answered that it is legitimate.

All of these findings indicate considerable suspicion among the Israeli public, especially among the Jewish public in Israel, regarding reports of widespread famine in the Gaza Strip. Furthermore, most of the Israeli public believes that Hamas is responsible for issues related to famine in the Gaza Strip, not Israel, and likewise believes that Israel should not do more to prevent famine in Gaza. Although a minority of Israelis believe that starving the population of the Strip is a legitimate move to win the war, the proportion of those who support starvation reaches almost half of the coalition voters.

It seems that all the findings, and especially the finding regarding the lack of sorrow regarding the famine situation in Gaza, indicate an almost complete lack of compassion and empathy for the suffering that exists in the Gaza Strip, whether due to the memory of the events of October 7 and the images of celebrating Gazans, due to the anger and astonishment of the Israeli public at the terrible condition of those held captive by Hamas, due to deep suspicion regarding Hamas reports and the claims of the Gazans, or due to other reasons. In the long term, it seems that only a long period of calm in the conflict, along with the removal of Hamas from control of the Gaza Strip, will lead to an improvement in the attitude of most Israelis towards the Gazans.

Dr. Omer Yair is the research director and a research fellow at the Institute for Liberty and Responsibility at the Lauder School of Government, Diplomacy and Strategy at Reichman University.