Hunger increasingly used as weapon of war as ‘food-related violence’ surges, analysis shows

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/EPA

Hunger 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.