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<a class="gmail-domain gmail-reader-domain" href="https://www.counterpunch.org/2026/02/11/how-the-u-s-weaponizes-starvation-and-aid-in-gaza-cuba/">counterpunch.org</a>
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<h1 class="gmail-reader-title">How the U.S. Weaponizes Starvation and Aid in Gaza & Cuba</h1>
<div class="gmail-credits gmail-reader-credits">Nuvpreet Kalra</div>
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<div class="gmail-reader-estimated-time">February 11, 2026</div>
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<p><img src="https://www.counterpunch.org/wp-content/uploads/2026/02/jf-martin-_MljkIzvcHw-unsplash-1-680x487.jpg" alt="" width="410" height="294" class="gmail-moz-reader-block-img" style="margin-right: 0px;"></p><p>Last
week, the US government announced it would be sending $6 million in aid
to Cuba, on top of the $3 million it sent in January after Hurricane
Melissa. This aid package might appear contrary to the significant
escalation of the 66-year-long US criminal blockade, which has expanded
all-out fuel blockade since December, with attacks on Venezuela, but it
is in fact a core tenet of it. This maneuver seeks to exploit the
US-manufactured energy and fuel crisis to bolster opposition groups,
substantiate propaganda against the Cuban government and revolution, and
force the island into total dependency and submission to the United
States. This frankly genocidal strategy closely mirrors that of the US
and Israeli \u201cGaza Humanitarian Foundation\u201d, and the weaponization of
starvation and aid for colonial and imperialist ends. In both Cuba and
Gaza, this is a deliberate strategy by the US to make people suffer from
its actions, then place blame on the governing authority to justify
regime change.</p>
<p>In November of last year, the US first <a href="https://www.state.gov/releases/office-of-the-spokesperson/2026/01/delivering-on-our-commitment-u-s-disaster-assistance-to-the-cuban-people/">announced</a>
an aid package to Cuba in response to Hurricane Melissa. While the
hurricane hit the east of the island with force, Cuba did not suffer
mass casualties and crisis because of the people-first policies of the
Cuban government, which continues to distribute resources and prevent
casualties from natural disasters, despite US suffocation. Hurricane
Melissa killed over 54 people in Jamaica, at least 43 people in Haiti, 4
in the Dominican Republic, yet only one person in Cuba. The success of
the Cuban government\u2019s response is not only totally ignored by the US
organizations, but also used to justify operations and propaganda. For
instance, the <a href="https://www.miamiarch.org/CatholicDiocese.php?op=Article_archdiocese-of-miami-in-2025-thanksgiving-in-miami-extends-to-cuba-following-hurricane">Archdiocese of Miami said about its aid distribution</a>:
\u201cdozens were killed, mostly in Jamaica and Haiti, but Cuba\u2019s weakening
economic situation prompted action from a small group of donors\u201d.
Surely, when a country\u2019s response to a natural disaster is to
successfully evacuate 735,000 people, prevent a major death toll, and
prioritize people\u2019s survival, it is worthy of praise. Of course, this
would be in total opposition to the US propaganda line that Cuba is a
\u201cfailed state\u201d.</p>
<p>When Hurricane Katrina hit the US in 2005, <a href="https://peoplesdispatch.org/2025/08/28/20-years-since-katrina-how-the-us-refused-cuban-doctors-as-new-orleans-drowned/">Cuba offered a medical brigade</a>
of 1,586 doctors and 37 tons of medical supplies. The US refused
outright. The hurricane and lack of response led to the deaths of over
1,800 people, many due to a lack of medical assistance and supplies,
some of which Cuba could have provided, and 1.5 million people were
displaced \u2013 many have never returned. The US government was happy to let
people die rather than to accept the unconditional help of a Cuban
medical brigade, which underscores its willingness to sacrifice its own
population to pursue its aggression against Cuba. The stark difference
between the US and Cuba in responding to natural disasters is at its
core the polarity between a war economy based on extraction and profit,
and a peace economy based on solidarity and common well-being.</p>
<p><strong>Siege on Cuba, Siege on Gaza</strong></p>
<p>The same genocidal motivations for the US-Israeli siege on Gaza have
been imposed to isolate and suffocate Cuba. The US has banned the entry
of goods into Cuba, imposed a total blockade on oil, and increased
sanctions, which cause billions of dollars in losses each year, which is
impoverishing the country. While it suffocates the infrastructure of
even and efficient food distribution in Cuba, the US aid is being given
only to the Catholic Church and US-backed NGOs, specifically to bypass
distribution through the state. This is eerily consistent with the US
and Israel\u2019s horrific and deadly \u201cGaza Humanitarian Foundation\u201d. In
Gaza, they laid a total barbaric siege on Gaza, refused the entry of any
goods and aid, and banned international aid groups in order to justify
US mercenaries providing meagre amounts of aid between firing bullets.
