‘They are screaming with hunger’ – how Israel is starving Palestinians in Gaza
Maison Al-Nabehin squeezes the last piece of cartoon cheese onto freshly baked bread, knowing that it’s the only thing her family of eight will eat that day.
Umm Muhammad, as she is known, fled a school in Burij where she was sheltering with her husband and six children after Israeli forces destroyed their home in East Burij in central Gaza.
The 45-year-old now lives in a cluster of tents around Al-Aqsa Martyrs Hospital in Deir al-Balah further south. She is a small woman, her face full of worry, looking older than her age.
In the center of their makeshift plastic tent is a small fire where Um Muhammad is baking bread on a wood-fired oven. Around him are some neatly arranged bags containing whatever supplies his family had managed to bring, as well as a pile of blankets, now cleared to make room for their daytime living space.
In a statement, independent UN experts, described situation in Gaza as a “massacre” in the midst of inevitable famine conditions and the destruction of the local food production system in the besieged Palestinian Strip.
The experts said, “Israel has been deliberately starving the Palestinian people in Gaza since October 8. It is now targeting civilians searching for humanitarian aid and humanitarian convoys.” The experts stressed the need for Israel to put an end to what they described as a campaign of starvation and targeting of civilians, adding that the attack came in the wake of Israel preventing humanitarian aid from reaching Gaza City and northern Gaza for months.
“A pattern of Israeli attacks”
The independent experts said that “this is a pattern of Israeli attacks against Palestinian civilians requesting assistance,” with more than 20 incidents of shooting, shelling and targeting of groups that were gathering to receive urgently needed aid from trucks or landings being recorded. Weather, in the period between mid-January and the end of February and March.
The experts added, “Israel also opened fire on humanitarian aid convoys on several occasions, even though the convoys shared their coordinates with Israel.”
“Israel does not respect its international legal obligations”
“On 26 January, the International Court of Justice reasonably established that Israel had committed genocide and ordered that essential services and urgently needed humanitarian aid be allowed to be delivered to Palestinians in the Gaza Strip,” the independent experts stated.
In January, before the court’s decision was issued, about 147 trucks were entering the Gaza Strip daily. Since the ruling was issued, only 57 trucks have entered Gaza during the period from 9 to 21 February 2024, according to experts.
The experts said that Israel “does not respect its international legal obligations, does not comply with the interim measures of the International Court of Justice, and commits brutal crimes.” They added, “Israel systematically prevents and restricts the entry of humanitarian aid into Gaza by intercepting aid deliveries at checkpoints, bombing humanitarian aid convoys, and shooting civilians requesting humanitarian assistance.”
Children are dying due to malnutrition.
According to experts, fifteen children have already died of malnutrition at Kamal Adwan Hospital in Gaza City, and there are fears that the numbers could be higher in other hospitals. As the risk of famine continues to increase, all children under the age of five – 335,000 – are at high risk of acute malnutrition, with a serious negative impact on their development and right to health.
At least 90 percent of children under the age of five are infected with one or more infectious diseases, and 70 percent of them suffer from diarrhea. In January, one in six infants (children under the age of two) in northern Gaza were found to be suffering from acute malnutrition, leading to a condition known as wasting.
