Famine in Gaza Is A Political Act of Violence and Genocide

The UN warns "it still faces obstacles in bid to fend off famine in Gaza" because "aid deliveries in the enclave still face difficulties" mainly created by Israel despite promises to Biden to let food and medical aid reach Gazans. 

The United Nations is still struggling to prevent famine in the Gaza Strip and while there has been some improvement in coordination with Israel, aid deliveries in the enclave still face difficulties, a senior UN aid official says.

Andrea De Domenico, head of the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs in the Occupied Palestinian Territory, says aid deliveries within Gaza are facing significant checkpoint delays and that last week 41% of UN requests to deliver aid to northern Gaza were denied.

“We’re dealing with this dance where we do one step forward, two steps backward, or two steps forward, one step backward, which leaves us basically always at the same point,” De Domenico tells reporters.

“For every new opportunity that we’ve been given, we will find yet another challenge to deal with,” he says. “So it’s really, really difficult for us to scale up to where we would like to be.”

https://www.timesofisrael.com/liveblog_entry/un-says-it-still-faces-obst...

The Biden Administration keeps talking about a two state solution as part of the end of the Gaza war and the famine there, but as soon as any meaningful, even mild step, is taken in that direction it says "Not necessarily". 

UNSC vote won’t ‘necessarily’ help two-state solution: US ambassador to UN

Linda Thomas-Greenfield has said a UN Security Council resolution on Palestinian statehood will not “necessarily” lead to a two-state solution supported by the United States.

“President Biden has said categorically that we support a two-state solution for addressing the situation in the Middle East where Palestinians will have a state of their own and Israel is secure in their state,” she said in response to a question at a news conference in Seoul, South Korea.

“We are working on the ground to get to that in place as quickly as possible,” she added.

Thomas-Greenfield did not specifically say whether the US would veto the resolution recommending the State of Palestine for full UN membership currently being considered by members of the UNSC.

https://www.aljazeera.com/news/liveblog/2024/4/17/israels-war-on-gaza-li...

According to Andrea de Domenico's of UN humanitarian affairs office (OCHA) report, Israel is playing a game of "one step forward" in allowing food to enter Gaza, proclaiming how great they are in providing aid, then "taking two steps back. or the reverse. leaving us at basically the same point." Meanwhile Gazans starve to death as the famine gets worse ... Scaling up assistance in Gaza remains a challenge in the face of continued access denials, delays and other impediments, the head of the UN humanitarian affairs office (OCHA) in the occupied Palestinian territories said on Tuesday." There has also been 781 settler attack on Palestinians living in the West Bank since October 7th, where the Palestinians live there had nothing to do with the October 7th attack. 

Andrea de Domenico was speaking via videoconference to journalists in New York, briefing them on developments in the Gaza Strip and West Bank.

He said although humanitarians welcome recent Israeli commitments to improve aid facilitation in Gaza, “we are dealing with this dance where we do one step forward, two steps backwards; or two steps forward and one step backward, which leaves us basically at the same point”. 

Northern missions denied 

Between 6-12 April, 41 per cent of humanitarian requests to the north were denied, he said. A UN convoy also came under crossfire while near a checkpoint during the same period. 

Although humanitarians and the international community are making every possible effort to support people inside Gaza, “the reality is there is very little that we can bring…to tackle displacement and deal with the looming famine”. 

Mr. de Domenico addressed the overall devastation in Gaza since the start of hostilities following the brutal Hamas attacks against Israel on 7 October 2023. 

All universities destroyed 

“The vast majority of schools have been destroyed and there is not a single university that is standing in Gaza. It will take years to bring back students to school, and you can imagine what is the implication for that,” he said. 

The conflict has also seen “really very problematic” military operations at hospitals, such as the recent two-week offensive that left Al-Shifa Hospital “completely non-functional”.  UN teams are now helping families with identifying the remnants of corpses found buried in graves within the premises. 

He said “uncertainty is a daily reality for people in Gaza”, where families have been displaced multiple times.  Thousands of Palestinians flocked to the coastal road two days ago following rumours that Israel would allow people to return to the north. 

Meanwhile, engagement with Israel continues, including towards opening a border crossing into northern Gaza. 

“We’ve seen some progress on that,” he said. “There are still some tests. It's very sensitive, of course, as you can imagine, from the Israeli public, and also there are logistical challenges to face”, due to the sheer level of destruction in the north.  

West Bank violence 

Turning to the West Bank, he said a new wave of settler violence erupted last Friday following the discovery of the body of an Israeli boy who had gone missing. 

