[News] Israel engineers "deep pockets of starvation" across Gaza

[Anti-Imperialist News]

electronicintifada.net
<https://electronicintifada.net/blogs/nora-barrows-friedman/israel-engineers-deep-pockets-starvation-across-gaza>
Israel engineers "deep pockets of starvation" across Gaza

Nora Barrows-Friedman
<https://electronicintifada.net/people/nora-barrows-friedman> Rights and
Accountability
<https://electronicintifada.net/blog/rights-and-accountability> 14 February
2024
------------------------------
[image: A crowd of children holding metal food containers.]

Palestinian children face extreme hunger across Gaza. Deir El-Balah, 2
February.
APA images

Israel is starving Gaza.

Children “are going without food for days, as aid convoys are increasingly
denied permits to enter,” reported
<https://www.bbc.com/news/world-middle-east-68239320> the BBC on 10
February.

The United Nations estimates that nearly one in every 10 Palestinian
children in Gaza under 5 years old is now acutely malnourished.

Stéphane Dujarric, spokesperson for the UN Office for the Coordination of
Humanitarian Affairs, told reporters
<https://www.aa.com.tr/en/middle-east/un-warns-about-increased-risk-of-malnutrition-in-gaza/3130843>
on 2 February that the agency’s partners have indicated a “sharp rise in
acute malnutrition” across the population in Gaza, “with a 12-fold increase
compared to the rate recorded before the hostilities.”

There are only between 70-100 trucks entering Gaza per day “in the best
case scenario,” with only “two of those trucks going to the northern
governorates,” according
<https://euromedmonitor.org/en/article/6140/Policy-paper> to estimates by
the Geneva-based Euro-Med Human Rights Monitor.

Before Israel’s attacks began in October, approximately 500 trucks entered
Gaza each day.

“What enters the Strip does not meet the minimum level of the population’s
needs in light of the severe, continuous and accumulated deprivation of
food, drinking water and medicine supplies [amid its] growing need due to
the ongoing siege and genocide,” stated Lima Bustami, legal department
director at Euro-Med.

“The situation is getting more complicated because the people living in the
Gaza Strip are under siege from all sides, making it impossible for them to
produce the food they need locally or get it from other sources,” Bustami
added.

On 26 January, the International Court of Justice (ICJ) last month ordered
<https://electronicintifada.net/blogs/maureen-clare-murphy/world-court-orders-israel-halt-gaza-genocide>
Israel to prevent acts of genocide. The order was among a number of
provisional measures issued by the court in a case which South Africa is
taking against Israel.

Israel is supposed to inform the court within one month what steps it was
taking to comply with the 26 January order. A full examination of South
Africa’s case by the ICJ will take place at a later stage.

Declaring a state of famine “may find its way before the International
Court of Justice,” said Bustami.

Such a declaration “could either lead to the request of an amendment [to
the provisional measures issued on 26 January]… or as additional evidence
that the court will weigh during its consideration of the merits of the
case and issuing its final ruling,” Euro-Med stated.

A recent report
<https://www.ipcinfo.org/ipc-country-analysis/details-map/en/c/1156749/> by
the Integrated Food Security Phase Classification (IPC) says that between 8
December and 7 February, the entire population of the Gaza Strip,
approximately 2.3 million people, has been classified as in “crisis or
worse.”

“This is the highest share of people facing high levels of acute food
insecurity that the IPC initiative has ever classified for any given area
or country,” the IPC states.

Moreover, the IPC states that about half of the population is in a food
emergency and “at least one in four households (more than half a million
people) is facing catastrophic conditions” – characterized by an “extreme
lack of food, starvation and exhaustion of coping capacities.”

According to the IPC, “even though the levels of acute malnutrition and
non-trauma related mortality might not have yet crossed famine thresholds,
these are typically the outcomes of prolonged and extreme food consumption
gaps.”

