The Man-Made Atrocity Famine in Gaza

The most preventable famine in the world has not been prevented. The only question now is whether it will be halted and reversed.

Israel’s deliberate policy of starvation in Gaza has created the worst-case scenario experts and humanitarian agencies have been warning about for more than a year and a half:

The “worst-case scenario of famine is currently playing out in the Gaza Strip,” the leading international authority on food crises said in a new alert Tuesday, predicting “widespread death” without immediate action.

The famine in Gaza is entirely man-made. Like other atrocity famines, it is the result of deliberate policy choices. The Israeli government has been deliberately starving the people of Gaza for the better part of two years. As more than 100 aid groups said in a joint statement, “the Israeli government’s siege starves the people of Gaza.” Since the start of the war in October 2023, the Israeli government has been inflicting collective punishment on the civilian population by using starvation as a weapon, devastating Gaza’s civilian infrastructure, and destroying the health care system.

The catastrophe engulfing the people of Gaza was foreseen long ago. Thanks to Washington’s indulgence and the world’s indifference, the most preventable famine in the world has not been prevented. The only question now is whether it will be halted and reversed.

The Financial Times reports:

The warning came as the World Food Programme (WFP) said Israeli restrictions continued to prevent the UN from moving enough food to stave off “catastrophic human suffering” among the strip’s 2mn people.

There were reports last week of a wave of deaths from starvation. Even Donald Trump has acknowledged that there is “real starvation” in Gaza, but there is so far no sign that the administration is prepared to apply any pressure on the Israeli government to halt their policy of starvation. Whenver there is a public outcry about starvation, the Israeli government will allow a slight increase in aid deliveries to make it look as if they are responding to the crisis, but this is a cynical stunt aimed at reducing international pressure. The minimal amounts allowed in cannot begin to provide for the needs of the population, and they were never meant to do that.

Nick Maynard, a volunteer surgeon who has been serving in Gaza, described the effects of malnutrition on his patients:

The malnutrition crisis has become catastrophic since my last visit. Every day I watch patients deteriorate and die, not from their injuries, but because they are too malnourished to survive surgery. The surgical repairs that we carry out fall to pieces, patients get terrible infections, then they die. It is happening repeatedly, and it is heartbreaking to watch. Four babies have died in the last few weeks in this hospital – not from bombs or bullets, but from starvation.

Families and staff do their best to try to bring in what they can, but there simply isn’t enough food available in Gaza. For infants, we have virtually no baby formula. Children are being given 10% dextrose (sugar water), which has no nutritional value, and often their mothers are too malnourished to breastfeed. When an international colleague tried to bring baby formula into Gaza, Israeli authorities confiscated it.

Sometimes there is mass starvation because existing food stocks become prohibitively expensive, but in Gaza “there is nothing to buy” because of the destructive restrictions imposed by the Israeli government.

Brief pauses and trickles of aid will not be good enough to remedy the situation. As Ahmad Alhendawi of Save the Children said in a statement, “The stage of malnutrition and starvation many people across Gaza are facing means one or even a few days of food aid will not be enough to bring them back from the brink of death.” There needs to be a sustained, massive relief effort, and that isn’t going to happen until Israel lifts all restrictions.

It is not yet too late to stave off total disaster. Alex de Waal, the author of Mass Starvation, explained recently how Gaza is different from other recent man-made famines:

The humanitarian catastrophe in Gaza today is unique, however, in that the situation can be remedied overnight if Israel chooses to do so [bold mine-DL]. Within an hour’s drive of the stricken communities there are the United Nations and other aid organizations, with the resources, skills, plans, networks, and so on, to stand up a comprehensive humanitarian operation. If Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu were to decide that every child in Gaza should have breakfast tomorrow, it could be done.

The use of starvation as a weapon against everyone in Gaza is more evidence of the Israeli government’s genocidal intent. The government has created these terrible conditions knowing what the consequences would be. They have it within their power to prevent more deaths from starvation, but they won’t do it unless they are compelled by outside pressure.

Gaza is the scene of many terrible crimes committed by the Israeli government. The crime of starvation is the most appalling because it attacks the entire population and kills the most vulnerable. We are witnessing the slow-motion mass murder of an entire group of people. The U.S. has the means to put a stop to it, but our government refuses to act.