Simultaneous attacks were carried out against 17 villages and three Palestinians were killed, and many more injured. The UN counted 21 homes completely burned, along with 30 cars and agricultural infrastructure, and 86 people displaced. 

“There has been the use of live ammunition, and dozens of livestock have been killed and hundreds stolen. And Israeli forces in some cases, and accounts that we have collected on the ground, were somehow protecting the attackers or in some cases participating in the attack,” he said. 

A ‘concerning’ situation 

Mr. de Domenico said the development is “quite concerning…because it is entrenching a trend that has been very, very intense after October.”   

He said 781 attacks have occurred since then, or more than four per day, and the newly appointed Palestinian Prime Minister has requested international support to prevent the situation from deteriorating. 

The UN has also counted 114 new barriers that have been erected in the West Bank since 7 October, including checkpoints, roadblocks and road gates “which is constraining the ability of Palestinians to move to the point that some of our colleagues do not come to the office now for months”. 

The restrictions have had an impact on livelihoods and also displaced more than 200 Palestinian households, some 1,300 people, mostly herder families.  

https://news.un.org/en/story/2024/04/1148656

Human Rights Watch concludes that "Children in Gaza have been dying from starvation-related complications since the Israeli government began using starvation as a weapon of war, a war crime. ... Concerned governments should impose targeted sanctions and suspend arms transfers to press the Israeli government to ensure access to humanitarian aid and basic services in Gaza, in accordance with Israel’s obligations under international law and the recent International Court of Justice order in South Africa’s genocide case. ... The impact on Gaza’s population of the Israeli government’s use of starvation as a weapon of war is compounded by the near-total collapse of the healthcare system. ... Ongoing Israeli bombardment and ground operations, lack of security assurances from Israel, widespread infrastructure damage, and communications disruptions make it difficult to distribute the little aid that does get into Gaza. Humanitarian organizations have reported that Israeli forces have attacked their aid convoys and workers. Israeli forces have also shot at and shelled people congregating to collect aid, killing and injuring hundreds."

Children in Gaza have been dying from starvation-related complications since the Israeli government began using starvation as a weapon of war, a war crime, Human Rights Watch said today. Doctors and families in Gaza described children, as well as pregnant and breastfeeding mothers, suffering from severe malnutrition and dehydration, and hospitals ill-equipped to treat them.

Concerned governments should impose targeted sanctions and suspend arms transfers to press the Israeli government to ensure access to humanitarian aid and basic services in Gaza, in accordance with Israel’s obligations under international law and the recent International Court of Justice order in South Africa’s genocide case.

“The Israeli government’s use of starvation as a weapon of war has proven deadly for children in Gaza,” said Omar Shakir, Israel and Palestine director at Human Rights Watch. “Israel needs to end this war crime, stop this suffering, and allow humanitarian aid to reach all of Gaza unhindered.”

A United Nations-coordinated partnership of 15 international organizations and UN agencies investigating the hunger crisis in Gaza reported on March 18, 2024, that “all evidence points towards a major acceleration of death and malnutrition.” The partnership said that in northern Gaza, where 70 percent of the population is estimated to be experiencing catastrophic hunger, famine could occur anytime between mid-March and May.

Gaza’s Health Ministry reported as of April 1, that 32 people, including 28 children, had died of malnutrition and dehydration at hospitals in northern Gaza. Save the Children confirmed on April 2 the deaths from starvation and disease of 27 children. Earlier in March, World Health Organisation (WHO) officials found “children dying of starvation” in northern Gaza’s Kamal Adwan and al-Awda hospitals. In southern Gaza, where aid is more accessible but still grossly inadequate, UN agencies in mid-February said that 5 percent of children under age 2 were found to be acutely malnourished.

Human Rights Watch in March interviewed a doctor in northern Gaza, a volunteer doctor who has since left Gaza, the parents of two infants who doctors said died of starvation-related complications in both mother and child, and the parents of four other children suffering from malnutrition and dehydration. Human Rights Watch reviewed the death certificate for one of the children, and photos of two of the children in critical condition that showed signs of emaciation. All had been treated at Kamal Adwan hospital in Beit Lahia, northern Gaza. Human Rights Watch health advisers also reviewed verified pictures and videos online of three other evidently emaciated children who died and four others in critical condition who also showed signs of emaciation.

Dr. Hussam Abu Safiya, who heads Kamal Adwan hospital’s pediatrics unit, told Human Rights Watch on April 4 that 26 children had died after experiencing starvation-related complications in his hospital alone. He said that at least 16 of the children who died were under 5 months old, at least 10 were between 1 and 8 years old, and that a 73-year-old man suffering from malnutrition had also died.  Dr. Safiya said one of the infants died at just two days old after being born severely dehydrated, apparently exacerbated by his mother’s poor health: “[She] had no milk to give him.”

