Hunger: ammunition of Israel's war against Gaza
By Clara Sánchez Guevara - Master in Strategy and Geopolitics - Agricultural Engineer - Caracas, Venezuela
On October 9, 2023, Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant, just two days after the escalation of the war between Hamas and Israel, announced: "we are putting a complete siege on Gaza. There will be no electricity, no food, no water, "No gas. Everything will be closed. We are fighting against animals and we act accordingly." Three months later it is reported that more than 90% of the population of the Gaza Strip is in crisis, emergency and food catastrophe, and that is not all.
More than 90% of Gaza's population in extreme hunger.
According to a special report from the Integrated Food Safety Phase Classification (ICF or IPC) System of the Food Safety Information Network (SFIN), to which FAO, the World Food Program and others belong, 14 organizations, agencies, NGOs; around 2.08 million people in the Gaza Strip are within the parameters of extreme hunger: Phase 3 (Crisis), 4 (Emergency) and 5 (Famine or Catastrophe)
Identifying 1.9 million displaced people, relocated to an increasingly smaller area and with restricted access to humanitarian aid.
And it is hostilities, bombings by land, sea and air, ground operations and sieges on the entire Palestinian population without distinction, the main cause of the catastrophic levels of hunger throughout the Gaza Strip
Hunger: death not associated with bombings
Furthermore, it is the increasing intensification of Israel's hostilities against the Palestinian people, although the report does not dare to identify it, which causes a further reduction in access to food, basic services, vital assistance and concentration of people in shelters. inadequate, it is estimated that by February 2024, 100% of the population in the Gaza Strip will be in crisis, emergency and food catastrophe (see image 1), that is, the more than 2.2 million people who live in this territory [2] 360 km2, 41 km long and 6 to 12 km wide, with one side facing the Mediterranean Sea, the other facing Egypt and of course, with Israel in tow. One of the most populated territories in the world and not with animals; of people, of children, women, men, elderly people with the right to have their right to live respected.
Consequently, if Israel continues with hostilities against the entire population, as it has done until now and confirms that it will last for several months, not only will 100% of the Palestinian people be affected by hunger, almost 80% will be in emergency. food and catastrophe, meaning extreme lack of food, famine, exhaustion of their survival capacities, acute malnutrition and death not associated with trauma from bombings.
Of course, the bombings also affect food production, the destruction of agricultural land, infrastructure, greenhouses, warehouses, restriction of all food trade, and finally, the loss of agricultural, livestock, and fishing means that sustain food. of the population.
A situation that the Palestinian Authority has warned of through its Ministry of Foreign Affairs, asking the United Nations to declare famine in the Gaza Strip. In short, phase 5 of the IPC is declared
The urgency of humanitarian aid three months later.
As always, humanitarian aid results in the way to address these situations created in the midst of conventional or non-conventional war conflicts, but not before turning them into catastrophes. Proof of this is that when the Israeli Minister of Defense himself pointed out three months ago that would kill the Palestinian people like animals, for example, the European Union, through the European Commissioner for Enlargement Oliver Varhelyi, announced that they would immediately suspend aid to Palestine as a consequence of the escalation of Hamas, later alleging that "the review" sought the objective of preventing humanitarian financing from being used by terrorist organizations against Israel.
While the United States would be in charge of ensuring that the entry of humanitarian aid did not reach the hands of Hamas. A form of support for Israel's version of the generalized blockade against the defenseless civilian population of the Gaza Strip.
During which time, humanitarian aid was retained, retained and will surely continue to be retained on the border between Egypt and the Gaza Strip, of which only 10% of the total that has arrived there allows Israel to be entered to serve to the population it bombs
Humanitarian aid that in financial terms has been announced by the World Bank through 35 million dollars and the European Union with 118.4 million euros, which are part of a financing package approved for the Palestinian Authority of 1.2 billion euros since 2021 – 2024, while claiming to have quadrupled the disbursement in one year, after three months and having reviewed that it will not be diverted into the hands of Hamas.
Accordingly, the United States provided $121 million in aid to Palestine under the same condition; At the same time, for Israel, President Biden requests from the Congress of the North American nation 14.5 billion dollars in military aid to guarantee its "right" to defend itself, in addition to the 3.8 billion dollars annually it receives. within the financing of 38 billion dollars from 2018 to 2028, while the United Nations bargains for 1.2 billion dollars for the 2.2 million people of the Gaza Strip that Israel bombs every day and the 500 thousand residents of the West Bank.
This is nothing more than maintaining the same pattern of use of humanitarian aid associated with the particular strategic interests of each actor, who in one way or another, are involved in the conflict, as was and is done to keep the war in Ukraine or previously in Afghanistan, where 52 billion dollars were allocated annually in direct spending alone for the war for twenty years, and in 2021 UNHCR was looking for donors to raise 1.3 billion dollars and serve 42% of the Afghan population (13 million people, including 10 million children) who at that time were in a food emergency.
In short, when the world advocates for a definitive end to the genocide against the Palestinian people, the "international community" once again makes humanitarian aid the center of attention, when it does not reach 2% of what is granted to Israel to continue bombing Palestine, not now, for more than half a century, while the population that is confined to the Gaza Strip is told literally every day that it will continue working hard to maintain support in this context, even if that help arrives three months later.
In short, they should continue to endure the slaughter of their people, which involves bombings, restricted humanitarian access, closures of border crossings, blocking essential supplies of food, water, medicine, fuel or electricity, as long as they want to continue living in their territory. A genocide carried out with all the means on the table and no one has been able to do anything to stop it.