Catastrophic hunger - 40% of Gaza's population at risk of famine

It is because food is so scarce that it is being exploited as a cash source. If the right amount of food were getting into and being safely distributed, this wouldn’t be happening- the better off surviving while the poor starve. There would be no incentive to steal.

The better off are far more likely to be Hamas collaborators. So restricting humanitarian aid is only further pushing the most innocent and vulnerable to die in their tens of thousands. While it is simultaneously ensuring that Hamas and their collaborators get priority for all food, water, medicine and so on.

@LifeofBrienne

Gazans are reporting that food inflation is a huge problem. Shops are charging extortionate prices for basic foodstuffs. So the food stolen can be turned into a cash source.

https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2023/11/30/were-not-here-to-beg-gaza-residents-anger-over-steep-rise-in-prices

I just don’t get the argument presented here that Israel has to prevent food from going into Gaza because otherwise Hamas would steal it. I mean it’s food, not weapons or even fuel which could be used against Israel.
If they are allowing in, what, 10% of the food Gazans need (a figure I saw weeks ago, not saying it’s accurate now) is the argument that they are trying to starve Hamas out so all the other civilians have to starve too to achieve that goal? Or that they think starving Palestinians will somehow turn against Hamas (as if they’d have the energy!). Or what?
Or is the claim that Israel are actually allowing a reasonable amount of food in but Hamas is stealing it all?

Malnutrition stunts growth and can cause long term chronic poor health up to sudden premature death. Rickets. Beri-beri. Blindness. Scurvy. These are not diseases of the past.

Malnutrition in children is very distressing in a particular gut wrenching way. It’s kind of hard to describe what it feels like to hold a baby that is underweight, to look into the little face that’s too mature for the chronological age and just will them to recover, even when you know some infection will probably carry them off.I know that most of the posters here that feel the bombardment has to go ahead would change their minds if they could experience the reality of starvation

I believe that the deputy prime minister of the Netherlands is giving up her job to try and sort the distribution problems out from 8 January so if that goes ahead it would be a cause for some hope on the distribution. Apart from a proven track record, she’s a mum of four and you do feel that will make a difference.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sigrid_Kaag

Here is a link to an article from Time on 22 Dec which gives estimates from 23 agencies on the ground.
They reckon is hungry but 576,600 people were at catastrophic or starvation levels last week.
https://time.com/6550063/un-gaza-hunger-report-palestinians-israel-conflict/

I challenge the posters who hold that withholding humanitarian aid is justified to produce credible evidence that Hamas have appropriated significant amounts of aid snce 7/10.
We know that Netanyahu supported the misappropriation of “aid “ that helped establish this terrorist group.
We know that Hamas have stockpiled huge amounts of food and fuel in their extensive tunnel network- at least enough for 4 months according to intelligence sources ( so probably at least 6 months, given the tendency to underestimate them).
But apart from the account of a starving older woman about 3 weeks ago, there hasn’t been any credible account of wide scale misappropriation.
Furthermore, in the words a spokesperson for the Washington Istitute for Near East Policy “Hamas is far less capable of scamming or stealing humanitarian aid than it was before the start of the war, Levitt said. Hamas officials controlled the police force and the crossings into Gaza before the Oct. 7 attack. Now, they’re hiding in tunnels and on the run,”
Not only that, food is not exactly lying around waiting for someone to pop out of a tunnel and make off with it

The cruelty is breathtaking. The Israeli government could choose not to do this, but they won't. It's disgusting.

@Mushroomsouptonight I don't think anyone here denies that Hamas are terrible and don't act in the interests of the Palestinians. But that doesn't remove Israel's moral agency or responsibility for the consequences of its own actions.

Hamas would rather people die than they surrender. Priorities

Yes, best not call out hamas, always blame the idf.

I saw that post too. I just cannot imagine what it feels like to be trapped with no food. I can't imagine it. I saw a video of children scraping flour off a road where a bag of flour had fallen from an aid truck. Scraping dirty flour off a road so that they can eat. I cannot imagine the desperation those people must feel. The awful feeling parents must feel in the pit of their stomachs watching their children wasting away and knowing that there is nothing that they can do.

The fact that this starvation is on purpose, that it is vindictive, that it is deliberate cruelty makes me sick to my stomach.

I saw a post from someone who is trapped in Gaza right now. They spoke how for the first time in so long a truck of aid which had flour reached the north and the way people fought over it in desperation. I won't post it here as I know there will be some posters who will pick up on the fighting rather than the reason behind It.
I have children too and I was wondering what I would have done in that situation. Watch them die a painful death from hunger, pleading for food or do anything possible to save them, even if it means I have to fight for a piece of bread.

The situation is catastrophic, especially in the north and I fear the south is becoming the same. I don't think I would last a week there without having a severe breakdown. I don't know what the mental state of the people there must be, who have till now survived the bombing. But are now having to deal with the trauma and pain of helplessly watching their children slowly fade away from starvation

Can you substantiate this please?
It has not been highlighted by any of the agency involved in distributing the very minimal amount of humanitarian aid getting through. There have been a few instances of looting but the reports suggested that this was just people who were starving.
I have experience of working alongside WPF/UN food distribution and it’s is a very complex logistical exercise as well as trying to prevent crushes, riots etc .At least 136 UN workers have been killed in this conflict and it disrespects them to blanket them as terrorists.
I don’t think the the Times of Israel’s unnamed source is credible by the way, but maybe you’ve more experience of starving children than me

Is it really an satirical account? Thank you for pointing that out. That is the video where the still comes from. So I guess the video is also dodgy.

See, I can’t verify if the video is from Gaza or from this conflict. It could very well be years old footage from Syria or Iraq and the Hamas guys could be ISIS or AIF for all I know.

That's a satirical account it seems with some extremely dodgy posts, many of which are fake videos.

The Mossad video was posted on 12 Dec 23 if anyone is interested in the timeline.

The poor Gazans are between a sledge hammer (IDF) and an anvil (Hamas).
There is nowhere safe for them.

@PurpleChrayne But the Israeli government's stated war aim is not getting the hostages back, it's "defeating Hamas". The return of the hostages clearly wouldn't result in a cessation of the bombardment. And that's before you take into account the statements made by Israeli government figures about permanent resettlement of the Palestinians in Sinai etc, which rather suggest that the intention is long-term population transfer. So no, it's not the case that returning the hostages would stop all this.

It’s a video Mossad posted saying that Hamas stole aid and murdered a civilian that got too close.

The trucks are not aid trucks, so if it is stolen aid under the tarps, and not weapons/ammo, then Hamas has put it on their own trucks.
https://twitter.com/TheMossadIL/status/1734629901326516727

The video does show one person being shot by Hamas, later on they show him and there is blood by his right foot and he seems to have propped himself up on his left elbow before the video cuts out.