Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said in his speech to the U.S. Congress on Wednesday evening, July 24, that the Prosecutor of the International Criminal Court accused Israel without evidence of starving the people of Gaza, calling it “nonsense and a complete fabrication.” Netanyahu also claimed that Hamas was stealing aid, stating, “The people of Gaza are suffering from hunger because Hamas is stealing food aid.”
Netanyahu’s Claims About Aid Are Misleading
Misbar investigated Netanyahu’s claims before the U.S. Congress regarding the disruption of aid access to the Gaza Strip and found them to be misleading. The Israeli Prime Minister is trying to evade the occupation's responsibility for preventing the arrival of aid since the beginning of the Israeli war on Gaza in October 2023. Additionally, Netanyahu did not provide any evidence that Hamas is stealing aid and preventing it from reaching citizens in the Gaza Strip.
Despite international and human rights demands to facilitate the arrival of aid to the Gaza Strip, Israeli forces were preventing the delivery of aid to various areas in the Strip in light of the continuing Israeli war and the strict restrictions imposed by Israel on the entry of aid, as well as the closure of border crossings.
Israel Is Waging a Systematic Starvation Campaign in Gaza
On July 9, United Nations human rights experts accused Israel of carrying out a “targeted starvation campaign” that led to the deaths of children in the Gaza Strip. “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,” said 10 independent United Nations experts in a statement.
U.N. officials have warned that the Gaza Strip has descended into chaos, hampering efforts to provide humanitarian aid to millions of Palestinians in desperate straits. The organization stated that its office “has documented alleged unlawful killings of local police and humanitarian workers, and the strangulation of supplies indispensable to the survival of the civilian population.”
The head of the United Nations human rights office in the occupied Palestinian territories, Ajith Sunghay, reported that anarchy is spreading. He also explained in a press conference in Geneva that conditions had deteriorated significantly since his last mission to the Gaza Strip several weeks ago.
Israel Obstructs Aid Access to Gaza
The United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees (UNRWA) reported on July 18 that families in Gaza have lost everything and conditions are deteriorating daily amid a lack of food and tents, putting vulnerable lives at risk.
It added that their staff in the sector “continue to distribute food and other much-needed supplies, such as tents and utensils, but this is not enough,” emphasizing that “the conditions in Gaza are deteriorating daily, putting vulnerable lives at risk,” and noting that “there is a need for more humanitarian aid to reach Gaza.”
Thirteen non-governmental organizations warned of the disruption of humanitarian aid access to the Gaza Strip. Doctors Without Borders (Médecins Sans Frontières) said in a statement quoting parts of the report that “recent events lead to an exacerbation of the humanitarian catastrophe, while non-governmental organizations continue to face obstacles posed by continuing Israeli ground military operations.”
The organizations condemned “the systematic obstruction of aid by Israel and its attacks on relief operations.”
The International Refugee Organization said in a previous report that the conduct of Israel’s ensuing military response has wrought disproportionate death and suffering among civilians in Gaza, generating famine-like conditions while obstructing and undermining the humanitarian response.
It added that, despite its claims of facilitating humanitarian aid, research and analysis by Refugees International show that Israeli conduct has consistently and groundlessly impeded aid operations within Gaza, blocked legitimate relief operations, and resisted implementing measures that would genuinely enhance the flow of humanitarian aid into Gaza.
The report added that “Israeli policies and conduct are causing a man-made humanitarian crisis. Refugees International found routine and arbitrary denial of legitimate humanitarian goods from entering Gaza; a highly complicated Israeli inspection and approval process without clear or consistent instructions.”
The report revealed that the frequent denials of humanitarian movements within Gaza, clear indications that Israel has failed to establish functional humanitarian deconfliction, and persistent attacks on Gaza’s humanitarian, health, food, power, and other critical infrastructure have simultaneously debilitated the aid effort and escalated needs.
No Evidence Hamas Prevented Aid Arrival, Contrary to Netanyahu’s Claims
Since the start of the Israeli war on Gaza in October 2023, the Israeli government has repeatedly accused Hamas of stealing and diverting aid after its entry into Gaza, an allegation previously denied by relief agencies, and Israel has not provided any evidence of this.
Last February, Israel published a video it claimed documented an attempt by members of the Hamas movement to steal aid from citizens in Gaza and transport it to the movement’s headquarters.
However, research revealed that those who appear in the video are civilians from the Gaza Strip who were forced by hunger and the lack of food supplies to storm a UNRWA store in the city of Khan Yunis, south of the Gaza Strip, and other stores in the center of the Gaza Strip to obtain some food supplies.
In addition, the video did not show members of the Hamas movement armed with weapons, as the Israeli accounts claimed.
In the same month, Israeli occupation army spokesman Avichai Adraee published a video that he claimed was of “an attack with batons on civilians waiting for aid, and blocking the path of people trying to move from the combat zone to the west, documenting the lives of residents under Hamas control in Khan Yunis.”
After verifying the video, Misbar found that it was taken in late last December and does not show any direct assault or beating but rather the use of batons to clear the way for aid trucks carrying medical equipment for the Al-Amal Hospital of the Palestinian Red Crescent in the heart of the city of Khan Yunis. This was confirmed to Misbar by a citizen who was present at the hospital when security personnel used batons to clear the square of the crowd.
Israel’s Obstruction of Aid Arrival at Rafah Crossing
Non-governmental relief organizations confirmed that once the Israeli army took control of the Palestinian side of the Rafah border at the beginning of May, the crossing was completely closed, and humanitarian deliveries ceased.
Prior to Israel stepping up its military assault on the Palestinian side of the border and seizing control of the crossing, the Rafah crossing served as a significant entry point for humanitarian aid as well as certain commercial commodities from Egypt. According to international sources, some food supplies that were being transported from Egypt into the Gaza Strip have rotted. Additionally, Israel has continued to block relief deliveries at the Rafah border crossing, while people inside the Strip are facing deteriorating humanitarian conditions.
Relief organizations had previously warned that more than a million people in the Gaza Strip, nearly half of Gaza's population, “are expected to face death and famine” due to the repercussions of the ongoing Israeli war on Gaza.
Reports indicate that the war is expected to exacerbate catastrophic levels of acute hunger, with famine and death already occurring, along with an unprecedented number of casualties, destruction, and large-scale displacement of the entire population of the Gaza Strip.
Ongoing Israeli War on Gaza: Latest Updates
Netanyahu's statements before Congress came as the Israeli war on Gaza entered its 293rd consecutive day. The Ministry of Health in the Gaza Strip announced that the toll of the Israeli war had risen to 39,145 victims, in addition to 90,257 injuries, since the start of the Israeli war on October 7, 2023.
News reports in recent hours indicated the possibility of an upcoming deal to stop the war in Gaza, ahead of expected talks between U.S. President Joe Biden and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.
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