Gaza Starvation
Updated 2024-08-25
2024-08-05 Israeli Minister Laments That ‘Nobody Will Let Us’ Starve 2 Million Gazans To Death “This is what fascism and the desire for mass extermination and displacement look like,” a Palestinian-American expert said. “These criminals want to eliminate all Palestinians in Gaza, not just Hamas.” Far-right Israeli minister Bezalel Smotrich on Monday said that it might be “justified and moral” to cause two million Palestinian civilians to starve to death until Hamas returns Israeli hostages, drawing criticism from humanitarian groups.
Human rights campaigners have demonstrated that Israel is limiting and delaying aid into the Gaza Strip, and even using starvation as a “weapon of war.” United Nations’ experts warned earlier this month that famine had spread across the enclave, calling it an “intentional and targeted starvation campaign against the Palestinian people” and “a form of genocidal violence.” https://www.commondreams.org/news/israeli-minister-block-aid-let-gazans-die
2024-08-02 After 300 Days of Israeli Assault, Many Gazans Too Malnourished to Donate Blood As Palestinians and humanitarians around the world marked 300 days of horror in Gaza, an aid organization highlighted a pernicious consequence of Israel’s nearly 10-month assault: A hospital in the northern part of the enclave was forced to turn away many who arrived to give blood to help those wounded by bombs and bullets because the potential donors themselves were too malnourished and sick.
Gazans turned out in significant numbers in recent weeks to give blood at Al-Awda Hospital, an already underresourced facility that faced an influx of wounded patients following the Israeli military’s latest attacks on Gaza City.
ActionAid International, a global humanitarian group, said Friday that “despite facing appalling personal circumstances, many people selflessly responded to Al-Awda Hospital’s call-out for blood donations, but with the whole of Gaza at high risk of famine, many were deemed too unwell to undergo the process.” https://www.commondreams.org/news/gaza-300-days
2024-07-22 Oxfam: Israel Has Reduced Water Access in Gaza by 94 Percent Since October Oxfam has warned that Israel’s longstanding policy of using water as a weapon against Palestinians has reached its peak amid Israel’s genocide, with water access for Palestinians in Gaza now at a small fraction of pre-genocide levels as Palestinians die of dehydration, starvation and disease.
According to a report on Israel’s water deprivation policies by Oxfam, Israel has reduced water access in Gaza by a whopping 94 percent since October. This means Palestinians only have access to an average of roughly 4.7 liters of water per person per day, or only about 1.2 gallons a day.
In the supposed “humanitarian safe zone” in al-Mawasi — which Israeli forces have attacked relentlessly — Palestinians only have access to an average of 2.5 liters per day, the report said. https://truthout.org/articles/oxfam-israel-has-reduced-water-access-in-gaza-by-94-percent-since-october/
2024-07-02 On Aid and War – How Israel has Used Starvation to Subdue the Palestinians Humanitarian aid should never be politicized though, quite often, the very survival of nations is used as political bargaining chips. Sadly, Gaza remains a prime example. Even before the current war, the Gaza Strip suffered under a 17-year hermetic blockade, which has rendered the impoverished area virtually ‘unlivable’. That very term, ‘unlivable’ was used by the then-UN Special Rapporteur for the Situation of Palestine, Michael Lynk, in 2018. The situation was already disastrous. Indeed, three years before the war, the Global Institute for Water, Environment and Health (GIWEH) said, in a joint statement with the Euro-Mediterranean Human Rights Monitor, that 97 percent of Gaza water was undrinkable and unfit for human consumption.
67 percent of Gaza’s water, sanitation facilities and infrastructure have been destroyed or damaged, according to a statement by the United Nations Agency for Palestinian Refugees, UNRWA, on June 19, leading to the spreading of infectious diseases, which has ravaged the beleaguered population for months. The spread of disease is also linked to the accumulation of garbage everywhere in Gaza. Earlier, the refugees agency reported that “as of June 9, over 330,000 tons of waste have accumulated in or near populated areas across Gaza, posing catastrophic environmental (and) health risks”.
