Starvation in Gaza: what Next?

Starvation rules the roost in Gaza as Israel continues its genocidal military campaigns. The United Nations (UN) has already warned that widespread famine in the Gaza strip is "almost inevitable" without action. In fact, the UN and humanitarian groups have been warning over months of the risk of famine in Gaza under Israeli bombardment, ground offensives and siege. 

It is not just Israeli bombs that are killing Palestinians including children in war-ravaged Gaza, now some are dying of hunger also. The UN last month said that more than a quarter of Gaza's 2.3 million people were "estimated to be facing catastrophic levels of deprivation and starvation".

The International Court of Justice (ICJ) ordered Israel to prevent civilian deaths in its war in Gaza and  to take "immediate and effective measures" to protect the Palestinian people in Gaza from risk of genocide by allowing the supply of humanitarian assistance and basic services. But Amnesty International (AI) reports that Israel continues "to disregard its obligation as the occupying power to ensure the basic needs of Palestinians in Gaza are met".  South Africa also has accused Israel of disregarding a ruling by the ICJ ordering it to prevent civilian deaths.

AI director of the Middle East and North Africa said that Israel had "woefully failed to provide for Gazans' basic needs" and "had been blocking and impeding the passage of sufficient aid into the Gaza Strip, in particular to the north which is virtually inaccessible, in a clear show of contempt for the ICJ ruling and in flagrant violation of its obligation to prevent genocide."

Huger is most acute in northern Gaza which is under Israeli occupation for months. Entire districts of Gaza city and surrounding areas have been reduced to rubbles by Israeli bombing and its army operations, but hundreds and thousands of Palestinians still live there because they have nowhere to go. This area of Gaza has been isolated by Israeli army and has suffered long cut-offs of food supplies. Israel is imposing famine on the population of Gaza in a multitude of ways. The most visible is through the imposition of a blockade that denies humanitarian organisations the scope to provide food to starving people.

As the death toll mounts and starvation occurs, the Biden administration has repeatedly made it clear that there are no red lines for Israel. No red lines mean a green light to continue genocide. Meanwhile, Joe Biden was seen musing about a potential ceasefire while enjoying an ice cream cone. This is the state of play. Now the UN says at least 576,000 people in Gaza are one step away from famine.

Israel largely shut off entry of food, water, medicine and other supplies after launching its assault on Gaza almost five months ago. Amid the ongoing genocide and mass starvation, Israeli aggression continues to expand in its scope killing 31,112 people and injuring 72,760 people until the end of the first week of March. The US and UK also carried out air strikes against Yemen killing hundreds of people there.

A report published on March 18 by the Integrated Food Security Phase Classification (IPC) partnership found that "Famine is imminent in the northern governorates and projected to occur anytime between mid-March and May 2024." The report also found that every single person in the Gaza Strip lives with some level of food insecurity. The IPC assessment further notes that 1.1 million people are expected to face catastrophic levels of hunger and risk famine in Gaza.

Amid ongoing genocide and mass starvation in Gaza, Israel is widening its genocidal war in geographic scope. Israeli defence minister Yoav Gallant has declared that invasion of Rafah is imminent. 1.5 million Palestinians are trapped in Rafah who have nowhere to go, and many have already been displaced multiple times due to the Israeli invasion. Israeli prime minister Netanyahu also told the American Israeli Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC) that "We will finish the job in Rafah", making clear that no death toll of Palestinians was too high.

Two weeks ago, Israel also carried out air strikes deep inside Lebanon, striking the city of Balbek. The same day the US and the UK carried out a new round of air strikes killing more than 10 people in Yemen.

The current genocidal slaughter of innocent Palestinians in Gaza, fully supported by Western governments led by the US, is founded upon a pack of lies. While it is said that the truth is the first casualty of war, yet in this war the truth is not hidden. It is for the whole world including the West to see and all of this is also known to the world -- the decapitated bodies, crushed skulls, emaciated children, screaming of hungry  souls for food. There remains little doubt that what we are witnessing is truly horrific and a genocidal frenzy of the Israeli armed forces in Gaza.

In fact, the Israeli government is using starvation of civilians as a method of warfare in Gaza which is a war crime. Since October 7, high ranking Israeli officials, including defence minister Yoav Gallant, 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. These statements clearly reflect the policy of the Israeli government which is being carried out by Israeli armed forces. In fact, Israel has been systematically destroying the food supply system in Gaza as part of a broader "starvation campaign" since it started the military campaign in October.

