Israel Must Stop Starving Gaza
Within minutes, he faced sharp criticism from all sides, including from National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir, opposition lawmaker Avigdor Lieberman and others. Even the Hostages and Missing Families Forum criticized the defense chief, saying the government had failed to follow through on its earlier threat to "open the gates of hell" on Gaza.
Katz quickly clarified that he didn't intend for aid to resume immediately, but rather at a later stage.
- Israel must allow international probe into Gaza aid workers' killings
- Cease-fire, hostage release and a Palestinian state. There is no other way
- UN: Gaza's humanitarian crisis at its worst, thousands of children severely malnourished
This is how – under the auspices of Israel's nightmare government and the Trump administration – Israel's starvation of more than two million Palestinians has been fully normalized.
While during the first year of the war, official Israeli sources occasionally claimed that the conflict was not aimed at Gaza's civilian population and that efforts were being made to meet its basic needs, in recent months, starvation has become an openly declared policy and even a source of pride.
This policy is based on a populist and false narrative that links humanitarian aid for Gazans to Hamas' military capabilities. The result is a continuing humanitarian crime.
For more than six weeks, no shipments of food, medicine, tents or any other form of aid have entered the Strip. It's not Hamas members who are paying the price, but rather hundreds of thousands of children, mothers, the elderly and the poor.
The severe hunger crisis is compounded by a lack of clean water, widespread tent-dwelling, the collapse of sewage and waste collection systems, the destruction of the healthcare system and more. These are all cumulative risk factors.
According to physicians in Gaza, most of the population is suffering from severe deficiencies in calories, protein and vitamins. Israeli nutrition experts also describe the situation as causing "irreversible damage to children's brain development and a decline in both the production and quality of breast milk."
International experts on mortality have warned of potential disease outbreaks and widespread illness in Gaza, and earlier this week, the UN described the humanitarian situation there as the worst since the start of the war.
The suffering and death caused by Israel's policy of starvation in Gaza don't advance any of the war's objectives. The deaths of children due to malnutrition and disease won't lead to the release of the hostages or the downfall of Hamas.
Israel must immediately resume the flow of aid into the Strip, and all nations worldwide must pressure Israel in every way possible to compel it to do so.
The above article is Haaretz's lead editorial, as published in the Hebrew and English newspapers in Israel.
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