Weaponisation of hunger: Inside Israel’s starvation policy in Gaza

People desperately running after parachutes carrying food and groceries, some others jumping into the sea without a second thought to recover aid, and sickly children chasing trucks for just the meagre amount of food to survive — we have all seen such videos circulating on social media. 

What we fail to see is the politics and calibrated action employed by Israel to literally cut off all aid supplies to different areas of Palestine including Gaza, leading a large Palestinian population to mass starvation and orchestrating a famine to squeeze out the last drop of lifeforce left among the Palestinians. 

Reports reveal the calculated efforts by the Israeli forces to stop aid supply to the Gaza Strip. Back in May this year, it was reported in different international media outlets that Israeli forces blocked UN lorries carrying humanitarian aid into the Gaza Strip for around 11 weeks. 

In the face of widespread global pressure, they finally allowed five lorries into the Strip, which was dubbed as only "a drop in the ocean of what is urgently needed" by the UN's humanitarian chief Tom Fletcher.  

This situation reminds me of the catastrophe portrayed in 'The Second Coming', a seminal poem composed by WB Yeats, one of the greatest Irish poets of the 20th century. The picture that the poet paints in this poem is gloomy and nightmarish. The poet adumbrates a few signs that presage that something formidable, antithetical to what is supposed to be the Second Coming (the reanimation of Jesus), is in the offing. 

On closer inspection, it gets evident that the first indication is the ubiquity of tumultuous events and chaos everywhere. Yeats, in the poem, elucidates the situation in this way, "The falcon cannot hear the falconer; mere anarchy is loosed upon the world; the blood-dimmed tide is loosed, and everywhere; the ceremony of innocence is drowned."

This is exactly what we are observing in Palestine. While Israel is resorting to every shenanigan including furtive actions to stop aid to the Gaza Strip, the whole world is taking a deep slumber. Every day, scores of people are killed, with innocents' blood spilling into the Strip. Anarchy is reigning supreme with Israeli forces straining every nerve to deprive Palestinians of basic food requirements. By doing so, Israel is literally pushing the innocent children towards definite death. 

To expound the idea further, let me adduce some heart-rending facts. Around 2.1 million Palestinians are residing in the war-torn territory. According to a report "The mathematics of starvation: How Israel caused a famine in Gaza" published in the Guardian, Palestinians need an average minimum 2,279 calories per person per day. To meet this nutrition requirement, 1.836 kg of food is needed. 

Right now, humanitarian organisations are asking for an even smaller portion of nutritional intake — around 1 kg of food per person per day to be exact. 

Ironically, Israel is even denying that. Between March and June, Israel allowed entry of just 56,000 tonnes of food into the Palestinian territory, which is less than a quarter of Gaza's minimum needs. As a result, the signs of famine are getting increasingly evident in the territory, with more and more children and ordinary people pushed towards starvation and subsequent death. 

It is clearly evident from the huge gap between the calories Gaza needs, and the food that has entered since March that Israeli officials are playing a different game. 

According to information provided by the Integrated Food Security Phase Classification (IPC) platform, one in three people is now going without food for days at a time in Gaza while the hospitals are struggling to treat an overwhelming number of patients suffering from malnutrition. Hospitals have treated more than 20,000 children for acute malnutrition since April while at least 16 children under five have died from hunger-related causes since mid-July.  

On 9 August alone, at least five more Palestinians had starved to death as reported by the Gaza Government Media Office, taking the total number of deaths from malnutrition to 217, including 100 children, since the war began. 

Against such a backdrop, Gaza authorities as well as aid organisations have repeatedly requested Israel to allow aid into the Gaza Strip. "We have repeatedly warned of the danger of these inhumane methods and have repeatedly called for the entry of aid through land crossings in a safe and sufficient manner, especially food, infant milk, medicines, and medical supplies," the Gaza Government Media Office said in a statement. 

But all these requests fell on deaf ears as Israel keeps controlling the flow of food into Gaza and allowing in only a fraction of what Palestinians need to stay alive. 

There is no denying that the famine we are experiencing now in Gaza is human-made. Despite repeated warnings of a "starvation crisis", Israel did not allow full humanitarian access. 

The heart-wrenching situation is a test of our shared humanity. Thousands are starving in the Gaza Strip — instead of just talking the talk, global leaders need to walk the walk to save the Palestinians from further doom and afflictions.