The war ravaging Gaza is the 21st century’s latest, and potentially most brutal, conflict, but because of it the Palestinian enclave now resembles something from an earlier era. Civilians huddle in tents amid the rubble of what was once their homes. A March report from the World Bank described an “almost total power blackout” since the week the war began. The Palestine Red Crescent on Friday said its ambulance fleet has ground to a halt for want of fuel. Even more alarmingly, the UN’s World Food Programme now says no food has entered northern Gaza since October 1.
One can only try to imagine what the loss of bakeries, kitchens and food distribution points means for homeless, malnourished and frightened Gazans caught in a year-long crossfire between Israeli forces and Hamas militants. For too many, this is just the latest chapter in a tale of hardship and displacement that looks like it will have no end – as far back as January, The National was reporting that desperate Gazans were grinding animal feed to make bread.
Wars bring ruin and civilians almost inevitably suffer. In this case, there are suspicions that the hunger inflicted by Israel’s current siege of the Jabalia camp in northern Gaza does not seem unintended. On Saturday, AP reported that it saw a copy of an Israeli plan proposed by a group of retired generals that would include cutting off aid to the area to starve remaining Hamas fighters into submission. This plan, AP reported, is being considered by Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.
This is not the first time that Israel’s leadership has been accused of weaponising aid and manufacturing starvation in Gaza. In March, Physicians for Human Rights Israel, an NGO, accused the government of “intentionally starving the residents of the Gaza Strip”. Last month, the UN’s independent investigator on the right to food, Michael Fakhri, accused the country of pursuing a “starvation campaign” against Palestinians. “Never in post-war history has a population been made to go hungry so quickly and so completely, as was the case for the 2.3 million Palestinians living in Gaza," he said.
But perhaps the most high-profile accusation has come from International Criminal Court Prosecutor Karim Khan, whose arrest warrant applications for Mr Netanyahu and Israeli Defence Minister Yoav Gallant in May listed “starvation of civilians as a method of warfare as a war crime” as its first charge. Of course, Hamas leaders were also accused of war crimes of a different nature. All of these accusations reflect the reality that cutting off food supplies to an entire territory will hurt many more civilians than armed opponents.
Israel says it actions are aimed at Hamas, not civilians, adding that that it issues eviction orders for non-combatants to leave danger zones. If this is meant to allay fears of civilian suffering, it is unconvincing – all of Gaza is clearly a danger zone. Just one example of the peril that awaits Palestinians in other parts of the Strip was Monday’s Israeli air attack on tents sheltering displaced Palestinians at Al Aqsa Hospital in central Gaza. This resulted in at least four deaths, 70 injuries and reports of people being burnt alive as flames engulfed their tents.
US Vice President Kamala Harris has urged Israel to allow humanitarian aid into northern Gaza and to respect international law. EU foreign affairs chief Josep Borrell has criticised the Israeli government’s attempt to push all remaining people out of north Gaza. “These people are exhausted, they cannot move again,” he said. But given Israel’s conduct in the war thus far, there seems to be little hope of dissuading the country from its current approach of unrelenting collective punishment.
Unlike bygone eras however, now it is much more difficult to obscure war crimes. The sight and testimony of Palestinian civilians deprived of food, fuel and medicine is being recorded and collected. Similarly, the plight of Israeli hostages must not be forgotten. The ICC and others will have no shortage of material to, one day, try to achieve some measure of accountability. Sadly, that may come too late for many of Gaza’s now impoverished and starving population.
