As Israel's brutal onslaught on Gaza continues into its tenth month, a dispute over the humanitarian situation in Gaza has emerged in international dialogues. While the United Nations has raised alarms about famine spreading in Gaza due to Israel’s brutal military actions, officials from the Israeli Occupation Forces (IOF) have provided a different misleading perspective, claiming the absence of a famine, denying weaponizing starvation as a war crime, and emphasizing the availability of substantial aid in the Gaza Strip.
Amid Israel’s denial of starvation in Gaza, a July 9 investigation by a group of independent human rights experts backed by the U.N. declared that famine has spread throughout the entire Gaza Strip.
Israel Uses Systematic Starvation as a Weapon of War in Gaza
Famine is a widespread condition in which many people in a country or region are unable to access adequate food supplies. Famines result in malnutrition, starvation, disease, and high death rates. The famine in Gaza has been caused by the siege that Israel imposed since October 7.
Israeli officials have made public statements expressing their aim to deprive civilians in Gaza of food, water, and fuel – statements reflected in Israeli military operations.
On October 9, Israeli Defence Minister Yoav Gallant publicly declared “I have ordered a complete siege on the Gaza Strip. There will be no electricity, no food, no fuel, everything is closed.”
“We are fighting human animals and we are acting accordingly,” he added.
In December, the IPC conducted its first assessment of the food insecurity situation since the war began, it found that between Dec. 8, 2023, and Feb. 7, 2024, the entire population of some 2.2 million people will be in phase 3 “crisis” level or above.
This phase sees families facing food consumption gaps alongside acute malnutrition. Some other families are just able to meet their food needs resorting to crisis coping strategies like selling off essential livelihood assets. In this phase, there are limited food choices and people must go to extreme lengths to get the calories they need.
The IPC committee also examined access for food trucks to the worst affected area, concluding that a “very limited number of trucks carrying food aid is authorized to enter north Gaza, and since February 5, there has been no report of food trucks being able to discharge in Gaza City.”
The organization added that in the first six weeks of this year, “over half of the planned humanitarian aid missions to northern Gaza were obstructed by Israeli authorities.”
Since that assessment, the situation has only become worse as the IOF continued its bombardment and humanitarian aid remains stranded at border crossings.
Since October 7, high-ranking Israeli officials, including National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir, and Energy Minister Israel Katz have made public statements expressing their aim to deprive civilians in Gaza of food, water and fuel – statements reflecting a policy being carried out by Israeli forces.
"In our opinion, Israel should withhold fuel from Gaza and reduce the humanitarian [aid] that enters," Ben-Gvir said on social media, his comment came as just two crossings into Gaza were open, which has had "limited functionality" since May 8.
In a similar context, Energy Minister Israel Katz separately ordered "to immediately cut the water supply to Gaza."
Other Israeli officials have publicly stated that humanitarian aid to Gaza would be conditioned either on the release of hostages unlawfully held by Hamas or Hamas’ destruction.
Later, Israel was forced by international pressure to allow limited supplies of aid. But over ten months, it has not been anything like enough.
U.N. Experts Declare Famine Spread Throughout Gaza
United Nations experts as part of the Special Procedures of the Human Rights Council declared on July 9, that famine has undoubtedly spread throughout the Gaza Strip. The expert group is composed of Special Rapporteurs, Independent Experts and Working Groups. It operates voluntarily as part of the independent fact-finding and monitoring mechanisms of the U.N. Human Rights Council.
The expert declaration follows the deaths of three more Palestinian children in May and June. Seven-month-old Fayez Ataya, 13-year-old Abdulqader Al-Serhi, and nine-year-old Ahmad Abu Reida were all found by the experts to have died from malnutrition, which is irrefutable evidence that famine has taken hold in Gaza.
The experts accused Israel of fomenting conditions that led to starvation in Gaza and have called for an end to Israel’s near-10-month bombardment of the besieged enclave.
“Israel’s intentional and targeted starvation campaign against the Palestinian people is a form of genocidal violence and has resulted in famine across all of Gaza.” the experts added.
The U.N. has not officially declared a famine in the Gaza Strip. But the experts, including the U.N. special rapporteur on the right to food Michael Fakhri, insisted there was no denying famine was under way.
The World Health Organization said that 60 cases of severe acute malnutrition, also known as severe wasting - the most deadly form of malnutrition - had been detected last week at the Kamal Adwan pediatric hospital in the north of the Strip.
Most children under five in Gaza are spending entire days without eating anything at all. A snapshot survey, looking at food access over three days in May, found that 85% spent at least one day without food, WHO spokeswoman Margaret Harris said.
“A significant proportion of Gaza’s population is now facing catastrophic hunger and famine-like conditions,” WHO chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus stated.
“Despite reports of increased delivery of food, there is currently no evidence that those who need it most are receiving sufficient quantity and quality of food” Tedros added.
The delivery of humanitarian aid throughout Gaza has been challenging. There has been a slight improvement in food delivery in northern Gaza, but humanitarian aid delivery in southern Gaza "has declined dramatically," UNICEF said.
