(C) Daily Kos
This story was originally published by Daily Kos and is unaltered.
. . . . . . . . . .
Targeted shootings of Gazan children have stopped. Now, mass starvation [1]
['This Content Is Not Subject To Review Daily Kos Staff Prior To Publication.']
Date: 2025-07-23
Targeted shootings of Gazan children have stopped. Now, mass starvation
Per the Lancet, Starvation as a weapon of war in Gaza: violation of international law MAY 26, 2025: 1 The humanitarian crisis in Gaza has escalated into one of the most severe emergencies in recent history, with starvation used increasingly as a deliberate tactic of warfare. As of April, 2024, more than 1·1 million people in Gaza are experiencing catastrophic levels of food insecurity—the highest figures ever recorded in a modern conflict zone. 1 The UN reports 10 000 cases of acute malnutrition in children since January, 2025, including 1600 cases of severe acute malnutrition—a life-threatening condition requiring immediate care. 2 The Integrated Food Security Phase Classification (IPC) has designated North Gaza and Gaza Governorates as IPC phase 5 (famine), with approximately 70% of the population—around 210 000 people—facing IPC phase 5 (catastrophe) conditions. The southern governorates, including Deir al-Balah, Khan Younis, and Rafah, are currently classified as IPC phase 4 (emergency), indicating an imminent risk of famine without urgent intervention.
This is a story I have tried to look away from. But it’s happening in plain sight.
Per the Guardian,
https://www.theguardian.com/world/live/2025/jul/23/israel-gaza-war-aid-benjamin-netanyahu-hamas-middle-east-latest-news-updates
Hospitals in Gaza have recorded 10 new deaths on Wednesday due to famine and malnutrition in the past 24 hours, according to the territory’s health ministry. It said in a statement on Telegram that the total number of deaths due to famine and malnutrition in Gaza had now risen to 111.
Oddly, the NYT chooses today to run an op-ed by Bret Stephens, No, Israel Is Not Committing Genocide in Gaza:
If the Israeli government’s intentions and actions are truly genocidal — if it is so malevolent that it is committed to the annihilation of Gazans — why hasn’t it been more methodical and vastly more deadly? Why not, say, hundreds of thousands of deaths, as opposed to the nearly 60,000 that Gaza’s Hamas-run Health Ministry, which does not distinguish between combatant and civilian deaths, has cited so far in nearly two years of war?
The 2023 population of Gaza was 2.1 million. 60,000 of that, a figure he does not quibble with except to say Hamas doesn’t distinguish between civilian and military deaths (does Israel?), amounts to 2.85% of the population dead.
Words are so important. As Bret says, is it really genocide if Israel has just carpet biombed Gaza, destroyed its hospitals, banned aid groups, and stopped food from entering?
If children are being deliberately shot by Israeli soldiers?
https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2024/10/09/opinion/gaza-doctor-interviews.html I worked as a trauma surgeon in Gaza from March 25 to April 8. I’ve volunteered in Ukraine and Haiti, and I grew up in Flint, Mich. I’ve seen violence and worked in conflict zones. But of the many things that stood out about working in a hospital in Gaza, one got to me: Nearly every day I was there, I saw a new young child who had been shot in the head or the chest, virtually all of whom went on to die. Thirteen in total. At the time, I assumed this had to be the work of a particularly sadistic soldier located nearby. But after returning home, I met an emergency medicine physician who had worked in a different hospital in Gaza two months before me. “I couldn’t believe the number of kids I saw shot in the head,” I told him. To my surprise, he responded: “Yeah, me, too. Every single day.” [44 of the 56 American US medical voluenteers had seen sights like this.] Dr. Mohamad Rassoul Abu-Nuwar General, bariatric and foregut surgeon, 36 years old, Pittsburgh, Pa. “One night in the emergency department, over the course of four hours, I saw six children between the ages of 5 and 12, all with single gunshot wounds to the skull.”
I heard an American doctor interviewed on the BBC last week, who said she had returned to Gaza for a second stint. She was relieved to see no more targeted shootings of children; instead, now there is mass, calculated starvation.
What’s a few war crimes (80% of a structures bombed, banning journalists, turning out aid groups)? In October 2024 Israel banned UNRWA (the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East) and other recognized aid agencies, and recently partnered with the US to “distribute aid” in such a way that riots regularly occur and civilians are shot as they crowd to try to access food.
Why are we not hearing more about this? Because Israel systematically works to exclude journalists; indeed, has been accused of targeting them specifically earlier in the war when they were still allowed. Per the Committee to Protect Journalists
https://cpj.org/2023/10/journalist-casualties-in-the-israel-gaza-conflict/
But the starvation is happening in plain sight.
I apologize for the diary’s brevity and disjointedness. I am finding it difficult to write this.
The feeling of helplessness is hard to bear. One can sign a petition,
https://www.blockthebombs.org/?link_id=0&can_id=3fa4abb4ee273af3b2c176311503df97&email_referrer=email_2746203&email_subject=breaking-new-bill-in-congress-to-block-bombs-to-israel,
which fewer than 25,000 people have signed. But that is only to get Congress to stop sending arms. One can also send money to put ads for the bill on Youtube, but they don’t seem to have much effect (see “fewer than 25,000”).
What actions can we take to call attention to this starvation of a people at risk? Our government is complicit.
[END]
---
[1] Url:
https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2025/7/23/2334772/-Targeted-shootings-of-Gazan-children-have-stopped-Now-mass-starvation?pm_campaign=front_page&pm_source=more_community&pm_medium=web
Published and (C) by Daily Kos
Content appears here under this condition or license: Site content may be used for any purpose without permission unless otherwise specified.
via Magical.Fish Gopher News Feeds:
gopher://magical.fish/1/feeds/news/dailykos/