The US and Israel <a href="https://costsofwar.watson.brown.edu/paper/HumanTollGaza">massacred at least</a>
2,603 people and wounded 19,034 more at GHF distribution points. There
was absolutely no accountability for or action against these barbaric
killing fields.</p>
<p>In both Palestine and Cuba, the US is overtly and brazenly violating
the humanitarian principle of working with governments in affected
countries. It is using the same propaganda lines to do so. For Cuba, the
<a href="https://www.state.gov/releases/office-of-the-spokesperson/2026/01/u-s-disaster-assistance-to-the-cuban-people">US says</a>
it is \u201cbypassing regime interference, and ensuring transparency and
accountability\u201d and that the aid is \u201cpart of a broader effort to stand
with the Cuban people as they seek a better future.\u201d For Gaza, the <a href="https://edition.cnn.com/2025/07/08/us/usaid-gaza-humanitarian-foundation-israel-grant">US says</a>
it is \u201cthe only viable way to get aid into Gaza without empowering
Hamas\u201d and \u201cis a results-focused alternative to a broken aid system.\u201d</p>
<p>In both places, the US openly claims it is undermining governments
and organizations that it claims \u201csteal\u201d the aid. This accusation is a
confession. Israeli occupation forces (IOF) set on fire, burnt, and
buried more than 1,000 trucks of aid in Gaza as Israel manufactured a
famine that killed <a href="https://worldpeacefoundation.org/blog/how-many-people-have-died-of-famine-in-gaza-updated/">at least 10,000 people</a>, and for which the <a href="https://news.un.org/en/story/2025/08/1165702">United Nations described</a> as the \u201cfailure of humanity itself.\u201d An <a href="https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/world/israel-quietly-backs-new-gaza-militias-fighting-hamas/ar-AA1UTV62">IOF reservist said</a>
he \u201caccompanied aid convoys supplying a militia in Rafa,h\u201d and Israeli
security added \u201cclosed boxes with unknown contents\u201d to justify lies that
Hamas was weaponizing aid. Israel also funded and coordinated<a href="https://www.dropsitenews.com/p/gaza-security-forces-ambush-gang"> militia groups</a> in Gaza to loot aid, and <a href="https://x.com/CensoredMan/status/1791226442262462736?s=20">protected</a> Israeli settlers looting and destroying aid from trucks. Not to mention the many <a href="https://x.com/CensoredHumans/status/1973882246047412583?s=20">videos</a>
of IOF soldiers gleefully and jeeringly consuming this food aid. All of
these actions, with the brazen refusal to allow passage for thousands
of aid trucks in Gaza, provided the conditions to justify the \u201cGaza
Humanitarian Foundation\u201d and its killing fields.</p>
<p>Similarly, it is the United States that is stopping goods from
entering Cuba. Since 1962, the US has imposed a blockade that bans all
trade and economic activity with Cuba. This is banned outright in the US
with severe consequences, and spans the entire world, as the US imposes
secondary sanctions, tariffs, and other punitive measures against any
country, organization, company, or individual that does not comply with
its blockade. In recent weeks and months, this has been tightened
further. No oil has entered Cuba <a href="https://www.weareceda.org/en/us-cuba-news-brief/jan30-as-cubas-oil-runs-out-us-escalates-economic-pressure">since December</a>, and the government has rolled out a plan to <a href="https://www.reuters.com/world/cuba-roll-out-rationing-plan-us-moves-block-fuel-supply-2026-02-05/">ration limited energ</a>y for only the most urgent uses, such as hospitals, schools, and food. Cuba can <a href="https://www.cnbc.com/2026/02/09/cuba-airlines-fuel-energy-oil-us-trump-pressure.html">no longer fuel airplanes</a>,
