Speed of deterioration of humanitarian conditions in Gaza ‘absolutely terrifying’
A big obstacle to getting humanitarian aid into Gaza are the border checks Israel insists on making before trucks are allowed to enter.
Supplies arrive in Egypt on cargo ships at Port Said, or by plane at El Arish airport. Trucks due to enter Gaza are then checked by Israeli authorities at Nitzana, then cross back into Egypt where they head to the Rafah crossing – the last time any truck was allowed to pass through Rafah was February 4 – or they go to the Israeli-controlled Karem Abu Salem crossing for inspection and enter there.
Before the war began, about 500 trucks a day crossed into Gaza through Karem Abu Salem (Kerem Shalom); only a handful are getting through now.
We’ve spoken to Alex de Waal, executive director at World Peace Foundation and the author of, Mass Starvation: The History and Future of Famine, about the deteriorating humanitarian conditions in besieged and bombarded Gaza.
Al Jazeera: You recently wrote a piece in which you said there’s no instance since World War II in which an entire population has been reduced to extreme hunger and destitution with such speed. Can you elaborate and tell us what you are basing it on?
Alex de Waal: I’ve been studying famine, and particularly man-made famine, the use of starvation as a war crime, for 40 years.
I’ve looked at cases around the world – Yemen, Ethiopia, Sudan, Syria – and the cases that are the most obviously comparable in recent history are the sieges of Syrian cities by the Assad regime. But nothing is comparable in terms of the speed and the concentrated effort at destroying what is essential to sustain the life of people – nothing compares to Gaza over the last 75 years.
The speed of deterioration of humanitarian conditions is absolutely terrifying.
Al Jazeera: Would you say the deterioration of humanitarian conditions is a byproduct or a direct result of Israel’s declared policy?
De Waal: Certainly, there’s no doubt that certain senior members of the Israel government and certain groups within Israeli society have the intent of starving Gaza.
What is absolutely clear also is that the military actions undertaken by the Israeli forces have that predictable and knowable effect. And really at this stage, it doesn’t really matter what is the ultimate intent, whether the International Court of Justice (ICJ) will find that Israel is responsible for the crime of genocide or not. What we know now is that they are knowingly pursuing military actions in the full knowledge that this will be the outcome.
The Famine Review Committee and the highest international humanitarian assessment body made that determination back in December, that if the military tactics did not change, unless there was a full spectrum of relief operations, Gaza would be in famine. The ICJ three weeks ago gave instructions to Israel that it had to do certain things. It has done nothing of that, so it is knowingly creating these conditions and undoubtedly that is unlawful.
Al Jazeera: As an occupying power, what are the Israeli government’s duties in ensuring that civilians have access to food and water, and what should the US and the UK do to avoid their complicity?
De Waal: Israel is under an absolute obligation, regardless of whether it’s an occupying power or not, of complying with what the ICJ said. And the particular provision there is that it is inflicting on the group – that is Palestinians in Gaza – conditions of life calculated to bring about their physical destruction and that it had to desist from doing that. It has had three weeks to begin to do that, and on the contrary, it has intensified its activity.
Now, next week, Israel has to report to the ICJ on the actions that it has taken. Clearly, the report will not be satisfactory, and then it will be in breach of additional obligations that it has under international law. And then that brings the United States, in particular, into a very uncertain legal position because it may find, as the United States, that it has been complicit in crimes, possibly the crime of genocide, and certainly in enabling Israel to violate the instructions of the ICJ.
Quite apart from the absolute horrors of the destruction of the people of Gaza and everything that sustains life there, this brings us into very perilous unchartered legal and political territory.
‘Fear, hunger, despair, pain, death’ in Gaza: WHO
The World Health Organization (WHO) has published a series of quotes from Palestinians describing the harrowing situation in Gaza.
“We ate a mouldy potato. We literally had to take worms out of it,” a man said.
“I have a shrapnel in my head, and it’s affecting my eyes. I have another shrapnel in my spine, and I cannot move at all,” a hospital patient said.
The UN health body has long called for an immediate humanitarian ceasefire in Gaza, where the health system has collapsed.
US State Department spokesperson Matthew Miller has been questioned about investigations into the killings of Al Jazeera cameraperson Samer Abudaqa and six-year-old Hind Rajab and her family in Gaza.
No updates, but we keep 'pressing' them and do nothing.
