The horrendous images pouring out of Gaza ever since the launch of the so-called October 7th war (a total misnomer for a ‘Continuing 76-year-old ‘Nakba’) – are harsh and punishing. It has rendered any conversation about the Palestine-Israel peace process farcical.

Despite every single diplomatic and global humanitarian effort, Gaza remains in the grip of starvation as nearly 2 months of Israel’s total closure has left markets empty, children malnourished and famine conditions spreading.

The humanitarian response is now at a perilous breaking point unless supplies are urgently allowed in.

Israel’s illegal and immoral shutdown of all supply routes into Gaza is a deliberate campaign to starve civilians. Islamic Relief staff on the ground say the situation is the worst they have ever witnessed. Many children are going through entire days without eating while aid trucks packed with food are maliciously blocked from entering only a short distance of a few miles. To describe this as being cruel is a colossal understatement.

Meat, fruit, eggs and dairy products are now almost impossible to find, while the scarcity of vegetables means that prices are up to 15 times more expensive than before the crisis, at a time when few people have neither jobs nor access to cash.

Almost 18 months of Israeli attacks have destroyed Gaza’s ability to feed itself, with most agricultural land, greenhouses and fishing boats destroyed and most cattle killed. This has left all civilians in Gaza reliant on humanitarian aid, but none has been allowed to enter since 2 March.

Over 1.4 million people continue struggling for access to basic nutrition. The situation is particularly dire for children, with 733 million people, including children and women, affected by hunger.

The Israeli government's blockade and restrictions on aid have exacerbated the crisis, with many families relying on legumes and canned food for survival.

The lack of access to nutritious food has led to severe malnutrition, especially among children, with 90% of children ages 6-23 months and pregnant and breastfeeding women facing "severe food poverty". There is no parallel for such a situation at any other point in history.

Humanitarian organizations have prepared themselves to deliver aid, but their efforts are mired by Israeli restrictions and attacks on aid convoys. The international community has condemned Israel's actions. Human Rights Watch is demanding targeted sanctions and an end to the blockade.

A recent survey of 43 aid agencies in Gaza found that 95% have been forced to reduce or suspend activities due to the total closure and the relentless indiscriminate bombing that has killed more than 51,000 people and targeted hospitals and shelters. Their staff hear horrific daily accounts of families burnt to death in their tents and children maimed by the bombing.

Islamic Relief staff and partners are doing everything they possibly can do to keep aid flowing, but their own response has been severely impeded. It is becoming increasingly difficult to keep providing food as supplies run out.

Over the past week they have been working with the UN World Food Programme (WFP) to distribute high energy biscuits, date bars and vegetable oil to more than 7,000 people a day, but it is nowhere near enough and hardly a substitute for nutritious meals. Islamic Relief also continues to provide other life-saving assistance. They carry out every-day cleaning of more than 60 shelters for displaced families, to help stop the spread of diseases in the overcrowded and desperate conditions.

Hundreds of thousands of people have yet again been forced from their homes by Israeli military orders in recent weeks, and driven into ever-shrinking areas where there is no clean water, no functioning sanitation and no safety. Israel has now declared almost 70% of Gaza as inaccessible to civilians, through a combination of forced displacement orders and military no-go zones.

Even a casual stroll along Gaza’s stricken pathways shows “people rummaging through garbage, trying to find something edible. That is the harsh, brutal, inhuman reality of the situation.

The Israeli government is using starvation of civilians as a method of warfare in the Gaza Strip, which is a war crime. Human Rights Watch interviewed 11 displaced Palestinians in Gaza between November 24 and December 4. Tearfully they said: “We don’t know how we survived”.

A Gaza snapshot survey finds 95% of NGOs have had to reduce or suspend services due to total closure and bombing. People are mostly terrified by day-to-day narratives of families burnt to death in their tents and children maimed by the bombing.

Islamic Relief staff and partners are doing everything to keep aid flowing, but it is becoming progressively difficult to keep providing food as supplies run out. Islamic Relief has been working with the UN World Food Programme (WFP) to distribute high energy biscuits, date bars and vegetable oil to more than 7,000 people a day. Even this quantum comes nowhere near to being stand-ins for nutritious meals. People affected by malnutrition and disease are unable to access decent healthcare and treatment as the Israeli closure also blocks all medical supplies from entering. Fuel is also blocked, forcing generators needed for life-saving operations to shut down.

People affected by malnutrition and disease are unable to access qualified healthcare and treatment as the Israeli closure also blocks all medical supplies from entering. Fuel is also blocked, forcing generators needed for life-saving operations to shut down.

A renewed and lasting ceasefire is a non-negotiable staring point to overcome the dire crisis. Starving civilians and denying them humanitarian aid is in clear violation of international law, but the world continues to turn a blind eye.

The international community’s lack of action makes them complicit in Israel’s use of starvation as a weapon of war. Statements of concern are meaningless without genuine action. Governments must put authentic political and economic pressure on Israel to abide by international law, reopen crossings and allow humanitarian aid and commercial supplies into Gaza without any further delay including ending arms sales. As the Occupying power under the Fourth Geneva Convention, Israel is obliged to ensure food and medicine to civilian populations.

There are reports of “high risk of famine.” Gaza’s food system is on the edge of ruin. Relief web reports that “Gaza is in the grip of starvation as nearly 2 months of Israel’s total closure has left markets empty, children malnourished and famine conditions spreading.