which may halt all air travel. The US, on one hand, is threatening
tariffs and sanctions on any country that tries to trade oil and goods
with Cuba, and on the other, it is pushing propaganda that the country
is not able to feed and provide energy for its people. In Cuba and
Palestine, the US is manufacturing a crisis in order to push blame onto
the governments that the imperialist power seeks to topple.</p>
<p><strong>Made in Israel and Miami</strong></p>
<p>The aid is also political at its source. All supplies through the \u201cGaza Humanitarian Foundation\u201d <a href="https://www.jns.org/ghf-required-to-source-israeli-products-for-aid-to-gaza/">were from Israeli suppliers</a>,
directly creating profit for Israeli venture capitalists, tech
investors, and other occupation personnel like Michael Eisenberg, Liran
Tancman, and Yotam HaCohen. It also funnelled public funds into private
and shady mercenary companies, UG Solutions and Safe Reach Solutions.
This strategy utilizes aid as a weapon of colonial regime change
efforts, with the US aiming to install its proxies firmly in power in
Cuba and Palestine, in opposition to the interests and will of the
people.</p>
<p>The US aid supplies to Cuba originate in Miami, Florida, long known
as the site of the most vocal and brazen pro-US, fascist sentiments in
the Cuban diaspora. The aid is being distributed by the Catholic Church
and Caritas, a US-funded NGO set up in 1991 during the \u2018Special Period\u2019
in Cuba, which has funded regime change operations on the island.
Catholic Relief Services, one of the three organizations in Caritas
North America, receives over half of its funding ($1.5 billion) directly
from the US government. The other organization involved is the Catholic
Charities of the Archdiocese of Miami, which was the architect of the <a href="https://www.franciscanmedia.org/st-anthony-messenger/no-greater-love-operation-pedro-pan/">covert CIA \u201cOperation Pedro Pan\u201d</a>
where over 14,000 Cuban children were taken from their homes to the US
in the years after the revolution. Also included on the board of the
charity is Justice of the Supreme Court of Florida, John Couriel. The
headline $9 million figure of aid to Cuba is being absorbed by
organizations like this. In fact, in 2024, <a href="https://usafacts.org/answers/how-much-foreign-aid-does-the-us-provide/countries/cuba/">over 72%</a>
of all US aid to Cuba went to US organizations. This must pose the
urgent question of how much of this aid is a way to direct resources to
opposition groups in Cuba under the guise of sending food.</p>
<p><strong>Gathering intelligence</strong></p>
<p>The strategy of deploying aid also pertains to a significant element
of covert surveillance and intelligence. At the end of January last
year, the US deployed <a href="https://codepink.substack.com/p/another-blackrock-nearly-100-us-mercenaries">around 100 mercenaries</a>, mostly former US Special Forces soldiers, to patrol Gaza and set up the deadly \u201caid hubs\u201d. US soldiers <a href="https://x.com/AJEnglish/status/1941708686772285577?s=20">shot and killed</a> starving Palestinians seeking aid while <a href="https://x.com/TheCradleMedia/status/1940712428171366692?s=20">cheering</a> and <a href="https://x.com/RyanRozbiani/status/1952166117348446278?s=20">ordering Domino\u2019s Pizza</a>.