By shutting down all border crossings, including the Egypt-Gaza Rafah Crossing – which, on June 17, was set ablaze – Israel has politicized food, fuel and medicine as tools in its war in the Strip. This is not a mere inference, but the actual statement made by Israeli Minister of Defense, Yoav Gallant, who on October 9, declared that he had ordered a “complete siege” and that “there will be no electricity, no food, no fuel, no water” entering Gaza.
During the years of siege, an average of 500 trucks arriving daily in Gaza has kept the 2.3 million population of the Strip alive, though malnourished. To deal with the outcome of the war, and to stave off current starvation, especially in the north, the number of aid trucks would have to be much higher. Yet, whole days would pass without a single truck making its way to the suffering population. This is unacceptable.
Not only did the international community fail at ending the war, it has also failed in delinking humanitarian aid from political and military objectives. https://www.counterpunch.org/2024/07/02/on-aid-and-war-how-israel-has-used-starvation-to-subdue-the-palestinians/
2024-06-23 WFP’s Matthew Hollingworth on Gaza: ‘Famine means failure’ | Talk to Al Jazeera The human cost of Israel’s ongoing war on Gaza is becoming increasingly evident. For those on the ground, the reality is stark and harrowing. With ongoing bombardments and almost destroyed infrastructure, how are people coping as the food, water and other basic essentials they need, become increasingly scarce?
And is there any way the humanitarian crisis in Gaza can be alleviated? Matthew Hollingworth, the country director for the World Food Programme in Palestine, talks to Al Jazeera. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=maDwUcWNaF8
2024-06-20 ‘Visible Signs of Wasting’: Heat, Forced Malnutrition Strangle People of Gaza Humanitarian officials at the United Nations warned Wednesday evening that with Israel continuing to block aid deliveries across Gaza, thousands of children are among those facing acute malnutrition as extreme summer heat exacerbates suffering in the besieged enclave.
The Site Management Working Group for the U.N. Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) released its latest report on the humanitarian situation in Gaza, noting that aid deliveries in recent days have done little to improve the condition of a population that has been under attack by the U.S.-backed Israeli military—and facing an illegal blockade—for more than eight months.
OCHA said its workers have seen “visible signs of wasting among children”—the most dangerous form of malnutrition, which causes a child to be too thin for their height and results from rapid weight loss.
“No nutrition screenings have been conducted to assess the scale of malnutrition and treat identified cases due to limited capacity,” reported OCHA.
Last week, the World Health Organization reported that more than 8,000 children have been diagnosed with and treated for acute malnutrition, including 1,600 with severe wasting.
Health officials have counted at least 32 deaths from malnutrition in Gaza, including 28 among children under the age of five.
https://www.commondreams.org/news/malnutrition-gaza
2024-06-13 Amid Cease-Fire Talk, Israel’s Siege Still Causing Child Starvation in Gaza “Blocking humanitarian aid and creating the conditions for famine is not only an act of extreme cruelty—using starvation as an act of war,” U.S. Sen. Bernie Sanders said. “It is a war crime.”
The United Nations relief agency for Palestinians said Thursday that Israeli authorities continue to hinder aid efforts by failing to approve requests for delivery and permits, as two other U.N. agencies separately issued dire warnings about large-scale starvation in Gaza this week.
The United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA) said Israel has frequently denied the agency’s aid-related requests, The Guardian reported. The World Health Organization said Thursday that there have been 32 cases of deaths from malnutrition in Gaza—mostly of children below five years old—since October 7 and warned of the “catastrophic hunger and famine-like conditions” faced by a significant proportion of Gazans.
The WHO statement followed a U.N. Children’s Fund (UNICEF) warning that humanitarian access in southern Gaza had “declined dramatically” and that 3,000 malnourished children there are “at risk of death,” having been cut off from life-saving care due to the Israeli military offensive in Rafah. Many international agencies and humanitarian groups have gone further in their condemnation of Israeli’s aid policy, arguing that Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s government is using starvation as a weapon of war https://www.commondreams.org/news/israel-blocks-aid-gaza
2024-06-12 The Case For Palestine and Why You Should Care The case for Palestine: why it matters and why you should care. Also, Israel illegally using humanitarian cover for military operations causing The World Food Program to halt its aid efforts in in Gaza. And our weekly Gaza news headlines with Nora Barrows Friedman and the electronic Intifada https://kpfa.org/episode/flashpoints-june-12-2024/
2024-06-07 As Gaza Starves, Israeli Minister Ben-Gvir Calls to Reduce Humanitarian Aid The national security minister’s comments came as the number of Palestinian children who have died of malnutrition reached at least 30.