Professor Jeffrey Sachs an American economist and public policy analyst at Columbia University in an interview with the popular US commentator Judge Andrew Napolitano said, "Israel deliberately starved the people of Gaza. Starved! I am not using an exaggeration; I'm talking literally starving a population. Israel is a criminal, is in nonstop war crime, status now." He also described Netanyahu as a war criminal. Professor Sachs in another interview with Al Jazeera said, "The US is complicit in Israeli genocide".

Even the pro-Israeli major US corporate media outlet the Washington Post quoting the world's leading body on food emergencies said on the same day (Monday, March 18) that  famine might already be happening in northern Gaza and risks spreading across the besieged enclave, plunging 2.2 million Palestinians into the broadest and most severe food crisis in the world.

Another pro-Israeli US corporate media outlet the New York Times published an article on February 29 with the headline "Starvation is Stalking Gaza's Children", suggesting starvation is a mysterious malicious force with its own will, completely skirting to mention the Israeli aggression and complete siege of Gaza as the obvious cause.

From the point of view of the US corporate media outlets the Gazan women and children are no more than collateral damage and the starvation is caused by the chaotic delivery system, a repeat of the Israeli counter narrative to subvert the truth. But the UN has described aid access as "unpredictable and insufficient' blaming military operations, insecurity and extensive restrictions to delivery of essential supplies.

Yet, the policy of the US, UK, and EU countries on Israel's genocidal operations has not changed. Their continuing support for Israeli genocide in Gaza has eviscerated any idea of  the West's own created rules-based idea and may have permanently damaged the credibility of the West in the eyes of the Global South.

While the US continues to supply bombs that fall indiscriminately on both northern and southern Gaza, it air drops food parcels for the hungry.  These airdrops in many instances also injure and kill hungry and desperate Palestinians when they try to get hold of them. As a commentator said, "Bombs and bread. The US is giving the former to Israel and the latter to Palestinians. Both are being dropped on Gaza".  Strangely enough those air food drops are dropped over only in an area controlled by its closest ally Israel, the  perpetrator of genocide and starvation in Gaza.

In fact, the US is dropping food by parachute when hundreds of food trucks are queuing up across the border because Israel does not allow them to cross the border. Last weekend President Biden, who is a committed Zionist, reaffirmed his unconditional support for Israel, declaring, "I am never going to leave Israel". 

The Palestinian right to resistance to an occupying force led to the resistance by the Palestinian resistance movement Hamas on October 7. The US backed Israeli response to the October 7 has been to continue to commit genocidal slaughter and widespread destruction in Gaza. The complicity of the US in the Israeli slaughter of Palestinians in Gaza, and the sympathy of US officials for Israel compared with the dismissive attitude to Palestinian suffering and reports of Israeli atrocities are clear. Hamas' tactical victory against Israel delivered a shock to the Israeli system and that has now led to the surge of Hamas' popularity in the West Bank.

The US remains the most aggressive nation and pursues a violent foreign policy around the world including in the Middle East. But now within the US, opposition to the US role in the Gaza genocide is growing as reflected in the self-immolation of Aaron Bushnell. The US role in the Gaza genocide has now earned President Biden the nickname "Genocide Joe".

Palestinians now face mounting risks of ethnic cleansing and genocide. There is now growing fear that it will spark a new permanent mass wave of displacement of Palestinians in Gaza to enable Israel to allow Jewish settler to colonise Gaza. That will be a replay of the 1948 when millions of Palestinians were forced to flee their homeland and remained stranded in neighbouring countries that hosted them.

However, the Israeli government intention to accomplish a "Nakba in Gaza" is facing strong opposition globally and resistance within Gaza. The US policy on the future of Gaza reflects an old colonial mentality that they will decide the future of Palestinian people, not the Palestinians themselves. And that US blueprint involves to "revitalise Palestinian Authority" based in the occupied West Bank headed by the US-Israeli lackey Mahmoud Abbas to take over "control and administration" of Gaza. Mahmoud Abbas fell out of favour with Palestinian opinion a long time ago, especially in Gaza.

The US plan for the future of Gaza is not going to materialise. This colonial mindset of the US and other Western countries that they will decide the future of the Palestinian people ignoring the Zionist colonial settler occupation of historical Palestine and the right of self determination for the Palestinian people need no further clarification.  But the bottom line remains, without addressing the underlying issues that have caused Palestinians to resist Israel, there will not be peace in occupied Palestine.

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