These sites were death traps, used to lure Palestinians into an area
where they were surveilled and shot at. People risked their lives to
receive a meagre amount of aid that was often rotten. It has been
revealed that a significant element of this operation was surveillance. A
<a href="https://www.france24.com/en/middle-east/20250703-blood-for-food-us-soldier-spies-sidelining-un-aid-work-gaza-ghf-safe-reach">UG Solutions contractor revealed</a>
that American and Israeli soldier-spies are using facial recognition
software \u201con top of real-time footage of distribution sites\u201d from CCTV
and aerial surveillance footage. This was beyond merely a method of
massacre, but of surveillance through the proxy of \u201caid\u201d. The US and
Israel confirmed there was surveillance after specifically <a href="https://www.shomrim.news/eng/gaza-aid-distribution">recruiting intelligence operatives</a>.</p>
<p>Similarly, the <a href="https://www.state.gov/press-briefing-with-jeremy-p-lewin-acting-under-secretary-of-state-for-foreign-assistance-humanitarian-affairs-and-religious-freedom-to-announce-additional-humanitarian-support/">State Department announced</a>
that US government officials have been \u201cmaking sure that the regime
does not take the assistance, divert it, try to politicize it.\u201d They
went on to explain that \u201cwe have been watching\u201d and \u201cspeaking with
everyday Cubans\u2026understanding the challenges they have been facing, both
in the wake of the hurricane and due to the broader humanitarian crisis
in Cuba.\u201d This is worrying, as it is clear the US is using this as an
opportunity, in tandem with NGO networks, to collect intelligence and
push pro-US propaganda and lies across the country under the guise of
\u201caid\u201d.</p>
<p>In both Cuba and Palestine, the United States is deploying its
barbaric methods of producing mass suffering in order to bring about
political and economic submission. The tactics being used in
distributing aid in Cuba now are a softer model of the killing fields in
Gaza that seek to force the entire population into submission and
occupy the entirety of Palestine.</p>
<p>Beyond this playbook, it is important to recognize the historic
connections between Palestine and Cuba, particularly as they resist the
violence of the US empire that seeks to starve them into submission.
Cuba was one of 13 countries to vote against the UN partition of
Palestine in 1947; in the months after the triumph of the revolution,
Che Guevara and Raśl Castro traveled to Gaza; they were one of the first
to recognize the Palestinian Liberation Organization in 1964; they
severed all ties with Israel in 1973; and labelled Israel\u2019s action a
genocide in 1979. Since 1982, Cuba has been providing education for
Palestinian students in Cuba; it helped to get Palestine observer status
at the United Nations in 2012; it supported South Africa\u2019s genocide
case at the International Court of Justice in 2024; and has been one of
Palestine\u2019s staunchest supporters diplomatically and materially.</p>
<p>This historic friendship and solidarity are what the United States
fears. This is why it is hellbent on destroying the Cuban Revolution and
its continued ability to provide for its people, while refusing to let
US companies pillage and extract from the island and its inhabitants.
For those of us invested in a better world based on humanity, it is
imperative we stand steadfast with Palestinians and Cubans as they
struggle against the most barbarous face of the US empire. The situation
is urgent and requires action. Like Fidel Castro said to the UN in
1979: \u201cif we do not resolve today\u2019s injustices and inequalities
peacefully and wisely, the future will be apocalyptic.\u201d</p>
</div><p>
<em>Nuvpreet Kalra is CODEPINK\u2019s Digital Content Producer.
She completed a Bachelor\u2019s in Politics & Sociology at the University
of Cambridge, and an MA in Internet Equalities at the University of the
Arts London. As a student, she was part of movements to divest and
decolonize, as well as anti-racist and anti-imperialist groups. Nuvpreet
joined CODEPINK as an intern in 2023, and now produces digital and
social media content. In England, she organizes with groups for
Palestinian liberation, abolition and anti-imperialism.</em>
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