Humanitarian aid deliveries to Gaza remained almost entirely halted by Israeli forces on Friday, but Israel’s national security minister, Itamar Ben-Gvir, suggested he was dissatisfied with the mounting death toll from starvation and called for a complete blockade to be resumed.
“In our opinion Israel should withhold fuel from Gaza and reduce the humanitarian [aid] that enters,” Ben-Gvir said on social media, adding that he would not support a cease-fire deal put forward by Israel because it “would endanger the future of the state of Israel.”
Ben-Gvir’s comments came as just two crossings into Gaza were open—the Western Erez crossing from Israel into the northern part of the enclave and the Karem Abu Salem crossing, which has had “limited functionality” since May 8. In recent days the number of aid trucks that have entered through the Karem Abu Salem crossing has plummeted from nearly 200 per day in early May to fewer than 50 per day, with as few as just one truck per day entering since mid-May. https://www.commondreams.org/news/ben-gvir-2668477326
2024-04-12 ‘Genocidal Actions’ Persist in Gaza as Israel Blocks Aid and US Weapons Flow A week after Israeli officials promised the Biden administration they would open a border crossing and a port to allow humanitarian aid into Gaza, relief organizations and the United Nations reported Friday that life-saving supplies are still being blocked, and warned that the White House must take more decisive action to force Israel to stop starving Palestinians.
The U.N. reported that just 212 aid trucks entered Gaza on Tuesday, far lower than the 467 reported by Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant, who promised to “flood Gaza with aid” after a tense phone call between Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and U.S. President Joe Biden last Thursday.
But as The Guardian reported Friday, the Ashdod port has not been opened yet, and instead of opening the Erez crossing last Sunday as promised, Israel has opened another crossing into northern Gaza but has not yet allowed U.N. agencies to use it. https://www.commondreams.org/news/israel-still-blocking-aid
2024-04-09 ‘End This War Crime’: HRW Says Israel Is Starving Children to Death in Gaza The Israeli government is starving children to death in the Gaza Strip with its deliberate and systematic obstruction of food aid, Human Rights Watch said in a report released Tuesday, citing firsthand accounts from doctors and families in the besieged enclave.
At least 32 people, including 28 children, have died of malnutrition and dehydration so far in northern Gaza, which is facing famine conditions due to Israel’s illegal blockade.
HRW’s new report builds on its December assessment that Israel was “using starvation of civilians as a method of warfare” in Gaza, with disastrous consequences for the territory’s civilian population. “The Israeli government’s use of starvation as a weapon of war has proven deadly for children in Gaza,” said Omar Shakir, HRW’s Israel and Palestine director. “Israel needs to end this war crime, stop this suffering, and allow humanitarian aid to reach all of Gaza unhindered.” https://www.commondreams.org/news/israel-starving-gaza-children
2024-03-23 Famine is always a choice. Gaza is no exception. Palestinians in Gaza are starving. After five months of Israel’s war against Hamas, few households are able to easily obtain enough calories to survive. According to the international initiative that tracks such things, the entire northern half of the Gaza Strip is facing an imminent famine. It may have already begun by the time you are reading this. If the same conditions hold through mid-July, the same will be true for the south, where the vast majority of the Gaza Strip’s 2.2 million residents have been forced to flee under Israeli bombardment.
A famine in Gaza would be the first time that the Integrated Food Security Phase Classification mechanism, or IPC, has determined a famine exists since 2017. It would also be the first in the 21st century to be declared outside of Africa.
There’s no shortage of food on hand to feed the 2.2 million Palestinians who call the Gaza Strip home. The United Nations has said there’s plenty of aid at the ready, either at the border or in the region, to reverse the downward spiral toward famine. But Israel has instituted roadblocks — some procedural, some literal — that are hindering humanitarian groups’ ability to distribute supplies. international aid group Oxfam recently documented that Israeli military strikes have targeted not just the Palestinian police officers guarding aid distribution but aid convoys themselves.
