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Israel has been starving Gaza since 2007, at least

The best way to defeat your enemies is to starve them, and their children

Mark Buckley

Aug 5

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If you think the starvation of Gazans is a new evil, think again. It has been going on since at least 2007. That is when Hamas took control of Gaza.

They won the elections of 2006, but then fought a short civil war against Fatah, a rival Palestinian political group. Do not for a moment think that Israel was an innocent bystander. Israel supported Hamas, as a counterfoil to the Palestine Liberation Organisation (PLO). Israel also expressly approved Hamas receiving financial aid from Qatar. It saved Israel money.

Now that Hamas was in power, Israel created a 1000km long security buffer zone, and instituted a tight blockade. Egypt joined them, by blockading the southern border. The buffer meant that 29% of Palestinian farmland was rendered useless, and any houses or villages, any schools or medical clinics, any civilian infrastructure, was destroyed and bulldozed.

Any Palestinian entering the buffer zone was liable to be killed, on sight.

This was the beginning of the starvation regime.

The Israel Defence Force (IDF) then began enforcing a rule that anything which could be considered “dual use” was not permitted into Gaza. Dual use meant anything which could concievably be used in a civil, and or a military, way.

This of course meant items like fertilizers, concrete, copper wiring, pipes. These were all important in managing and maintaining Gaza’s power system, which led to its eventual energy failures, to the point that cooking and refrigeration became non-functional. Food related essentials; part of the plan, I suggest. They also blocked canned food, on the basis that it had two possible uses.

The dual use rule meant that 85% of materials for maintaining water infrastructure were restricted. 70% of water, sanitation and hygiene related materials were blocked. By 2019, four years before Hamas made its barbaric attack on Israel, 97% of Gaza’s fresh water was unsuitable for human consumption. Source: Think Global Health

This has led to water contamination being the largest cause of infant mortality. Not the death of random adults, some of whom might be seen as a threat to Israel, but infants, dying from preventable diseases.

My question is: If I know this, and the United Nations knows it, and anyone who cares to inquire knows it, and it is commonly known among Israel’s political class, why is it still happening? To infants?

Having cut off fresh water, sanitation, devestated almost a third of the farmland within Gaza, where to for food? Israel has complete control of the mediterranean coast.

In 2009, after another Israeli invasion into Gaza, Israel restricted fishing to 3 nautical miles from shore, which led to a 47% drop in the fish catch. They also use their dual use rule to restrict fishing, by only allowing the use of small marine motors, so the fishers are doubly restricted to waters close to shore. These waters are now over-fished, often contaminated with sewage, and unable to sustain human life.

Before the outbreak of war in 2023, two thirds of Gazans were dependent on food aid. Within two months of the war beginning, by December 2023, Gazans made up 80% of people worldwide who were suffering “catastrophic hunger”. So this goes directly to the actions of the Netanyahu government, and the explicit orders of Yoav Gallant, the then Defence Minister, who instigated a “complete siege” of Gaza. He vowed he would halt the supply of electricity, food, water and fuel. Gallant in name, cruel and vicious in nature.

So the catastrophe continues. Governments worldwide condemn Israel’s policy of starving the Palestinians, and then do absolutely nothing about it. Many countries are still providing arms and or parts for the upkeep of Israel’s war machine, while the entire population slowly and agonisingly dies from hunger.

Even the so-called ‘stable genius’ in the White House recognises starving children when he sees them. He seems to be stuck between wanting the people to be given food aid, while continuing to supply the ammunition for their murder as they queue for food.

One day we will look back on this episode in history, and discover that we all failed them, because we did not recognise the seriousness of the crisis, and we did not ‘storm the barricades’ and force our governments to act.

It feels that the political leaders of the present time have shown themselves to be totally lacking in decency and moral strength. We need to re-design the system, if this bunch is the best we can elect.

After the crisis is resolved, with either many more deaths, or hopefully not too many more, Netanyahu and Gallant, Joe Biden, and the Hamas leaders have got to account for their actions. There is still a possibility that Trump, for whatever reason, might decide to demand a finish to the conflict.

But if he doesn’t intervene, he should stand beside Biden, accused of idly standing by, while Israel engaged in an obvious genocide.

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