Last Friday, a senior State Department official told Reuters that much of southern and central Gaza are at “significant risk” of famine and that in northern Gaza famine “quite possibly is present.” A report released on March 18 by the Integrated Food Security Phase Classification (IPC), a multilateral initiative that evaluates food crises, went further. It stated that about 1.1 million Gazans are experiencing “catastrophic food insecurity” and that in the northern governorates “famine is imminent.”
In response, the Israeli government criticized the IPC’s data and methodology and denied Israel was “purposefully starving the civilian population in Gaza.” Israel blamed Hamas and aid organizations, respectively, for aid abuse and mismanagement. Israel maintains it places no limits on the amount of aid that can enter Gaza.
But it’s plain to see that the suffering of Gazans is increasing dramatically. Reports have emerged of large crowds of desperate people storming aid convoys and babies dying of starvation in hospitals, all while thousands of aid trucks sit waiting for Israeli approval to enter Gaza. Those aid workers who do make it inside Gaza face terrifying conditions; on Monday, Israel struck a World Central Kitchen convoy in what it claims was a “grave mistake,” killing six foreign aid workers and one Palestinian.
Aid groups accuse Israel’s onerous and arbitrary inspection process for aid trucks of exacerbating Gazans’ misery. According to the U.N. Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA), the largest aid organization on the ground, Israeli restrictions on aid entering Gaza have been growing. One issue is the ban on “dual use” items Israel deems could have military applications, including oxygen canisters, generators, ventilators and even scissors from a children’s medical kit.
Additionally, Israeli inspectors unpredictably reject items not found on the “dual use” list, according to information provided to me by UNRWA officials. For example, trucks carrying “dignity kits” for women and girls’ hygiene have been rejected because of the ingredient glycerin in the hand cream. In another case, Israeli inspectors turned back a truck of red lentils because of poor packaging.
The State Department paused funding to UNRWA in January after Israel accused some employees of participating in the Oct. 7 attack, though evidence of their involvement remains unclear. Last month, Congress passed a prohibition on UNRWA funding.
Other aid organizations in Gaza are having similar troubles. Aid staffers told CNN that Israeli inspectors turned back sleeping bags because they were the color green, which was seen as too militaristic, and rejected a batch of dates because they contained pits.
Gaza’s youngest children are the most afflicted by this deteriorating situation. According to a March assessment by the United Nations’ Global Nutrition Cluster, more than 30 percent of children in northern Gaza between 6 and 23 months old now suffer from acute malnutrition — double the rate from January. More than 80 percent of households in northern Gaza are eating only one meal a day.
The U.S. government has contributed more than $180 million to aid organizations working inside Gaza since the crisis began. Top Biden officials have raised the issue of humanitarian access repeatedly. And now, the U.S. military is dropping aid packets from airplanes and planning to build a floating pier off the coast of northern Gaza for maritime aid deliveries.
These efforts are laudable but inefficient and insufficient. Without a drastic increase in the aid flow, famine will set in well before the floating pier is operational. On Monday, Biden officials reportedly warned Israeli officials that a ground invasion into Rafah could make the humanitarian situation worse. The Israelis promised to “take these concerns into account,” the White House said.
It is obvious the Israeli government is not responding to the Biden team’s concerns. What’s worse, the State Department still maintains it has not found Israel is violating international humanitarian law — although its assessments are ongoing. Sen. Chris Van Hollen (D-Md.) correctly deemed that conclusion would be “totally detached from the reality on the ground.”
It is past time for the Biden administration to use real pressure — including the threat of withholding weapons — to persuade the Israeli government to do what the International Court of Justice demanded: Allow “unhindered provision” of food, hygiene and medical aid. The Biden team’s latest approval of thousands of more bombs for the Israeli army, before Israel complies, sends exactly the wrong signal.
If the United States can watch children being starved by its ally, what leg does it have to stand on when it criticizes dictators such as Russia’s Vladimir Putin or Syria’s Bashar al-Assad for using food as a weapon of war? Unless our government does more to relieve the humanitarian catastrophe in Gaza, it will undermine hope for peace and stability and damage U.S. credibility across the region for decades to come.
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