The group notes the “increased nutritional vulnerability of children,
pregnant and breastfeeding women and the elderly is a particular source of
concern.”
Shipping containers left at port

Citing financial restrictions against UNRWA, the UN agency for Palestine
refugees, the Israeli government is holding up
<https://apnews.com/article/israel-palestinians-gaza-unwra-bank-aid-4ed5e0652dd81b875055679a01a19371>
more than 1,000 shipping containers of vital food items at the Ashdod port,
just 20 miles north of the Gaza boundary.

The shipments, which contain rice, flour, chickpeas, sugar and cooking oil,
are enough to feed more than 1 million people for one month.
Last month, Israel said it would allow
<https://www.npr.org/2024/01/20/1225795279/gaza-israel-flour-port-aid>
flour to enter Gaza through Ashdod, a major commercial port north of the
Gaza boundary after international aid agencies warned
<https://www.wfp.org/news/preventing-famine-and-deadly-disease-outbreaks-gaza-requires-faster-safer-aid-access-and-more>
of starvation in the northern areas and urged Israel to allow the use of
Ashdod.

On 19 January, the White House issued a boastful statement
<https://www.whitehouse.gov/briefing-room/statements-releases/2024/01/19/readout-of-president-joe-bidens-call-with-prime-minister-netanyahu-of-israel-2/>
saying that President Joe Biden “welcomed” Israel’s decision to “permit the
shipment of flour for the Palestinian people directly through Ashdod port
while our teams separately work on options for more direct maritime
delivery of assistance into Gaza.”

But that flour has been sitting at the port for weeks.

Bezalel Smotrich, Israel’s finance minister, has admitted
<https://twitter.com/bezalelsm/status/1757457717206134790> that he blocked
the shipments in coordination with Benjamin Netanyahu, the prime minister.

*Axios* reported
<https://www.axios.com/2024/02/13/israel-gaza-flour-shipment> on Tuesday
that Smotrich “blocked the transfer of the flour after he was notified that
it was destined for UNRWA, the primary aid group in Gaza.”

“He ordered the Israeli customs service not to release the shipment as long
as UNRWA is the recipient,” *Axios* added.

In response
<https://www.haaretz.com/israel-news/2024-02-13/ty-article-live/israeli-delegation-to-attend-cairo-hostage-talks-on-tuesday-with-u-s-qatar-egypt/0000018d-a049-d92c-a9ed-ebf955ed0000?liveBlogItemId=90949040&utm_source=site&utm_medium=button&utm_campaign=live_blog_item#90949040>,
US State Department spokesperson Matthew Miller referred to discussions
with Israel aimed at allowing the aid to be delivered.

“We had a commitment from the government of Israel to let that flour go
through, and we expect them to deliver on that commitment,” Miller said on
Tuesday.
Last week, Israeli naval forces attacked a food aid convoy that was
reportedly heading to northern Gaza. Along with blocking or attacking aid
trucks, Israeli forces are also shooting at fishers attempting to provide
food for their hungry families.

On 8 February, the bodies of two fishers “were recovered after their boat
was reportedly struck by Israeli forces in western Rafah” the day before,
reported
<https://www.ochaopt.org/content/hostilities-gaza-strip-and-israel-flash-update-115>
the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA).

“The port of Gaza has been severely damaged, and most of the fishing boats
have been destroyed,” the UN added.

Israel is systematically destroying farms as well.

In December, the UN’s Food and Agriculture Organization used satellite
imaging to assess and analyze damage to Gaza’s arable land.

The agency reported <https://www.fao.org/3/cc9398en/cc9398en.pdf> that more
than 27 percent of all cropland in Gaza was damaged, as was more than 20
percent of all greenhouses. Nearly 500 irrigation wells were damaged as
well, the UN noted.

At the end of January, however, the UN Satellite Centre “showed damage to
34 percent of arable land,” UN OCHA reported.

“Most of the infrastructure of the agrifood sector was damaged, ranging
from commercial facilities (livestock farms, stores for products and
inputs, etc.) to household facilities, such as home barns and animal
shelters.”
“Deep pockets of starvation”

“Everyone in Gaza is hungry. Many are starving,” stated the World Health
Organization on 8 February.