History has shown us that the famines no longer simply happen as so many would still assume — they are caused or exacerbated. This is what makes this entirely man-made crisis all the more tragic. It is not merely that there is enough food to feed the millions who are affected. Nor that there is no drought that is causing people to starve in the desert. It is that with its choices and actions, Israel is helping cause a famine that will not help it win this war, but only amplify its suffering. The solution is clear: Let the people of Gaza eat. https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/world/famine-is-always-a-choice-gaza-is-no-exception/ar-BB1koCe2?
2024-03-21 ‘Starvation Caucus’: US Lawmakers Push Spending Bill That Bars Funding for UNRWA U.S. Sen. Bernie Sanders slammed members of Congress who are “happy to cut funding to UNRWA and make it harder to get aid to Palestinians in the midst of this crisis.”
Buried at the end of 1,012 pages of legislative text unveiled early Thursday is a section that says funds appropriated under the bipartisan bill “may not be used for a contribution, grant, or other payment” to the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA), which Gazans rely on for food and shelter. The U.S. is historically the largest donor to UNRWA.
The proposed freeze would last through March 2025. Many Republican lawmakers are calling for a permanent end to U.S. funding for the agency, which has faced shortfalls since the Biden administration and other Western governments paused donations in late January following Israel’s unsubstantiated claims that UNRWA staffers took part in the Hamas-led October 7 attack on Israel. https://www.commondreams.org/news/starvation-caucus-unrwa
2024-03-19 Israeli ‘Use of Starvation’ as Weapon in Gaza Would Be ‘War Crime’: UN Rights Chief A dire new report on mass hunger in the Gaza Strip prompted the United Nations high commissioner for human rights to declare Tuesday that Israel’s persistent obstruction of humanitarian aid “may amount to the use of starvation as a method of war, which is a war crime.”
“Israel, as the occupying power, has the obligation to ensure the provision of food and medical care to the population commensurate with their needs and to facilitate the work of humanitarian organizations to deliver that assistance,” Volker Türk said in a statement after the Integrated Food Security and Nutrition Phase Classification (IPC) warned that half of Gaza’s population is currently experiencing catastrophic hunger and at growing risk of starving to death.
Noting that Israel’s 16-year blockade of Gaza “has already had a severe impact on human rights for the civilian population,” Türk said Monday that Israel is required under international law to ensure the population of Gaza can access food, medicine, and other humanitarian assistance in a “safe and dignified manner.”https://www.commondreams.org/news/israel-starvation-war-crime
2024-03-18 ‘No Longer on the Brink’: Top EU Official Blames Israel for Famine in Gaza “This famine is not a natural disaster. It is not a flaw. It is not an earthquake. It is entirely man-made,” said Josep Borrell, the E.U.’s foreign affairs chief. The European Union’s top foreign affairs official on Monday said that after more than five months of Israel’s blocking of humanitarian aid and bombardment of Gaza, the U.S.-backed government has pushed the enclave into famine.
“In Gaza we are no longer on the brink of famine; we are in a state of famine, affecting thousands of people,” Borrell said in Brussels at a meeting on humanitarian aid for the besieged enclave. “This is unacceptable. Starvation is used as a weapon of war.”
“By whom? Let’s dare to say by whom. By the one that prevents humanitarian support entering into Gaza,” he said, adding that “Israel is provoking famine.” https://www.commondreams.org/news/gaza-2667538636
2024-03-16 One-Third of Children Under 2 in Northern Gaza Now Acutely Malnourished “Malnutrition among children is spreading fast and reaching devastating and unprecedented levels in the Gaza Strip due to the wide-reaching impacts of the war and ongoing restrictions on aid delivery,” UNICEF said.