Israel has repeatedly denied the international accusations that it is starving Palestinians in Gaza, however, aid organizations have highlighted how it has hindered and stopped humanitarian aid deliveries entering from Gaza.
Israel Denies Weaponizing Starvation in Gaza and Lashes Out at U.N. Experts
Since the beginning of war on Gaza, Israel continuously denied using starvation as a military strategy. Meanwhile, many Israeli officials do not approve of aid entering Gaza and blame Hamas for hunger.
The Israeli website of the Institute for National Security Studies (INSS) published a report on July 4, claiming that the humanitarian situation in the Gaza Strip is at the center of an ongoing campaign against Israel in the international arena. The report claims that Israel being accused of withholding humanitarian aid and pursuing a policy of starvation towards the Palestinian population is just a part of a misleading campaign towards Israel.
In a similar context, The Times of Israel reported on July 9, that Israel rejects accusations by U.N. rights experts about weaponizing starvation and denies famine spread in Gaza.
Repeatedly, Israel denied restricting humanitarian aid into Gaza and blamed the U.N. for the crisis. Israel has accused the United Nations of undercounting aid entering Gaza, saying that the U.N. was using a flawed approach meant to conceal its own distribution difficulties, moreover, accused Hamas of stealing or diverting aid.
As the Famine worsened in Gaza, the Israeli authorities responsible for delivering aid into Gaza, have long claimed that sufficient aid is being brought into the territory.
In a similar context, a member of the Israeli Knesset, Boaz Bismuth claimed that international accusations which state that Israel is starving civilians are just based on antisemitism
However, U.N. figures showed that the supply of humanitarian aid into Gaza overall has dropped by two-thirds since May 7, when the operation began and the border with Egypt was controlled by Israeli troops, the Rafah crossing was closed, and fighting was blocking shipments of humanitarian aid through Kerem Shalom. In addition to the imposed crippling blockade on the Gaza Strip since October, which left the territory’s entire population on the verge of starvation.
Israel Deliberately Blocked Aids Delivery to Gaza
On May 5, Israeli authorities closed the Kerem Shalom crossing, and on May 7, they seized the Rafah crossing as part of its incursion in the area, thus blocking aid from entering and people from leaving Gaza via the primary crossings used in recent months.
While the Israeli authorities had allowed more aid trucks to enter in the preceding weeks and opened an additional crossing and a port for aid entry under international pressure, Israel continued to block critical aid items, and only a small proportion of the limited aid has been reaching northern Gaza, according to United Nations and nongovernmental aid agencies.
A total of 15,413 trucks have been allowed into Gaza since October 7, according to the NGO, five times less than the minimum required.
The Oxfam Committee for Famine Relief accused Israel of intentionally preventing the delivery of aid, including food and medical equipment into Gaza. The organization stated in a report that Israel has rejected a warehouse full of international aid including oxygen and water at Al Arish just 40 km away from the border of 2.3 million desperate Palestinians in Gaza.
Oxfam said that "unjustifiably inefficient" inspection rules were causing aid trucks trying to get into Gaza to be stuck in queues for 20 days on average.
The group also denounced "attacks on aid workers, humanitarian facilities and aid convoys" and "access restrictions" for relief staff, particularly in northern Gaza. Water purification equipment are among the items the military has rejected, with no reason provided, Oxfam added.
A Spokesperson for the U.N. Humanitarian Affairs office (Ocha), Jens Laerke said that Israel counted aid trucks that were only partially filled to comply with its military's screening requirements.
“It’s almost a fool’s game to do the truck counting,” OCHA spokesman Jens Laerke said. The focus instead should be on what supplies are getting into Gaza, and then reaching those in need, he added.
Humanitarians have described the focus on truck numbers as misleading because there is no standard for how to count full or partial loads. Israel counts trucks passing into Kerem Shalom, including some that are not fully loaded, while the U.N. counts only those arriving in Gaza fully loaded.
As the only entry points to Gaza allowed by Israel are in the south of the territory, any convoys have to traverse up to 25 miles of smashed roads, and many convoys have been blocked or delayed by Israeli forces.
Israeli Extremists Block Humanitarian Aid Trucks Destined to Gaza
After the heavy international pressure that Israel faced to step up the flow of aid into Gaza, and when the international organizations warned of a severe humanitarian crisis threatening a population of more than 2 million people, Israel announced the opening of a new crossing into northern Gaza, in addition to a temporary port, built by the United States.
As a result, a group with ties to IOF reservists called Tzav 9, has been blocking vital humanitarian aid trucks from passing through the Karem Abu Salem border crossing into Gaza. The extremists stood in front of trucks packed with aid, waving Israeli flags, and chanting slogans against the delivery of any aid into the besieged Palestinian enclave. Some of the protesters sat on the road, and others danced around, holding hands in a deliberate move to sabotage the delivery of aid to Gaza.
They demand that no aid should enter Gaza until the hostages are released, claiming that the aid is going to Hamas and ordinary Gazans but not the hostages.
Across the media, the protesters were described as "the families of hostages" and "supporters." However, part of the Israeli justification for allowing aid into Gaza is that it will reach hostages held by Hamas in the strip.