The humanitarian response is now at critical breaking point unless supplies are urgently allowed in”. What is indisputable is that Israel’s illegal and immoral shutdown of all supply routes into Gaza is a deliberate campaign to starve civilians. Islamic Relief staff on-the-ground say the situation is now the worst we have ever seen there.

Many children are going whole days without eating while aid trucks packed with food are cruelly blocked from entering just a few miles away. It is cynical, forbidding, and morally reprehensible. Imagine a population that must cope with circumstances where meat, fruit, eggs and dairy products are now almost impossible to find, while the scarcity of vegetables means that prices are up to 15 times more expensive than before the crisis, coinciding with a period when few people have jobs or access to cash.

Almost 18 months of Israeli attacks have destroyed Gaza’s ability to feed itself, with most agricultural land, greenhouses and fishing boats destroyed and most cattle killed. This has left all civilians in Gaza reliant on humanitarian aid, but none has been allowed to enter since 2 March.

This entire matter is one that pertains to a clear violation of international law, even beyond the social and economic realities. There must be a renewed and lasting ceasefire. Israel’s use of starvation as a weapon of war is further encouraged by the complicity of far too many nations.

Statements of concern are meaningless without genuine action, such as ending arms sales. Governments must apply tangible political and economic pressure on Israel to abide by international law, reopen crossings and allow humanitarian aid and commercial supplies into Gaza without any further delay.

How can it be humanly acceptable for Israel to choke the entry of goods and aid to the hundreds of thousands of besieged residents in the northern Gaza Strip for prolonged periods and escape impunity? Every single international and UN organisation must legally declare famine in the region and call out Israel’s use of starvation as yet another component of its ongoing genocide in the Strip, including mass killings and forced displacement.

The disruption of food supplies has rendered hundreds and thousands of Palestinians, including dozens lying severely ill in under-equipped hospitals in immediate danger of starvation or long-term health consequences.

No words sum up the criminality of Israel’s dastardly acts and animal-type behaviour than what the Israeli human rights organization Btselem stated: “Israel is ‘manufacturing famine”.

The Euro-Med Monitor field team has documented shocking testimonies from Palestinians forced to leave the northern Gaza Strip regarding the intense hunger and scarcity of food there. In crude terms, this appalling fact is an alert that this presages a rise in the prevalence and spread of hunger, severe malnutrition, and related illnesses, particularly among the elderly, children, and expectant mothers.

The illegitimate blockade on the entire northern Gaza Strip, including Gaza City, means that tens of thousands of people who were enforced to flee the North Gaza Governorate are now powerless to procure basic necessities. Israel has effectively destroyed public order killing numerous people in charge of protecting humanitarian aid and distributing it equitably.

As a people who pride themselves in their resilience, Palestinians are miffed by the agony of reliance on foreign humanitarian aid, the collapse of local production capacity, and, above all, debilitates their dignity and self-respect.

Euro-Med Human Rights Monitor is convinced that to fulfil its moral obligations and take all of the necessary legal actions against Israel, such as punishing it with sanctions, preventing it from receiving weapons, and acting quickly to establish a humanitarian corridor and bring in aid and supplies to prevent thousands of Palestinians from starving to death.

Israel must be pressured to restore health, water, and sanitation services in the Gaza Strip and to supply safe, nourishing, and sufficient food for the entire Palestinian population there by providing parents with baby formula; treating cases of starvation, malnutrition, and related diseases; allowing the entry and movement of life-saving materials through crossings and land routes immediately, quickly, and effectively; and restoring local production systems and the entry of commercial goods.

All of these actions are necessary, especially in the north, as is the urgent restoration of Palestinians’ access to humanitarian aid and services across the entire Strip.

This is time to recall the Nuremburg trials of 1946. At those trials, starvation was declared a war crime. It was about the Nazis starving the Jews. Eight decades later, it is Israel that is cutting off the basic right of food that has possibly carried out worse crimes that the Nazis committed.

Since Israel has been committing the crime of starvation and using it as a means to carry out its genocide against the Palestinian people with the goal of eradicating them, the world is accountable for the famine crisis that Israel has caused in the Gaza Strip. Given the likelihood of dozens of deaths among the hungry every day, the international community is alerted that this crisis is nearing its ultimate.

Food and all other relief goods must be supplied unfettered. The question of forever extinguishing the Palestinians killing and maiming 100s of thousands and starvation must be opposed by international mobilization. |

Israel must change its political measures that are inhumane, or face being shunned by the rest of the world, through synchronized isolation of the Israeli regime. And this campaign of Boycott-Divestment-Sanctions (BDS) should go far beyond economics.

If BDS campaigns significantly reduce demand for Israeli goods and services, it could lead to economic strain on the Israeli economy. BDS could also influence Israel through various means, including cultural, political, and diplomatic avenues.

BDS must aim at a multi-pronged challenge to Israel, going beyond economic pressure to encompass cultural, political, and ideological dimensions and could serve as a robust warning to Israel that until it terminates its occupation, its punishment to the occupied people, its attempts to ethnic cleansing of the Palestinian people, the world has the potential to unite and cause its collapse.

"The deliberate exploitation of hunger and famine as a tool of oppression in Gaza constitutes a grave breach of international humanitarian law, including the Geneva Conventions and the Rome Statute. The international community must hold Israel accountable for its actions, which amount to collective punishment and a crime against humanity.

The people of Gaza have a fundamental right to food, dignity, and self-determination. It is our collective responsibility to ensure that these rights are respected and protected."

Ranjan Solomon is a peace activist and a columnist. The views expressed here are the writer’s own.

Cover Photograph Courtesy Reuters

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