Around one-third of children under two in northern Gaza are now suffering from acute malnutrition, the United Nations International Children’s Emergency Fund announced on Friday. That’s double the percentage of children under two who suffered from acute malnutrition in January, as the rate jumped from 15.6-31% in one month. “The speed at which this catastrophic child malnutrition crisis in Gaza has unfolded is shocking, especially when desperately needed assistance has been at the ready just a few miles away,” UNICEF Executive Director Catherine Russell said in a statement. https://www.commondreams.org/news/0ne-third-children-malnourished-gaza
2024-03-12 As Starvation Death Toll Grows in Gaza, Israel Blocks Aid Over Scissors in Child Medical Kits With the level of humanitarian aid reaching Gaza residents perilously low and creating what one group last week called “famine-like conditions” throughout the enclave, the United Nations’ top official overseeing relief for Palestinians on Tuesday condemned Israel’s latest reason for blocking a shipment: It included medical scissors for caring for children.
Israel flagged the scissors as a so-called “dual-use” item, suggesting the government feared medical workers in Gaza—where more than 600 attacks on hospitals have pushed the healthcare system toward collapse—would use the scissors as weapons instead of to care for people who have been injured in relentless bombings.
“Medical scissors are now added to a long list of banned items the Israeli authorities classify as ‘for dual use,'” said Philippe Lazzarini, commissioner-general of the U.N. Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA). “The list includes basic and lifesaving items: from anesthetics, solar lights, oxygen cylinders, and ventilators, to water cleaning tablets, cancer medicines, and maternity kits.” https://www.commondreams.org/news/israel-gaza-aid-scissors
2024-03-08 Starving Children in Gaza ‘Cannot Wait’ Weeks for US Port, Aid Groups Say Leading humanitarian groups said Friday that starving people in Gaza, including more than a million children, are in need of immediate aid and can’t afford to wait for the U.S. military to construct a port on the enclave’s coast, a project that’s expected to take weeks.
“Children in Gaza cannot wait to eat,” said Jason Lee, country director for Save the Children in the occupied Palestinian territory. “They are already dying from malnutrition and saving their lives is a matter of hours or days—not weeks.”https://www.commondreams.org/news/starving-children-us-port
2024-03-08 ‘We have nothing’: Hunger and desperation as insufficient aid arrives in Gaza An NBC News camera crew filmed desperate crowds struggling to secure aid from the few trucks allowed into Gaza City overnight. Explosions and gunfire could be heard nearby and some people appeared wounded, but there are conflicting reports about exactly what happened. https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/world/we-have-nothing-hunger-and-desperation-as-insufficient-aid-arrives-in-gaza/vi-BB1jzVAX?
2024-03-07 Food This woman is helping organize food distribution for Palestinians in Gaza facing a hunger crisis. https://www.tiktok.com/@ajplus/video/7343711850162359582
2024-03-07 ‘Complete Madness’: Israel Blocks Food Aid as More Gaza Children Starve to Death “The starvation of children is a hallmark of genocide and a deliberate political choice by Israel, backed by the Biden administration,” said one humanitarian coordinator.
Gaza health officials said Thursday that the number of Palestinian children who have died from extreme malnutrition and dehydration amid Israel’s U.S.-backed genocide on the besieged strip has risen to at least 17, while one humanitarian group condemned the Israeli government for blocking lifesaving food and other aid from reaching starving people.
According to the Gaza Health Ministry, 21 people in Gaza ranging from 1 day to 72 years old have died from malnutrition and dehydration. However, the humanitarian group Defense for Children International – Palestine (DCIP) warned that “the true death toll due to starvation is feared to be much higher as many Palestinians, particularly in northern Gaza, face famine and are almost entirely cut off from the limited humanitarian aid entering Gaza through the southern Rafah crossing.” https://www.commondreams.org/news/gaza-children-starvation
2024-03-05 Starving Children Israel is killing children with starvation in Gaza, and the UN says Israel is intentionally depriving Palestinians of food. https://www.tiktok.com/@ajplus/video/7343024625732816159
2024-03-01 Starvation At least ten children have died of starvation in the last week, and people have resorted to eating donkey feed to survive. https://www.tiktok.com/@ajplus/video/7341483560685030686
2024-01-23 World Food Program Economist Warns ‘Worst Is Yet to Come’ in Gaza Nearly four months into Israel’s blockade and bombardment that has killed about 25,500 people in the Gaza Strip, the World Food Program’s chief economist warned Tuesday that the “worst is yet to come” in the besieged Palestinian enclave.
