After seven weeks of a full blockade of food, water, medical supplies and electricity, the United Nations World Food Program (WFP) warned that it had delivered its last remaining food stocks to hot meal kitchens in Gaza, raising the prospect of imminent famine for the enclave’s remaining population.
Israel, with the support of the Trump administration, has imposed a policy of deliberate mass starvation upon the people of Gaza, with the aim of ethnically cleansing them from their homeland in preparation for its annexation.
As a result, nearly 3,700 children were diagnosed with acute malnutrition, an 80 percent increase over the 2,000 who were diagnosed in February.
In a statement Friday, the World Food Program said that the final stocks it is distributing to hot meal kitchens are expected to fully run out within a matter of days.
The hot meal kitchens are the last functional food distribution system operated by the United Nations in Gaza. On March 31, all of the World Food Program’s bakeries were forced to shut down. The same week, all remaining food parcels distributed by the WFP, containing two weeks of rations, were exhausted.
The UN reported that over 116,000 metric tons of food—enough to feed the entire population of Gaza for two months—is stationed outside the borders of Gaza and is being blocked by Israeli forces.
In its statement, the World Food Program said, “This is the longest closure the Gaza Strip has ever faced, exacerbating already fragile markets and food systems.”
“Right now, it is probably the worst humanitarian situation ever seen throughout the war in Gaza,” UN spokesperson Jens Laerke said last week, noting that the entire population of Gaza is facing acute shortages of food, medicine, fuel and clean water.
In a statement published earlier this month, the Oxfam charity, together with other aid agencies, declared that “Famine is not just a risk, but likely rapidly unfolding in almost all parts of Gaza.”
Michael Fakhri, the UN’s special rapporteur on the right to food, told Al Jazeera Sunday that “the United States is complicit in the genocide, in the starvation of civilians.”
He added, “On March 3, Netanyahu announced that Israel would stop all goods and humanitarian aid from entering Gaza. This was over 50 days ago.”
He continued:
Let’s recall that there is an international criminal warrant against Netanyahu and former minister Gallant for the crime of starvation, for crimes of humanity, for mass murder, and yet they continue announcing their intentions and executing this starvation campaign with no repercussions under international law. There is no condition in which anyone can deny humanitarian aid to civilians.
He added:
Who controls the borders, who controls the flow of goods and humanitarian aid? Who controls everything that goes in and out of Gaza? It is Israel. What we saw in the last month alone, child acute malnutrition increased by over 80 percent, so they’re using children’s lives and the death of thousands in this negotiation process.
Jonathan Whittall, head of the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs, declared:
As humanitarians, we can see that aid is being weaponized through its denial. I hope we see real accountability, rather than us waiting for history to judge those that have done nothing in the face of what we are seeing today in Gaza.
The deliberate mass starvation of the population of Gaza is largely ignored in the US media and by the Democratic Party. The issue was not raised on the Sunday talk shows, including NBC’s “Meet the Press” and ABC’s “This Week” programs.
The Israeli military has announced mandatory evacuation orders covering 70 percent of Gaza, with 400,000 people being displaced over the past seven weeks alone.
Gaza’s health ministry estimates that 52,243 people have been killed so far during the genocide. The health ministry said Sunday that it received the remains of 50 people killed in Israeli strikes over the past 24 hours.
According to figures published by Gaza’s government media office, Israeli forces have killed 18,000 children, 12,400 women, 1,400 medical workers and 212 journalists.
Israel has meanwhile continued its onslaught throughout the Middle East, carrying out airstrikes on the southern suburbs of Beirut Sunday.
In a social media post, US Central Command asserted that it had attacked over 800 targets in Yemen, killing “hundreds of Houthi fighters and numerous Houthi leaders.”
On Sunday, there was a massive explosion at Iran’s Shahid Rajaee port outside of Bandar Abbas in southern Iran’s Hormozgan province. Forty people were killed in the explosion, with over 1,000 injured. No cause has been reported for the explosion, but given the massive US-Israeli onslaught throughout the region, Israeli involvement can be presumed.