The lorries, which were set upon at the Tarqumiya checkpoint west of Hebron, came from Jordan and were headed to the Gaza Strip, where people are in desperate need of humanitarian aid.
The Tsav 9 (Order 9 in Hebrew) extremists have organized to block convoys, harass aid workers and damage aid trucks as well as goods meant to alleviate pervasive hunger in Gaza.
In its sanctions order, the White House accused Tzav 9 of violently blocking roads, damaging aid trucks and dumping supplies on the road. It said in May that Tzav 9 members looted and set fire to two trucks in the West Bank carrying aid destined for Gaza. Later, the White House imposed sanctions on the group’s co-founders.
The incident resembles a pattern that has played out repeatedly for months, either by Israeli extremists or state officials to block access to humanitarian aid, medical referrals and supplies in Gaza
The Israeli Brutal War Fueled Catastrophic Malnutrition in Gaza
Officials have been warning for months that Israel’s siege and offensive were pushing the Palestinians in Gaza into famine, the man-made famine has now killed vulnerable residents.
Nearly ten months into Israel's air and ground assault on the Gaza Strip, acute shortages of food have led to what the United Nations is describing as a nutrition crisis, part of a wider humanitarian catastrophe in Gaza.
Thousands of Palestinian children in Gaza have been diagnosed with starvation-related complications since the Israeli government began using starvation as a weapon of war. According to Gaza’s Health Ministry and a group of U.N.-backed independent experts, at least 34 people, most of them children, have died of malnutrition in Gaza since last October.
“With the death of these children from starvation … there is no doubt that famine has spread from northern Gaza into central and southern Gaza,” the U.N.-backed experts said in a statement on July 9.
The U.N. agency for Palestinian refugees (UNRWA) warned that more than 50,000 children need urgent treatment for acute malnutrition, while the Gaza media office has said that at least 3,500 children are at risk of death due to malnutrition and food shortages.
UNRWA, which coordinates nearly all aid to Gaza, has also been in crisis since January, when Israel accused about a dozen of its 13,000 Gaza employees of being involved in the October 7 attack. This claim led many top donors to abruptly suspend funding to the agency, threatening its efforts to deliver aid.
UNRWA chief Philippe Lazzarini has repeatedly said Israeli moves to suspend funding are “additional collective punishment” for Palestinians.
Children, newborn babies and pregnant women are among the most at risk of malnutrition and dehydration in Gaza, according to aid agencies and health workers.
Gaza's 346,000 children under the age of five are at the greatest risk of malnutrition as the already catastrophic situation rapidly deteriorates across the enclave. According to a group of humanitarian organizations focused on nutrition, The Global Nutrition Cluster, it is estimated that one in three children under the age of two are now suffering from wasting, the most severe form of malnutrition, compared to one in six children in January.
Malnourished children urgently need nutritionally rich food which is easy to consume such as ready-to-use therapeutic food (RUTF) and therapeutic milk. They also need essential medicines such as antibiotics, health facilities, and trained healthcare workers who can detect malnutrition. However, with more than 400 attacks on healthcare documented since October, 26 of Gaza’s 36 hospitals have been rendered completely non-functional.
Malnutrition has various forms including undernutrition or inadequate vitamins, it refers to deficiencies or imbalances in a person’s intake of nutrients. Although it is generally slow to bring death, Malnutrition strikes children and the elderly viciously.
The United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF) warned Wednesday against severe child food poverty amid world crises, including in Gaza.
"Five rounds of data collected between December 2023 and April 2024 have consistently found that 9 out of 10 children in the Gaza Strip are experiencing severe food poverty, surviving on two or fewer food groups per day," UNICEF said in a report
It said months of hostilities and restrictions on humanitarian aid have collapsed food and health systems, resulting in "catastrophic consequences" for children and their families in Gaza.
Lack of food is not the only risk to Palestinians in the Gaza Strip. Lack of clean water and sanitation also means that children are at far greater risk of getting infectious diseases, which are particularly dangerous to everyone in Gaza.
Tragic Severe Water Shortage in Gaza
Amid the devastating escalation in the region, families in Gaza are struggling to find safe water to drink.
Heavy aerial and ground bombardment has destroyed Gaza's water treatment plants and sewage system. A BBC satellite analysis found that more than half of Gaza's water facilities have been damaged or destroyed during the war. Moreover, fuel shortages have forced the closure of water treatment facilities and wells, leaving residents with no choice but to use contaminated water from local wells.
The three pipelines from Israel into Gaza have been only partially functioning throughout the war while 83 percent of groundwater wells are not operating, according to OCHA's daily update.
Officials from Khan Younis municipality said that 45 out of 60 wells had been destroyed, nine out of ten water tanks, and some 350 kilometers of water pipes, putting water and drainage out of service.
The situation has forced Palestinian children to spend hours daily fetching water from distant locations.
The U.N. has repeatedly warned of the spread of diseases due to the water crisis, coupled with a lack of hygiene supplies.
For months, families have been forced to spend hours queuing up with plastic bottles and gallons at water tanks, and then make efforts to ration supplies.
The United Nations estimated that the average individual in Gaza is living on only 3 liters of water per day for drinking, cooking and bathing
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