Gaza suffering man-made mass starvation, says WHO chief

The Guardian

5 days ago

Gaza is suffering man-made mass starvation caused by the blockade of aid into the territory, the head of the World Health Organization has said, as more than 100 agencies urged Israel to let supplies in to alleviate the crisis.
'I don't know what you would call it other than mass starvation, and it's man-made, and that's very clear,' Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus told a virtual press conference from Geneva. 'This is because of [the] blockade.'
A letter signed by 109 agencies including Doctors Without Borders, Oxfam International and Amnesty International says the Israeli government is blocking humanitarian organisations from effectively distributing life-saving aid.
'Just outside Gaza, in warehouses – and even within Gaza itself – tonnes of food, clean water, medical supplies, shelter items and fuel sit untouched with humanitarian organisations blocked from accessing or delivering them,' the agencies wrote. 'The government of Israel's restrictions, delays, and fragmentation under its total siege have created chaos, starvation, and death.'
The statement quoted an aid worker in Gaza who said: 'Children tell their parents they want to go to heaven, because at least heaven has food.'
Increasing numbers of people in Gaza are dying from lack of food, the result of a starvation crisis that aid groups warned for months was imminent. At least 10 people have died from starvation in the last 24 hours, bringing the toll from hunger to 111, including 80 children, Gaza's health authority said on Wednesday. Reports of people fainting from hunger on the long-walk towards the few aid distribution points and pictures of corpses with ribs jutting out have become commonplace.
Daily aid distribution averages the equivalent of about 28 trucks of humanitarian goods. Before the war, about 500 trucks of aid were let into Gaza to feed its more than 2 million residents.
As starvation spreads, Israeli killings of civilians has increased. One person was killed by Israel every 12 minutes in July, making it one of the deadliest months of the Gaza war, an analysis of UN data revealed.
On Wednesday, Israeli strikes killed at least 21 people, more than half of them women and children, Palestinian health authorities said. The Israeli military said it was 'deepening' activity in Gaza City and north Gaza.
Among the dead were two Palestinian journalists, Tamer al-Za'anin, and Walaa al-Jabari, who was pregnant, bringing the number of media workers killed in the territory to 229 since the start of the war.
Israel has extended the detention of Dr Marwan al-Hams, the acting director of Gaza's field hospitals, until the end of the month, Associated Press reported. Hams was arrested earlier this week and has a gunshot wound to his leg, which he reportedly sustained during his detention.
Food in Gaza is now distributed by the US and Israeli-backed Gaza Humanitarian Foundation (GHF), whose sites have been described by UN officials as 'death traps'. Previous Guardian reporting described the dangers faced by Palestinians seeking food from GHF sites.
The GHF claims it prevents the Palestinian group Hamas from stealing food via its distribution sites, a point echoed by Israel. Humanitarians have widely condemned the organisation for what they say is a violation of aid principles and potential complicity in the war crime of weaponising starvation.
UN officials report that the Israeli military has killed more than 1,000 Palestinians trying to reach food distribution sites since the end of May.
Israel has killed at least 72 Palestinians in the past 24 hours, according to the Gaza health ministry. Israel also attacked World Health Organization facilities in Deir al-Balah, and cancelled the visa of the most senior UN aid official in Gaza.
As Israeli military activity in Gaza intensified, momentum for a ceasefire seemed to be growing. The US envoy for the Middle East, Steve Witkoff, was heading to Rome on Wednesday, where he was expected to meet the top Israeli adviser, Ron Dermer, and Palestinian negotiators.
If progress is made on the deal, Witkoff will travel to Doha, where indirect negotiations have been taking place between the two parties.
Over the past week, gaps have been slowly bridged between Hamas and Israel on the ceasefire deal, though serious obstacles remain. An Israeli source said Israel was still awaiting a Hamas response, which was expected in the coming day.
On 21 July, 28 countries, including the UK and other Israeli allies, issued a statement calling for an end to the war in Gaza and labelling Israel's 'denial of essential humanitarian assistance' as 'unacceptable'. The statement also spoke against Israeli settler violence in the West Bank, as well as Israeli plans to move Palestinians into a 'humanitarian city', which has been described by a former Israeli prime minister as a 'concentration camp' and tantamount to ethnic cleansing.
The statement, while strongly worded, did not threaten sanctions or mention any concrete policy steps that would be taken against the Israeli government if it did not change course.
Wednesday's letter from the humanitarian organisations calls for direct action. 'Piecemeal arrangements and symbolic gestures, like airdrops or flawed aid deals, serve as a smokescreen for inaction. They cannot replace states' legal and moral obligations to protect Palestinian civilians and ensure meaningful access at scale,' it says.
Israel's military said that it 'views the transfer of humanitarian aid into Gaza as a matter of utmost importance', and worked to facilitate its entry in coordination with the international community.
It has denied accusations it is preventing aid from reaching Gaza and has accused Hamas of stealing food, an allegation that the militant group denies.
More than 59,000 people have been killed in Gaza by Israel's military campaign there, which started after the Hamas-led attack on 7 October 2023 in which about 1,200 people were killed.