Gaza: Israel Accused of Using Famine as a Weapon of War

January 9, 2024 Hour: 4:13 pm

On Tuesday, the NGO B’Tselem denounced that the 2.2 million Palestinians living in the Gaza Strip are suffering from hunger as a direct consequence of Israel’s declared policy of depriving them of food.

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The Israeli Information Center for Human Rights in the Occupied Territories (B’Tselem) detailed in a report on the subject that the inhabitants of that territory go days and nights with almost nothing to eat.

“The desperate search for food does not stop for a moment, although in most cases it is fruitless, leaving the population starving, including infants, children, pregnant or nursing women and the elderly,” it stressed.

Gazans are now entirely dependent on supplies from outside because they can produce almost no food on their own, he said.

B’Tselem noted that most of the cultivated fields were destroyed, while factories and warehouses were damaged in the shelling or are closed for lack of supplies, fuel and electricity.

Israeli human rights group, B’Tselem has warned that the entire Gaza population is going hungry, saying about 2.2 million people “are surviving day by day on almost nothing.”https://t.co/NCPQikcySM pic.twitter.com/Ow1RGl2qSM

— The Palestine Chronicle (@PalestineChron)
January 9, 2024

Instead of allowing sufficient food into Gaza, Israel only allows a fraction to enter, with limitations on the types of goods, how they are brought in and how they are distributed, he criticized.

“The result is inconceivable: images of children begging for food, people waiting in long lines for paltry handouts, and starving residents attacking aid trucks,” he lamented.

In view of this situation, it warned that this strategy is a war crime and called on the world to take urgent measures.

The Israeli government can, if it so wishes, change this reality, the entity assured.

Changing this policy is not only a moral obligation; allowing food to enter Gaza is not an act of kindness, but an obligation under international humanitarian law: starvation as a method of warfare is prohibited, it recalled.