Israel says it's deliberately starving Gaza

How many confessions do the Western media and political elite need before they call this what it is?

Some of you may understandably feel you are losing your minds. What exactly is Israel supposed to do, you are asking, before politicians and media outlets accept that a despicable crime of historic proportions is being committed in full view of the world, and take action accordingly. What atrocity, what genocidal statement, what confession of criminal intent and action crosses that line?

The situation in Gaza facing the remaining Palestinian survivors is worse than ever, yet they have vanished off the radar, as far as most of the Western media is concerned.

So let’s consider the latest..The Israeli defence minister, Israel Katz, has publicly confessed to deliberately starving the Palestinian population.

He tweeted:

As I mentioned in my announcement, Israel's policy is clear and no humanitarian aid is about to enter Gaza, and preventing humanitarian aid to Gaza is one of the main pressure tools that prevents Hamas from using this measure against the population, in addition to the other steps that Israel is taking - and it is a shame that there are those who try to mislead.

In the current reality, no one is prepared to bring any humanitarian aid into Gaza, and no one is preparing to bring in any such aid.

I emphasized that in relation to the future, the mechanism for using civil society must be built as a tool that will not allow Hamas access to the issue in the future.

There is no room for interpretation there. The Israeli defence minister has made clear that no humanitarian aid is allowed to enter Gaza. At the same time, agriculture and food production has been destroyed - last year, the UN found that 70% of farmland had been decimated and 90% of cattle killed, while a report by Forensic Architecture found that 83% of plant life has been destroyed.

The International Criminal Court last year issued arrests against Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Katz’s predecessor, Yoav Gallant, for war crimes and crimes against humanity, centring on the question of starvation.

Deliberately starving a civilian population clearly violates multiple international laws, such as Article 33 of the Geneva Convention prohibiting collective punishment, and is inherently a genocidal act, Article II of the Genocide Convention of 1948, paragraph C, which states:

Deliberately inflicting on the group conditions of life calculated to bring about its physical destruction in whole or in part

Katz has simply once again admitted to war crimes, crimes against humanity, and genocidal acts. There is no other interpretation, no way of reframing it, no leeway.

There has been a total blockade on Gaza since 1st March, and the bakeries of Gaza shut two weeks ago. And Philippe Lazzarine, Commissioner General of UNRWA, the UN agency for Palestinian refugees, says that stocks which entered Gaza during the ceasefire have been depleted.

We can see the desperation of hungry children in Gaza.

Now the NGO Medicins Sans Frontieres has issued a hideously terrifying statement, in which their emergency coordinator, Amande Bazerolle, has stated:

Gaza has been turned into a mass grave of Palestinians and those coming to their assistance. We are witnessing in real time the destruction and forced displacement of the entire population in Gaza.

With nowhere safe for Palestinians or those trying to help them, the humanitarian response is severely struggling under the weight of insecurity and critical supply shortages, leaving people with few, if any, options for accessing care.

MSF notes that least 409 aid workers have been killed, adding:

Although the situation has already been catastrophic for over 18 months, over the past three weeks, MSF has witnessed several incidents involving the killing of humanitarian and medical workers. The coordination of humanitarian movements with Israeli authorities, known as the Humanitarian Notification System, an already imperfect mechanism, has become more unreliable and is now barely affording any protection guarantees.

And indeed this is a crucial point - repeatedly aid workers and medics have coordinated movements with the Israeli military, then being slaughtered by Israeli soldiers. A striking example are the paramedics sent to save 5 year old Hind Rajab, whose four cousins, aunt and uncle had already been killed by the Israeli army. They then killed the paramedics, as well as Hind Rajab.

As the UN Office for the Coordinations of Humanitarian Affairs says:

Intensive military operations, displacement orders, the blockade on the entry of all aid and commercial supplies and shrinking humanitarian space are driving what is likely the worst humanitarian crisis in the Gaza Strip since October 2023.

They note:

“Water insecurity deepens, with over half of water and sanitation facilities inaccessible, drastically reducing access to drinking water, undermining basic hygiene and compromising public health.

