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Starvation in Gaza [1]
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Date: 2025-05-13
A New York Times illustrated article May 13 reports:
In Private, Some Israeli Officers Admit That Gaza Is on the Brink of Starvation — free link.
It continues:
For months, Israel has maintained that its blockade on food and fuel to Gaza did not pose a major threat to civilian life in the territory, even as the United Nations and other aid agencies have said a famine was looming. Israeli military officers who monitor humanitarian conditions in Gaza have warned their commanders in recent days that unless the blockade is lifted quickly, many areas of the enclave will likely run out of enough food to meet minimum daily nutritional needs.
The article says “growing acknowledgment within part of the Israeli security establishment of a hunger crisis in Gaza comes as Israel has vowed to dramatically expand the war in Gaza to destroy Hamas and bring back the remaining hostages — twin aims that more than 19 months of war have yet to achieve.”
Israel cut off supplies to Gaza in March, shortly before breaking a cease-fire with Hamas, which remains entrenched in Gaza despite losing thousands of fighters and control over much of the territory during the war. On Tuesday, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu was defiant, and said the military would resume fighting in the coming days “in full force to finish the job” and “eliminate Hamas.”
The humanitarian situation in Gaza is urgent:
Most bakeries have shut, charity kitchens are closing and the United Nations’ World Food Program, which distributes aid and coordinates shipments, says it has run out of food stocks.
The article quotes a U.N. report which warned on Monday that famine was imminent in Gaza.
If Israel proceeds with a planned military escalation in Gaza, the initiative said in a summary report, “The vast majority of people in the Gaza Strip would not have access to food, water, shelter, and medicine.”
The article quotes Gazans who say they are eating one meal a day and the price of flour has risen 60-fold since late February.
“All I ate today was a little bit of fava beans from an expired can,” said Khalil el-Halabi, a 71-year-old retired U.N. official from Gaza City. He said on Monday that he was too dizzy and weak to walk, adding that his weight had dropped to roughly 130 pounds from about 210 pounds before the war. Mr. el-Halabi said his daughter, who recently gave birth, was unable to breastfeed because she has not been eating enough. No baby formula is available, he said.
The article points out that experts on the laws of international conflict say “it is illegal for a country to limit aid deliveries if it knows that doing so will cause starvation.”
“Enforcing a military blockade with the knowledge that it will starve the civilian population is a violation of international law,” said Janina Dill, co-director of the Oxford Institute for Ethics, Law and Armed Conflict at the University of Oxford. Ms. Dill said that even if there is some debate over Israel’s obligations toward Gazans, “when Israeli decision makers state that the purpose is to extract political and military concessions, it clearly constitutes a war crime.”
NOTE: Last week on May 9 we posted here a story which contains information also reported in the NYT article today. If you haven’t seen that story, take a look at New U.S.-Israeli plans for aid in Gaza.
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