Humanitarian organizations are struggling to provide food for people in the Gaza Strip, which is facing full-blown famine. “It’s a horror,” says Kathleen McCain, president of World Central Kitchen, a U.S.-based nonprofit group that has distributed more than 43 million meals in Gaza, the vast majority to kids. McCain says that while the UN has not officially declared a famine, based on what she and her organization have seen, the crisis is “full-blown.”
The Israeli government is using starvation as a method of warfare in Gaza, a war crime, Human Rights Watch said in a statement Tuesday. It should stop attacking objects necessary for the survival of civilians and lift its blockade of Gaza’s population, which includes restoring water and electricity access, it said.
Human Rights Watch interviewed individuals in the Gaza Strip who said they could barely afford enough food to survive, even with NGO assistance. They described the scarcity of potable water and the need for grocery stores, with the few open offering empty shelves and lengthy lines. The prices of essential items are exorbitant. “You spend all your income on food,” a father of two told Human Rights Watch.
Israel’s use of starvation as a weapon of war has resulted in the deaths of three children who died of malnutrition at Kamal Adwan Hospital in Gaza City in recent days. “With the death of these children from malnutrition despite medical treatment in central Gaza, there is no doubt that a state of famine has expanded from northern to central and southern Gaza,” the experts wrote in their statement.
They named the children Fayez Ataya, who was just six months old when he died on May 30, 13-year-old Abdulqader Al-Serhi, and 9-year-old Ahmad Abu Reida. The experts reviewed medical records, including photos and videos of the children, and also verified pictures of three other emaciated children who had died recently in northern Gaza.
The ten independent United Nations experts—appointed by the UN Human Rights Council but who do not speak on behalf of the UN—called for the international community to prioritize delivering food and other humanitarian supplies into Gaza through all possible means. They urged concerned governments to halt military aid and arms sales to Israel until the government ends its abuses and allows free access for all humanitarian workers in Gaza. They also called on the Palestinian Authority to impose a cease-fire and reopen border crossings. Until then, Gaza’s 1.8 million people will be forced to live in constant fear of starvation and the risk of violence from both Hamas and the Israeli military. The experts noted that Hamas has been unable to impose a truce since it launched a rocket attack against Israel on October 7. The experts referred to previous expressions of genocidal intent by senior Israeli officials and criticized Israeli forces for their attacks on and harassment of medical personnel in Gaza.