“Food consumption and dietary diversity in Gaza have sharply deteriorated, recent food security analysis indicates.”

This week, the the Anglican Ahli Arab Hospital - a hospital run by the Anglican Church in Jerusalem and the last fully functioning hospital in Gaza - was bombed by the Israeli military, destroying its laboratory and and damaging its emergency room.

This is part and parcel of a deliberate and systematic attempt to destroy the healthcare system of Gaza, itself a genocidal act.

And guess how the BBC originally framed this. Their original headline was ‘Gaza hospital hit by Israeli strike, Hamas says’.

This is of course insane - the hospital was objectively hit by an Israeli missile, which Israel itself confirmed.

Only after online outrage was the headline changed to “Israeli air strike destroys part of last fully functional hospital in Gaza City” which itself a rare event - the BBC fully directly apportioning responsibility to Israel.

We know of course that at the end of March Israel massacred 15 Red Crescent medics and first responders, ambushing them, executing them then burying them in a mass grave, then lying about it, lies which were exposed by incontrovertible evidence.

Well even the New York Times has come out and admitted:

The paramedics and rescue workers killed in an Israeli shooting in Gaza last month died mainly from gunshots to the head or chest, while others had shrapnel injuries or other wounds, according to autopsy reports obtained by The New York Times.

“Most” they note “had been shot multiple times”

Meanwhile, the UN reports that almost 70% of Gaza is now under Israel displacement or ‘no go’ orders. This is an attempt to force the surviving Palestinian population into a tiny area - bear in mind Gaza overall is the size of east London - so their life is unbearable, and they either die or flee, which is disgracefully labelled ‘voluntary transfer’.

I want to end with a recently published article in The Economist, entitled ‘Israel is intent on destroying Gaza’, with the subheading ‘Without pressure from America, it is hard to see anything stopping it’.

Some might look at this and laud this - finally some honesty in the mainstream media! Well, hold fire.

The article states:

Israeli security officials have confirmed to The Economist that the plan is to empty permanently the Rafah area, in Gaza’s south, which represents around 20% of the entire territory. A similar operation is under way in a smaller area in the north.

It goes on:

These moves are part of a wider plan to force over 2m Gazans out of the cities and towns and to the coast. In the short run, this is to create “kill zones” in which, in theory, only Hamas fighters will remain. In the longer term, Israel hopes that Gazans will “voluntarily” emigrate.

Discussing voluntary migration when you have annihilated an entire territory and made it unliveable is of course just code for driving people out - well, those who survive.

The article notes too:

The UN’s World Food Programme has closed 25 bakeries that produced pita bread, as it can no longer supply them with fuel or flour. Nor can families bake their own bread: a kilogram of cooking gas now costs at least 250 shekels ($66), compared with 8-10 shekels before the aid cut-off, and a bag of flour weighing 25kg is almost twice that. Staples like sugar and cooking oil are disappearing from markets.

It adds that water is scarce:

Output from the main desalination plant in southern Gaza has dropped by 85% since Israel stopped supplying it with electricity last month. Most Gazans have access to just six litres of clean water a day, according to the UN.

It concludes “Without pressure from [Donald Trump], it is hard to see anything else that could prevent Israel’s final destruction of Gaza.”

Well my blunt response to The Economist is - where the fuck have you been? If they had written a headline entitled ‘Israel is intent on destroying Gaza’ back in October 2023, they might deserve kudos. After all, Israeli leaders and officials back then made clear they were going to wipe Gaza out, that they made no distinction between civilians and military targets, that they were going to block humanitarian aid from entering.

Instead The Economist has waited 18 months until it states what was obvious to some of us from the very beginning.

I am imploring all of you. Keep the receipts. Keep every receipt you have. There will be a reckoning, however long it takes. And we will dust over the crime scene to reveal every finger print belonging to every politician and ever journalist. And they will be held to account.

One other thing - there a Palestinian family in Gaza I would love you to help if you can. It’s the family of Ahmed Mater, a wonderful 27-year-old. They desperately need your help and I’ve included the gofundme page in the video link. Thanks so much.