That warning from the WFP’s Arif Husain came in a livestreamed conversation with U.S. Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.). “In my opinion, this crisis is unprecedented,” Husain said. “Three things… make this unprecedented.
One is the scale.” The vast majority of Gaza’s 2.3 million residents are facing crisis-level hunger, as the WFP and other United Nations organizations have highlighted throughout the war, which Israel launched on October 7 in retaliation for a Hamas-led attack.
“The second part is severity,” Husain explained, with “half a million people literally starving.” He also noted that much of the civilian infrastructure has been destroyed, leaving most people in Gaza displaced and with limited access to basic necessities.
“The third part of this is the speed at which it has happened,” the economist added. “The other thing which is extremely troubling in this crisis and what makes it unprecedented is what is going to come next.”https://www.commondreams.org/news/conditions-in-gaza-strip
2023-1-18 Israel Is Starving Gaza Civilians as ‘Method of Warfare’: Human Rights Watch From bombing food production hubs and systematically razing crop fields to halting aid deliveries, Israel is waging a multi-pronged effort to starve the people of Gaza amid the Israel Defense Forces’ bombardment of the enclave, Human Rights Watch said in a report Monday—with evidence drawn from the Israeli government’s own statements as well as survivors’ accounts. The group demanded that countries such as the United States, United Kingdom, Canada, and others that have provided Israel with military aid and other support since the country began its latest escalation against Gaza in October speak out against the use of starvation as a weapon of warfare—a war crime under the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court.
“For over two months, Israel has been depriving Gaza’s population of food and water, a policy spurred on or endorsed by high-ranking Israeli officials and reflecting an intent to starve civilians as a method of warfare,” said Omar Shakir, Israel and Palestine director at Human Rights Watch (HRW). “World leaders should be speaking out against this abhorrent war crime, which has devastating effects on Gaza’s population.” https://www.commondreams.org/news/gaza-starvation
2024-01-08 Israel is starving Gaza Everyone in Gaza is going hungry. About 2.2 million people are surviving day by day on almost nothing, routinely going without meals. The desperate search for food is relentless, and usually unsuccessful, leaving the entire population – including babies, children, pregnant or nursing women and the elderly – hungry.
The Gaza Strip was already in the throes of a humanitarian crisis before the war, mainly due to Israel’s 17-year blockade. About 80% of the population relied on humanitarian aid. Some 44% of households were food insecure and another 16% were at risk of food insecurity. Given this starting point, it is clear why Gaza plummeted into a full-blown catastrophe so quickly. https://www.btselem.org/gaza_strip/20240108_israel_is_starving_gaza
2023-12-09 Aid groups warn of starvation in Gaza after U.S. vetoes cease-fire call Palestinians in Gaza are facing mass starvation amid a punishing Israeli offensive that has “stripped families’ options for survival,” aid groups warned Saturday, a day after the United States vetoed a U.N. cease-fire resolution that the groups said would have facilitated the delivery of food and other emergency supplies.
The warnings over spreading hunger — from the United Nations, international aid agencies and Palestinian relief workers in Gaza — compounded fears for civilians already grappling with fierce fighting, heavy Israeli bombardment, the collapse of the health system and repeated displacement.
The draft resolution, backed by a majority of the U.N. Security Council, demanded an immediate halt to hostilities, the unconditional release of all hostages and humanitarian access in Gaza. The U.S. move to veto the resolution, which it called “rushed” and lacking in consultation, drew swift condemnation across the region, including from human rights groups, American partners in the Middle East and relief groups working in Gaza.
After the Security Council failed to “provide respite for civilians in Gaza,” London-based humanitarian organization Save the Children said in a statement Saturday that it has “continued to hear harrowing accounts of families going multiple days without food, shelter, water and access to healthcare.” https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/world/aid-groups-warn-of-starvation-in-gaza-after-u-s-vetoes-cease-fire-call/ar-AA1lgg1V
.
Categorized Directory: News and Articles about Israel- Palestine Conflict
Palestine and Israel
.
Specific Issues Index
from Creating Better World
progressiveissuesblog 