Nour al-Huda, an 11-year-old girl with cystic fibrosis, was admitted to Kamal Adwan hospital on March 15. Doctors there told her mother that Nour was suffering from malnutrition, dehydration, and an infection in her lungs, and administered her oxygen and a saline solution. “Nour al-Huda now weighs 18 kilograms [about 40 pounds],” her mother told Human Rights Watch. “I can see her chest bones sticking out.”

International humanitarian law prohibits the starvation of civilians as a method of warfare. The Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court provides that intentionally starving civilians by “depriving them of objects indispensable to their survival, including willfully impeding relief supplies,” is a war crime.

Since the Hamas-led October 7, 2023, attacks in Israel, the Israeli government has deliberately blockedthe delivery of aid, food, and fuel into Gaza, while impeding humanitarian assistance and depriving civilians of the means to survive. Israeli officials ordering or carrying out these actions are committing collective punishment against the civilian population and the starvation of civilians as a method of warfare, both of which are war crimes.

Israeli government actions that undermine the ability of the UN Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA) to carry out its recognized role in distributing aid in Gaza have exacerbated the effects of the restrictions.

A doctor who volunteered at the European hospital in Khan Younis in southern Gaza for two weeks in late January said that medical staff were forced to treat patients with limited medical supplies. He described the difficulty of treating malnutrition and dehydration, lacking essential items such as glucose, electrolytes, and feeding tubes. He said that one patient’s mother, desperate for solutions, resorted to crushing potatoes to create a makeshift liquid for tube feeding. Despite its nutritional inadequacy, the doctor said, “I ended up telling my other patients to find potatoes and do the same.”

On January 26, the International Court of Justice, in a case brought by South Africa, ordered provisional measures, including requiring Israel to “take immediate and effective measures to enable the provision of urgently needed basic services and humanitarian aid” and other actions to comply with the 1948 Genocide Convention. On March 28, the court indicated that Israel had not complied with this order and imposed a more detailed provisional measure requiring the government to ensure the unimpeded provision of basic services and aid in full cooperation with the UN, while noting that “famine is setting in.” ...

Israel maintains overarching control over Gaza, including over the movement of people and goods, territorial waters, airspace, the infrastructure upon which Gaza relies, and the population registry. This leaves Gaza’s population, whom Israel has subjected to an unlawful closure for more than 16 years, almost entirely dependent on Israel for access to fuel, electricity, medicine, food, and other essential commodities....

The WHO reported that the number of children under age 5 who are acutely malnourished has jumped from 0.8 percent before the hostilities in Gaza to between 12.4 and 16.5 percent in northern Gaza. Oxfam said on April 3 that since January, people in northern Gaza have been forced to survive on an average of 245 calories a day, “less than a can of fava beans.”

According to a nutrition vulnerability analysis conducted in March by the Global Nutrition Cluster, a network of humanitarian organizations chaired by UNICEF, 90 percent of children ages 6-23 months and pregnant and breastfeeding women across Gaza faced “severe food poverty,” eating two or fewer food groups each day.

Children with preexisting health conditions are particularly vulnerable to the devastating effects of malnutrition, which significantly weakens immunity. And starvation, even for survivors, leads to lasting harm, especially in children, causing stunted growth, cognitive issues, and developmental delays.

Gaza’s Health Ministry announced on March 8 that about 60,000 pregnant women in Gaza suffered from malnutrition, dehydration and inadequate health care. Poor nutrition during pregnancy harms both the baby and the mother, increasing the risk of miscarriages, fetal deaths, compromised immune system development, growth impacts, and maternal mortality.

Older people are also at particular risk of malnutrition, which increases mortality among those with acute or chronic illnesses. HelpAge International reported that even before October, 45 percent of older people in Gaza were going to bed hungry at least once a week, with 6 percent hungry every night.

The impact on Gaza’s population of the Israeli government’s use of starvation as a weapon of war is compounded by the near-total collapse of the healthcare system. Out of Gaza’s 36 hospitals, according to the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA), only 10 are operational, none of them fully, both as a result of the Israeli military’s repeated, apparently unlawful attacks on medical facilities, personnel, and transport, as well as the severe restrictions on the entry of fuel and other supplies. ...

Ongoing Israeli bombardment and ground operations, lack of security assurances from Israel, widespread infrastructure damage, and communications disruptions make it difficult to distribute the little aid that does get into Gaza. Humanitarian organizations have reported that Israeli forces have attacked their aid convoys and workers. Israeli forces have also shot at and shelled people congregating to collect aid, killing and injuring hundreds.

https://www.hrw.org/news/2024/04/09/gaza-israels-imposed-starvation-dead...

