"There's no more flour, oil, or sugar left in the markets": Israel starves Gaza to death

BarcelonaSince March 2, the Israeli government has prevented the entry of food, medicine, fuel, tents, hygiene supplies, water treatment plants, or any type of humanitarian aid into Gaza. After Israeli Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu ordered the truce to be broken a month and a half ago, indiscriminate bombing has resumed, leaving at least 1,527 Palestinians dead, in addition to hundreds trapped under the rubble. Gaza is once again the scene of the world's worst humanitarian crisis, this time caused by a country that uses hunger as a weapon of war. According to UN data, at least 345,000 Palestinians in Gaza are suffering from extreme hunger (phase 5), and 91% are in a food crisis situation. On the Egyptian side of the Rafah border in southern Gaza, hundreds of trucks loaded with humanitarian aid remain blocked.

"This morning I went to the bakery to see if I could get some bread: it's been closed for days, but what else can I do?" Halima Al Nassar, a housewife, told ARA. Since the Israeli offensive against Gaza began a year and a half ago, she has been living in a state of panic. "There's no flour, oil, or sugar left in the markets, and if you do find anything, the prices are exorbitant. You can't find any fruit, vegetables, milk, or meat." The UN warned last week that the 25 remaining bakeries in the Strip had had to close due to a lack of flour and electricity. This week it warned that the price of a sack of potato flour has shot up 450% compared to before the war, that an egg costs almost one and a half euros, and that the price of cooking gas has risen 4,000%, forcing families to burn plastic or wood.

Severe malnutrition

Feroze Sidwa, an American doctor recently released from Gaza, told the Israeli newspaper Haaretz that the symptoms of severe malnutrition were clearly visible: "Without sufficient protein, muscles atrophy, and that's what we saw in Gaza." He recalled: "I operated on a 16-year-old boy who was barely muscular, and his parents explained to me that before the war he played a lot of football."

Halima's family, like most people in Gaza, depends on community kitchens supplied by international agencies or Palestinian charities to obtain at least one meal a day, consisting of rice or legumes. Images from Gaza again show long lines of Palestinians—mostly children—holding empty pots, waiting for something to fill their stomachs. But the UN World Food Programme, which maintains these kitchens, which provide some 900,000 meals a day, warns that they only have enough food reserves to last several days. Many have already had to close, and others have been attacked by Israeli aircraft, as happened on Saturday in Khan Yunis.

Under the continuous bombardment, the food crisis is taking its toll on a population already weakened by 18 months of war. "People were already malnourished, and in the six weeks of the ceasefire and the return of humanitarian aid, they didn't have time to recover," Sam Rose, UNRWA's director in Gaza, who spent 16 months in the Strip, told Al Jazeera. The healthcare system is in shambles, and this Thursday the Ministry of Health reported that they lack 40% of basic medicines. This complaint was reiterated today by the Director-General of the World Health Organization (WHO), Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, who warned that the agency's medical supplies in the Strip will run out within two to four weeks if the Israeli blockade is not lifted.

"Catastrophic impact on health"

The Palestinian Non-Governmental Organization Network (PNGON) warned this Thursday that "Gaza has entered an advanced stage of hunger with a catastrophic impact on the lives and health of civilians, especially children, women, and the elderly." According to several NGOs, 92% of children between the ages of six months and two years, as well as nursing mothers, lack adequate nutrition, putting them at risk of suffering health problems for the rest of their lives. According to the Gaza Ministry of Health, 60,000 children require urgent treatment to combat the effects of malnutrition.

Drinking water also remains a daily battle: 65% of Gazans lack access to the vital minimum of six liters of clean water per person per day. A week ago, the Israeli army bombed the main water pipeline in the Shujaiya district of Gaza City, which supplied 70% of the city's water needs. Maintenance crews have still not been able to access the facilities for repairs. Furthermore, Israel has cut off the electricity supply to the Strip. For British diplomat Martin Griffiths, until recently the UN's top humanitarian official, "Israel is using starvation to force Hamas to hand over the hostages and then move on to annihilating them. And that is a war crime."

Palestinian NGOs denounce an unprecedented disaster: "The Israeli apartheid regime is intentionally preventing the entry of food, medicine, and fuel, and is hindering the work of humanitarian organizations and attacking their staff, as part of the bloodshed of a people it persecutes." The Israeli army does not deny this. "Israel is not sending and will not send any aid to Hamas," said its spokesperson.

A thousand reservists expelled for criticizing the war

Nearly a thousand reservists and retired soldiers of the Israeli air force have made public this Thursday a letter in which they demand the end of the Gaza warThe chief of staff summarily expelled them from the army, a decision shortly afterward endorsed by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who called the critics a "marginal minority." The soldiers believe the Gaza war "serves political and personal interests" and demand an agreement with Hamas as the only way to secure the release of the hostages held in Gaza.

Netanyahu called the letter "unforgivable" and called the signatories a "radical fringe group" trying to break up Israeli society from within. He referred to the background of the protest, when thousands of reservists said they would refuse to go to war if Netanyahu prevailed. his controversial reform to subordinate the judiciary to the executive branch.

In the letter, 970 soldiers and former soldiers state that "currently the war serves primarily political and personal interests, not security." They also believe that "continuing the war does not contribute to any of the stated objectives and will lead to the deaths of hostages, Israeli soldiers, and innocent civilians, and to the exhaustion of the reserve forces" of the Israeli army.

After the list of signatories was leaked, General Tomen Bar met with reservists to warn them to withdraw their signatures from a text promoted by veterans of the corps. Only 25 complied. Also participating in the meeting were Eyal Zamir, the new chief of staff, following the dismissal of Herzi Halevi and of the then Minister of Defense, Yoav Gallant, who had been more conciliatory towards critical voices in the army.