Speaking at the G20 Working Group on Global Food Security in Cairo—the first time the forum has convened outside member countries—Ragui El-Etreby, President Abdel-Fattah El-Sisi’s personal representative to the G20 and BRICS, said the situation in the Gaza Strip underscored the urgent need for international accountability.

“This is not a natural disaster,” he told delegates. “It is a systematic policy that weaponizes hunger to crush the will of the Palestinian people.”

El-Etreby argued that the crisis should serve as a spur for wider reforms of the global food system, including changes to multilateral trade rules, investment in infrastructure, and new technology to boost agricultural productivity and climate resilience.

His intervention comes as Gaza has been officially declared in famine by the United Nations (UN)-backed Integrated Food Security Phase Classification (IPC),  placing more than half a million people in the grip of catastrophic hunger.

The number is projected to rise to 640,000 by September.

The IPC’s declaration is based on its strict triple threshold for famine: at least 20 percent of households facing extreme food shortages, acute malnutrition exceeding 30 percent among children, and death rates surpassing two per 10,000 people per day.

In Gaza, all three criteria were met.

UN officials and aid agencies have stressed that the famine is entirely "man-made".

Nearly two years of relentless bombardment, repeated forced displacement, and the systematic destruction of bakeries, farms, markets, and water networks have stripped civilians of any means to feed themselves. 

Above all, Israel’s sweeping land, sea and air blockade — tightened in May 2024 with the seizure of the Palestinian side of the Rafah crossing and escalated into a full-fledged siege on 2 March — has throttled the entry of food, fuel, and humanitarian aid.

International agencies say the deliberate obstruction of relief convoys and the refusal to guarantee safe access have made famine inevitable.

Egypt, along with a host of Arab, Muslim, and international actors, has repeatedly condemned the blockade, arguing it amounts to collective punishment in violation of international law.

Following global outrage, Tel Aviv began permitting a trickle of aid to enter via the Egyptian side of the Rafah crossing and through the Israeli-controlled Karm Abu Salem crossing on 27 July. 

The aid convoys, organized by the Egyptian Red Crescent (ERC) in collaboration with the United Nations (UN) and its humanitarian partners, are part of the ERC's Zad El-Ezza: From Egypt to Gaza initiative.

Israel has continued to block thousands of aid trucks on the Egyptian side of Rafah and tightly restricted the types of goods allowed into the strip.

Humanitarian groups say the current flow of relief meets less than 15 percent of daily needs, with the UN estimating that 600–800 trucks a day are required to keep the population alive.

Currently, the IPC estimates that Gaza’s entire population of more than 2 million is experiencing severe food insecurity, with around 58 percent in “Emergency” (Phase 4) and 32 percent in “Catastrophe” (Phase 5).

Without an immediate ceasefire and the full restoration of aid access, experts warn, mass and avoidable deaths are inevitable.