The discovery of mass graves containing over 700 bodies near Gazan hospitals, including some with signs of torture are raising more questions about Israeli war crimes at the hospitals. "A mass grave with 324 bodies was uncovered at Gaza’s Nasser Hospital, members of Gaza Civil Defense said over the weekend. The discovery follows reports of similar mass graves at the al-Shifa Hospital complex, where some 381 bodies have been exhumed since Israeli troops withdrew from the facility at the beginning of April. As part of its ongoing war in Gaza following Hamas’s October 7 attack on Israel, the Israeli military conducted extensive raids at both hospitals earlier this year." (https://www.vox.com/world-politics/24140794/gaza-nasser-hospitals-al-shi...)Gazans had headed to the hospitals in the hopes of escaping the Israeli bombing, getting food and medical treatment, including for those starving during the famine. 

There’s a lot that’s unknown about the victims, including their causes of death. Some bodies had been buried at and around the hospital grounds because they could not safely be interred at cemeteries. But the sharp increases in the number of dead raise concerns that both hospitals could be the sites of serious crimes, including possibly extrajudicial killings, that require an independent investigation, according to the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights. ...

That’s why the discovery of hundreds of bodies in the grave sites is so alarming. There are allegations that IDF soldiers moved bodies that were temporarily buried at the hospital, which could lead to families losing track of remains, among other issues. Hospitals are supposed to be protected spaces under international humanitarian law, with an exceptionally high legal bar for carrying out military operations there. And if people were killed during those raids, authorities must be able to determine who they were and how they died, as the intentional killing of civilians is a war crime. In the near term, the ongoing conflict will make it difficult to determine exactly what happened, hindering accountability efforts if wrongdoing occurred. ...

Starting last fall, Israeli forces targeted Gaza’s hospitals with bombing campaigns and with weeks-long raids at Nasser and al-Shifa, on the premise that Hamas uses civilian infrastructure like hospitals to plan and conduct operations. After a siege on al-Shifa Hospital and a later raid, as well as one on Nasser Hospital in Khan Younis, medical officers suggested many had died.....

Furthermore, Col. Yamen Abu Suleiman, head of Gaza Civil Defense in Khan Younis, said some of the bodies at the mass grave at Nasser Hospital show signs of summary execution, and some bodies had their hands and feet bound. “We do not know if they were buried alive or executed,” he told CNN. “Most of the bodies are decomposed.” (CNN and other media organizations have not been able to independently verify these allegations.) The group is also searching for the bodies of about 400 people missing since Israeli forces left Nasser Hospital.

The broader picture

Those allegations — and the uncertainty around where the unexpected bodies came from — prompted UN human rights commissioner Volker Türk’s call for “a clear, transparent and credible investigation” into how the people buried at the sites died. ...

If the IDF indeed willfully killed civilians or even militants hors de combat — meaning they’re not on the battlefield due to injury, for example — at the hospitals, that would be a crime. All of the parties to combat are obligated to make sure that evidence is preserved for later investigations and prosecution per IHL.

But getting that investigation into motion will be difficult; for one, it’s not clear who would carry it out, though Haque suggested that the UN Independent International Commission of Inquiry on the occupied Palestinian Territory, including East Jerusalem and Israel, or the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights would be the appropriate bodies. And there would need to be a ceasefire, or at the very least guarantees that the investigators could carry out their work safely. 

But there is still the question of why Israel has raided so many hospitals in Gaza, which, as Anjli Parrin, director of the Global Human Rights Clinic at the University of Chicago Law School​ said, is highly unusual in conflict. "There’s a risk [that] this kind of conduct becomes normalized,” she said. “It would be very worrying for other conflicts. It shouldn’t be the situation that attacks on a hospital are somehow justified.”

https://www.vox.com/world-politics/24140794/gaza-nasser-hospitals-al-shi...

The massive slaughter and the famine in Gaza has triggered a massive response across first American univeristies and then European and Australian universities demanding the end of the war and the famine. "Protests calling for universities to boycott companies and individuals with ties to Israel amid the ongoing war there have swept college campuses across the US. ...  Democratic Rep. Ilhan Omar said "This is a movement that started with only 70 students," she told BBC News at Columbia on Thursday. "And because Columbia University decided to crack down on them and violate their First Amendment, this has now spread nationally and internationally."

Tensions have been escalating at universities in the wake of the 7 October attack by Hamas that left around 1,200 people dead in Israel, and led to Israel's assault on Gaza that has killed more than 34,000 Palestinians.

