Over the past four months, nearly 19,000 children in Gaza were hospitalized for acute malnutrition due to Israel’s starvation campaign, the UN Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees (UNRWA) has reported.

This is almost double the number of acute malnutrition cases among children in Gaza in the first six months of 2024, the agency reports; at that time, the World Food Programme’s (WFP) head had said that northern Gaza was under a “full-blown famine” because of Israel’s brutal humanitarian aid blockade.

UNRWA reported on Sunday that one of their only remaining functional health centers has only six boxes of baby formula left to distribute, despite thousands of babies in need — and that was the first shipment of baby food the agency reviewed in three months, the group said.

“It has been 14 months. People here really are surviving on bread, lentils, food in tin cans. We are not seeing fruit and vegetables around. We are not seeing people with families and children get the nutrients that they need,” said UNRWA emergency officer Louise Wateridge last week.

Israel’s aid blockade is causing health effects that will compound for decades to come. The UN Population Fund for Palestine recently reported that there are 50,000 pregnant women in Gaza who lack essentials like food, water and hygiene supplies. According to the group, 8,000 of these women are among the 345,000 people in Gaza facing “famine-like conditions.”

    • Keeponstalin@lemmy.worldOPEnglish
      4·
      19 hours ago

      You’re just justifying genocide.

      Hamas proposed a full prisoner swap as early as Oct 8th, and agreed to the US proposed UN Permanent Ceasefire Resolution. Additionally, Hamas has already agreed to no longer govern the Gaza Strip, as long as Palestinians receive liberation and a unified government can take place.

      Gaza has never stopped being under Israeli occupation since 1967. Hamas only exists because of the Apartheid Occupation of Israel and the daily violence that has subjected Palestinians to for generations. Israel has always been the obstacle for peace, and has been the one preventing a ceasefire.

      De-development via the Gaza Occupation

      Between July 1971 and February 1972, Sharon enjoyed considerable success. During this time, the entire Strip (apart from the Rafah area) was sealed off by a ring of security fences 53 miles in length, with few entrypoints. Today, their effects live on: there are only three points of entry to Gaza—Erez, Nahal Oz, and Rafah.

      Perhaps the most dramatic and painful aspect of Sharon’s campaign was the widening of roads in the refugee camps to facilitate military access. Israel built nearly 200 miles of security roads and destroyed thousands of refugee dwellings as part of the widening process.’ In August 1971, for example, the Israeli army destroyed 7,729 rooms (approximately 2,000 houses) in three vola- tile camps, displacing 15,855 refugees: 7,217 from Jabalya, 4,836 from Shati, and 3,802 from Rafah.

      • Page 105

      Through 1993 Israel imposed a one-way system of tariffs and duties on the importation of goods through its borders; leaving Israel for Gaza, however, no tariffs or other regulations applied. Thus, for Israeli exports to Gaza, the Strip was treated as part of Israel; but for Gazan exports to Israel, the Strip was treated as a foreign entity subject to various “non-tariff barriers.” This placed Israel at a distinct advantage for trading and limited Gaza’s access to Israeli and foreign markets. Gazans had no recourse against such policies, being totally unable to protect themselves with tariffs or exchange rate controls. Thus, they had to pay more for highly protected Israeli products than they would if they had some control over their own economy. Such policies deprived the occupied territories of significant customs revenue, estimated at $118-$176 million in 1986.

      • page 240

      In a report released in May 2015, the World Bank revealed that as a result of Israel’s blockade and OPE, Gaza’s manufacturing sector shrank by as much as 60% over eight years while real per capita income is 31 percent lower than it was 20 years ago. The report also stated that the blockade alone is responsible for a 50% decrease in Gaza’s GDP since 2007. Furthermore, OPE (combined with the tunnel closure) exacerbated an already grave situation by reducing Gaza’s economy by an additional $460 million.

      • Page 402

      • The Gaza Strip: The Political Economy of De-Development - Third Edition by Sara M. Roy

      Blockade, including Aid

      Hamas began twenty years into the occupation during the first Intifada, with the goal of ending the occupation. Collective punishment has been a deliberate Israeli tactic for decades with the Dahiya doctrine. Violence such as suicide bombings and rockets escalated in response to Israeli enforcement of the occupation and apartheid.

      After the ‘disengagement’ in 2007, this turned into a full blockade; where Israel has had control over the airspace, borders, and sea. Under the guise of ‘dual-use’ Israel has restricted food, allocating a minimum supply leading to over half of Gaza being food insecure; construction materials, medical supplies, and other basic necessities have also been restricted.

      The blockade and Israel’s repeated military offensives have had a heavy toll on Gaza’s essential infrastructure and further debilitated its health system and economy, leaving the area in a state of perpetual humanitarian crisis. Indeed, Israel’s collective punishment of Gaza’s civilian population, the majority of whom are children, has created conditions inimical to human life due to shortages of housing, potable water and electricity, and lack of access to essential medicines and medical care, food, educational equipment and building materials.

      Peace Process and Solution

      Both Hamas and Fatah have agreed to a Two-State solution based on the 1967 borders for decades. Oslo and Camp David were used by Israel to continue settlements in the West Bank and maintain an Apartheid, while preventing any actual Two-State solution

      How Avi Shlaim moved from two-state solution to one-state solution

      ‘One state is a game changer’: A conversation with Ilan Pappe

      One State Solution, Foreign Affairs

      Human Shields

      Hamas:

      Intentionally utilizing the presence of civilians or other protected persons to render certain areas immune from military attack is prohibited under international law. Amnesty International was not able to establish whether or not the fighters’ presence in the camps was intended to shield themselves from military attacks. However, under international humanitarian law, even if one party uses “human shields”, or is otherwise unlawfully endangering civilians, this does not absolve the opposing party from complying with its obligations to distinguish between military objectives and civilians or civilian objects, to refrain from carrying out indiscriminate or disproportionate attacks, and to take all feasible precautions to spare civilians and civilian objects.

      Israel:

      Additionally, there is extensive independent verification of Israel using Palestinians as Human Shields:

      Deliberate Attacks on Civilians

      Israel deliberately targets civilian areas. From in general with the Dahiya Doctrine to multiple systems deployed in Gaza to do so:

      Israel also targets Israeli Soldiers and Civilians to prevent them being leveraged as hostages, known as the Hannibal Directive. Which was also used on Oct 7th.

      • CoCo_Goldstein@lemmy.worldEnglish
        12·
        1 day ago

        I am justifying nothing. Israel doesn’t want a ceasefire and thus a return to the status quo, allowing Hamas (or its successor) to regroup and rebuild. They want Hamas destroyed (figuratively with a an unconditional surrender).

        Hamas agrees not to govern if all Palestinians get to vote in Israeli elections? How generous of them. That is a ‘non starter’ from the Israeli point of view.

        BTW, I will grant you that the reason the fighting has gone on so long is, apparently, Israel isn’t sure what to do once Hamas is removed from governing the Gaza strip. So yes, Israel is prolonging the misery.

    • PyroNeurosis@lemmy.blahaj.zoneEnglish
      2·
      22 hours ago

      I’m pretty sure the “suffering of their people” was one of the major causes for their actions on 7OCT2023. Not the only cause, but a major one.

    • Lucidlethargy@sh.itjust.worksEnglish
      1·
      1 day ago

      Nobody is siding with Hamas. Their crimes should not condemn their people, especially the tens of thousands of innocent men, women, and children that have been maimed and killed by Israel’s disgusting and insatiable hunger for human suffering.