December
10, 2023
Ann
Arbor (Informed Comment) – The United Nations warned on Saturday that half the
population of Gaza is now starving.
The
World Food Programme (WFP) had reported at the end of November that in the
north of Gaza, about half of the people were suffering “severe levels of
hunger.” Meanwhile, nearly everyone had inadequate levels of food consumption,
i.e. they were getting less than the recommended calories per day. While a
couple of weeks ago 37% of the people in the south of Gaza were experiencing
severe levels of hunger, the relatively better condition of people in the south
has since deteriorated as Israeli bombardments and ground operations ramped up
in Khan Younis and elsewhere.
Already
on December 7, the WFP posted at X about Gaza that “Almost no one has enough
food. In some areas, 9 out of 10 people have gone a full day and night with
nothing to eat.”
The
WFP elsewhere warns of hunger that “Over time, people who suffer from chronic
undernourishment lose their mental and physical abilities . . .
Undernourishment also weakens the immune system. Deprived of the right
nutrition, undernourished children are especially vulnerable to common
infections and disease like measles and diarrhea.”
Aljazeera
tells the story of Jana Qudeih (14 years old), who died on Friday after days
without food but only water. Her emaciated body was buried in a shallow grave
at the Taiba Government School where she sought shelter from violent Israeli
air strikes, which continue, making it impossible to bury her at a cemetery.
On
Saturday, Corinne Fleischer of the World Food Program posted a video of herself
in Gaza where she remarks, “Look at the people. They are talking to us. They’re
pleading to us to bring more food; and it is heartbreaking that we are coming
through the border. We are seeing the food on the other side, and we can’t
bring it in. Since the beginning of this conflict, we managed to bring only 10%
of the food that is required here for 2.2 million people in Gaza. The pictures
speak for themselves. Two weeks after the conflict started, it was like this.
It’s empty. We absolutely need a ceasefire. We need to be able to bring more
food to the border. We need to be able to bring it safely to the people. We
need the people to be able to access it safely. I have been in many places in
emergencies for WFP. Darfur, Syria . . . I mean what we’re seeing here is that
there is no order anymore. Here in Gaza, the children I talked to still smile,
but it is a very silent and sad smile. And that is heartbreaking.”
After
she had left, she wrote on X, “Back in Cairo from Gaza: The fear, exhaustion
and hunger I have seen continue to travel my mind and emotions.”
Fleischer,
who is Swiss, became WFP Regional. Director for the Middle East and Northern
Africa late in 2020.
She
said the only answer to the hunger was for World Food Programme to be able to
deliver food to families, which in turn requires an immediate humanitarian
ceasefire and more border crossing points (all but Rafah in the far south are
closed, and often no trucks come through Rafah either).
Samer
AbdelJaber, the World Food Programme country director for Palestine, posted to
X of Gaza that “families are desperate, exhausted, hungry and living in
overcrowded shelters with nowhere to go. It has been 2 months of unrelenting
suffering.”
He
posted a video from when he was in Khirbet al-Adas in Gaza in which he said,
“It took us five hours to reach here from Rafah. Strange feelings. I am happy
that I met my team, but I feel that they are totally different people. All the
exhaustion that they feel, after all that happened during the past weeks. An
uneasy 8 weeks. I feel they have the capacity and the determination . . . I
look at people, they are all looking for a glimpse of hope. I wish that . . .
The assistance entering is giving hope to people. At the same time, I wish the
ceasefire would take place. Because people are exhausted. People need to feel
safe, and secure. This is how I feel. I can’t describe it. This is not the Gaza
I know.”
The
Rome Statute underpinning the International Criminal Court forbids starvation
as a method of warfare:
Article
8(2)(b)(xxv) of the 1998 ICC Statute provides that “[i]ntentionally using
starvation of civilians as a method of warfare by depriving them of objects
indispensable to their survival” is a war crime in international armed
conflicts.
–
Statute of the International Criminal Court, adopted by the UN Diplomatic
Conference of Plenipotentiaries on the Establishment of an International
Criminal Court, Rome, 17 July 1998, UN Doc. A/CONF.183/9, Article 8(2)(b)(xxv).
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