Major encampments and protests were seen first at Columbia University in New York, but have since erupted elsewhere across the country. 

Students have been arrested at campuses in Los Angeles, California and in Atlanta, Georgia.

In Austin, Texas, the governor ordered state troopers to arrest protesters. With protests now ongoing at over two dozen campuses, here are where some of the largest are taking place:

Columbia University

Columbia was the first university to see a major pro-Palestinian encampment form on campus, and among the first to be accused of antisemitism.  More than 100 protesters were arrested last week after the Ivy League university's president asked police to clear the protest site. Her request followed her testimony to Congress about the university's response to alleged antisemitism on campus.

But the mass arrests appear to have galvanised the movement, according to demonstrators who remained onsite one week later.  Democratic Rep. Ilhan Omar, whose daughter was arrested at Columbia, told BBC News the movement started with just a few students but quickly spread due to the mass arrests. "This is a movement that started with only 70 students," she told BBC News at Columbia on Thursday. "And because Columbia University decided to crack down on them and violate their First Amendment, this has now spread nationally and internationally."

Emory University

In Atlanta, several dozen protesters "not affiliated" with Emory University set up tents on campus early Thursday morning, the school said in a statement. Administrators said the group of trespassers was later joined by members of the university community. But when the protesters refused to disburse, the Emory Police Department "took a couple dozen people into custody". The statement did not clarify how many arrests were made and which charges the suspects could face. 

University of Southern California 

The decision by the University of Southern California to cancel the valedictorian's speech at commencement - followed by its cancellation of the main 10 May commencement - led to outrage on campus. The ceremony was expected to draw some 65,000 people to campus. The valedictorian, who was chosen due to high grades and involvement in campus life, had posted a link to a website that was critical of Israel, which led to recent accusations of antisemitism. 

The university said the cancellation was due to unspecified threats to campus security and did not condemn the student's post. But the decision angered both pro- and anti-Israel demonstrators. Pro-Palestinian protesters called for the student, who is Muslim, to deliver her speech.  Pro-Israel students called for the school to condemn her posts.  On Wednesday, the Los Angeles Police Department was called in and arrested 93 people.

Georgetown University

Georgetown University in Washington DC saw encampments being set up on Thursday. At least 20 tents have been erected on the university's normally quiet campus in northwest DC. It came as hundreds of students and faculty members held a march from Georgetown to nearby George Washington University.  At the nearby American University, a group of students set up a protest camp outside the office of the school's president.  No arrests have been made. 

University of Texas. 

Police said 57 arrests were made on Wednesday night at the University of Texas (UT) in Austin. Troopers with the Texas Department of Public Safety wearing riot gear were seen using their bikes to push protesters back. Texas Republican Governor Greg Abbott, who called in the troopers, posted on X that the protests are antisemitic and called for student protesters to be expelled.  Democrats in the state accused him of using the mass arrests as a "campaign ad". The state National Guard issued a statement denying that it had been mobilised to make arrests on campus.  "While the Texas National Guard was aware and prepared to respond to the protests at UT yesterday, no Soldiers were dispatched to the campus during the event," the Texas Military Department said in a statement.

It added that the force is prepared to "respond if requested".

New York University

On Monday, police arrested 120 people who erected an impromptu encampment the downtown Manhattan campus.  All but four of those arrested were charged with trespassing. 

Harvard University

On Wednesday, encampments formed in Harvard Yard after the university administration suspended the student group the Harvard Undergraduate Palestine Solidarity Committee. Harvard's president has refused to rule out asking the police to respond. No arrests have been made.

Elsewhere

Protests have been seen at a least two dozen universities, and even in some high schools around the US. 

In Boston, 108 people were arrested at Emerson University early Thursday morning, leading the university to cancel classes. Four police officers were injured during the protest. 

In Connecticut, protests are ongoing at Yale University, even after 48 people were arrested on Wednesday. All but four of those arrested were Yale students. 

On Tuesday, high schoolers in the Seattle area walked out of classes in protest against the war. School officials in New Jersey have sternly warned high school students there against taking part in a walk out planned for Friday.

https://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-68901927

Even an American official admitted that the risk of famine in Gaza is very high. U.S. special envoy for humanitarian issues, David Satterfield, said on Tuesday "considerable work remained to be done as the risk of famine in the enclave is very high". He called "for more to be done to get aid to those in need in that part of the tiny, densely populated Palestinian territory". (https://www.reuters.com/world/middle-east/risk-famine-very-high-gaza-esp...) Unfortunately, he did not mention ending the cause of the famine - Israel's invasion of Gaza and its severe restrictions on food entering Gaza.