“Infectious diseases are spreading. Hunger is weakening people’s ability to
fight off disease. Without enough food, more people will become sick and
die,” the agency warned.
Phillippe Lazzarini, the head of UNRWA, stated last week that half of the
agency’s humanitarian aid mission requests to areas in northern Gaza “were
denied” since the beginning of the year.

The UN, he said, “has identified deep pockets of starvation and hunger in
northern Gaza where people are believed to be on the verge of famine. At
least 300,000 people living in the area depend on our assistance for their
survival.”
Israel’s accusations
<https://electronicintifada.net/blogs/maureen-clare-murphy/funding-freeze-could-halt-unrwa-operations-end-month>
that a handful of UNRWA staff participated in the 7 October attacks led by
Hamas has prompted 16 countries to suspend their funding of the
agency. Settlers
block aid

Meanwhile, Israeli forces have allowed – or encouraged – Israeli settlers
to block and disrupt
<https://www.middleeasteye.net/news/israeli-protesters-set-tents-block-humanitarian-aid-entering-gaza>
humanitarian aid convoys from entering Gaza through the southern Kerem
Shalom crossing over recent weeks.

The area has been designated as a closed military zone since last month.
“But there are no checkpoints at night, making it easier to bring in
busloads of protesters,” according to *The Washington Post.*

Israelis have been holding dance parties while celebrating the military’s
destruction in Gaza and the starvation of Palestinians.
“The army is with us, the police is with us,” a young Israeli taking part
in the blocking of humanitarian aid told
<https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/2024/02/10/gaza-aid-blockade-protest-kerem-shalom/>
*The
Washington Post*.

“They don’t want us to be here, but they get it. They let us. We are
talking with them, we are having fun with them, we are offering them
everything they need,” the Israeli said.
In October, Israeli lawmaker Tally Gotliv advocated for using starvation as
a weapon against Palestinians in Gaza, which is a war crime.

“Without hunger and thirst among the Gazan population, we will not be able
to recruit collaborators, we will not be able to recruit intelligence, we
will not be able to bribe people, with food, drink, medicine, in order to
obtain intelligence,” Gotliv said
<https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HbT33E1mswA>.
Palestinian human rights groups say that this kind of genocidal rhetoric by
Israeli leaders is not an aberration. Rather, it is policy.

“The starvation policy pursued by the Israeli authorities is an example of
the collective punishment policies that Israel has been inflicting on the
civilian population of Gaza, which have intensified since 7 October 2023,”
said <https://www.alhaq.org/advocacy/22547.html> the Palestinian Center for
Human Rights, Al-Haq, and Al Mezan in a joint statement earlier this month.

The groups added that “Israel’s use of starvation as a method of war is
prohibited by international humanitarian law and amounts to a war crime
under the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court.”
“The most brutal militaries in history have used deliberate starvation as a
tactic; the criminalization of such a tactic is a keystone of international
law,” stated the Palestinian Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions National
Committee.

The decision by 16 countries to pause their funding of UNRWA and thereby
collectively punish the 2.3 million Palestinians in Gaza, especially after
the International Court of Justice
<https://electronicintifada.net/tags/international-court-justice> found
that Israel is plausibly committing genocide
<https://electronicintifada.net/blogs/maureen-clare-murphy/world-court-orders-israel-halt-gaza-genocide>,
“represents a shift by several countries from potential complicity in
genocide to direct involvement in engineered famine,” warned
<https://www.lemkininstitute.com/statements-new-page/statement-on-recent-threats-to-unrwa-and-the-shift-between-potential-complicity-and-direct-involvement-in-the-crime-of-genocide-against-palestinians-by-several-nations>
the Lemkin Institute for Genocide Prevention.

The institute – named after Raphael Lemkin, the Polish lawyer who coined
<https://www.un.org/en/genocideprevention/genocide.shtml> the term
“genocide” in 1944 – added that the decision by the 16 governments “is an
attack on what remains of personal security, liberty, health, and dignity
in Palestine.”
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