'No starvation in Gaza': Netanyahu says Israel committed to 'achieve war goals'; vows to destroy Hamas
Israeli PM Benjamin Netanyahu ruled out starvation reports in war-torn Gaza, saying he was "committed to achieving the war goals".
Netanyahu said, "We will continue to fight till we achieve the release of our hostages".
"There is no starvation in Gaza, no policy of starvation in Gaza, and I assure you that we have a commitment to achieve our war goals. We will continue to fight till we achieve the release of our hostages and the destruction of Hamas' military and governing capabilities. They shall be there no more," Netanyahu said.
Earlier, several reports claimed starvation in Gaza, which has deepened the humanitarian crisis.
Hospitals are reportedly on the brink, crippled by severe shortages of food, medicine, and essential nutrients.
Over 100 aid and human rights organisations issued a warning this week about the growing threat of "mass starvation" in Gaza.
Doctors without borders (MSF) reported that 25 per cent of the young children and pregnant or breastfeeding women screened at its clinics last week were malnourished. This came just a day after the United Nations revealed that one in five children in Gaza City is experiencing malnutrition.
Former US president Barack Obama on Monday also urged immediate action to prevent what he called the "preventable" starvation unfolding in Gaza, referring to the situation caused by the war that erupted between Israel and Hamas on October 7, 2023.
"While a lasting resolution to the crisis in Gaza must involve a return of all hostages and a cessation of Israel's military operations, these articles underscore the immediate need for action to be taken to prevent the travesty of innocent people dying of preventable starvation," Obama posted on X.
Meanwhile, US president Donald Trump has alleged that Hamas is unwilling for a ceasefire deal in Gaza as Israel suggested it might explore 'alternative options' to rescue the hostages after the talks broke down.
An Israeli official said that air drop of aid wounds in Gaza. The aids group working in the city have warned of the surging numbers of malnourished children in the ongoing warzone, reported news agency AFP.
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Settler violence, home demolitions, military checkpoints and apartheid-like healthcare systems have been a form of daily warfare for Palestinians. The current destruction only deepens this crisis: "Disability-based dispossession is entrenched by the occupation. Impairment is worsened through violence, deprivation, and denial of access to care, education, and freedom of movement.' In the West Bank, disabled women and girls live under constant threat of settler violence. Hospitals are either blocked or destroyed, further exacerbating the ongoing crisis. The genocide is not only impacting people with disabilities, especially women, girls and gender diverse people with disabilities, in unimaginable ways, but the genocide has also been a mass disabling event. It has produced large scale disability – both visible and invisible. An unending mental health crisis In Gaza, mental health has collapsed under relentless siege. Continuous bombardment, loss of loved ones, forced displacement, and witnessing unspeakable horrors have pushed entire communities into collective trauma. Children and adults alike wake screaming from nightmares that never end; parents mourn silently, numb with grief. The destruction of hospitals and the shortage of mental health professionals mean that psychological wounds go untreated, deepening despair. Anxiety, depression and post-traumatic stress have become widespread, yet there is no safe space to heal. Here, trauma is not a moment – it is daily life, passed from one generation to the next in an unbroken cycle. Numbers that the world refuses to see A report in Al Jazeera, dated July 24, 2025, records the death of over 59,000 Palestinians and injuries to 1,43,000 in Israeli attacks. According to Harvard Dataverse, an estimated 3,77,000 people have "disappeared," buried under rubble and left uncounted. Among them are the disabled, who are left to die because they could not escape. "Due to the actions of Israel, it is close to impossible to obtain accurate and timely data,' the submission warns. Erasure, too, is a weapon. Profiting over bodies The economy of genocide – as described by UN Special Rapporteur Francesca Albanese – is built on the dispossession and disablement of Palestinians and disability justice helps us understand and name how war, surveillance, and militarism profit from the destruction of bodies and communities. International arms sales, border militarisation and the blocking of humanitarian aid are capitalist ventures that produce and sustain disability on a mass scale. Israel's bombardment of Gaza serves as a live testing ground for AI-guided weapons, surveillance technologies and riot control tools – all of which are then exported worldwide including to India. As the submission notes: "War, surveillance, and militarism profit from the destruction of bodies and communities." From Nazi doctors conducting experiments on disabled prisoners to modern arms manufacturers boasting of "battle-tested" weapons, genocide and capitalism have always walked hand in hand. Not to speak of the 'Riviera of the Middle East' that someone is dreaming of. Convention betrayed Israel ratified the CRPD, thereby obligating itself to protect persons with disabilities, particularly in conflict. The Fourth Geneva Convention demands medical care and protection for civilians. Yet, hospitals are bombed, aid is blocked and disability services are wiped out. "Non-compliance with these obligations may constitute grave breaches of international law and warrants independent investigation and accountability." Yet, bombs continue to fall, and words like "proportionality" fill press releases. How many more? In Gaza, children wake to find their limbs gone. Mothers bury babies – premature and stillborn. Disabled women crawl across a wasteland where homes and rehabilitation centres once stood. From Aktion T4 to Srebrenica, from Rwanda to Gaza, genocide begins by marking some lives as disposable. "Persons with disabilities are disproportionately impacted by violence yet are consistently excluded from protection and remembrance." History asks us: how many more limbs, wombs, and futures must be shattered before we say enough? The silence that speaks: India's disability movement and Gaza The Indian disability movement has been strikingly silent on the unprecedented suffering of disabled Palestinians in Gaza. While global disability organisations have condemned Israel's deliberate targeting of persons with disabilities and joined calls for a ceasefire, most prominent Indian disability groups continue to look away. This silence is disturbing. It not only betrays the foundational principles of the disability rights movement – supposedly built on the rejection of hierarchies of whose lives matter – but also echoes the position of India's current ruling establishment to side with Israel. Many have been unequivocal supporters of the neoliberal trajectory and stand compromised. The disability community, which has historically stood against state violence and exclusion, now risks complicity by omission. Moreover, by refusing to engage with the mass production of disability in Gaza – children losing limbs in bombardments, denial of assistive devices, starvation used as a weapon – the movement distances itself from global disability justice. In doing so, it inadvertently affirms an unequal valuation of lives: solidarity, it seems, is not extended to Palestinians – disabled or otherwise. This selective empathy undermines both credibility and conscience, exposing a silence that itself becomes a form of violence and complicity. Muralidharan is general secretary, National Platform for the Rights of the Disabled (NPRD). The Wire is now on WhatsApp. Follow our channel for sharp analysis and opinions on the latest developments.
