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

[Createaplant]

Being reported by the Guardian:

40% of Gaza’s population is at risk of famine, the United Nations Relief and Works Agency said on Saturday.

“Every day is a struggle for survival, finding food and water,” the UN agency for Palestinian refugees added.

https://www.theguardian.com/world/live/2023/dec/30/israel-gaza-war-live-hamas-palestinians-khan-younis-deaths-un-aid-us#:~:text=40%25%20of%20Gaza's%20population%20is,is%20grappling%20with%20catastrophic%20hunger.

Too sad and completely unnecessary. If only adequate aid, food and water was allowed in.

Regardless of if Hamas are taking some of the minimal aid that comes in, Israel are not allowing enough aid in, and are bombing aid convoys. Aid organisations cannot in the present situation organise aid distribution or get humanitarian workers effectively engaged.

This could be easily sorted by Israeli govt. They are using starvation as a weapon of war.

And posters as usual want to focus on Hamas, misdirecting away from IDF who has the power in its hands to change the situation.

I did reverse image on Google and that’s what came up. I am happy to let people watch an entire in focus video and make up their own minds.

Hamas may be taking some aid as it comes into Gaza from the south, but that doesn’t explain how they would be riding on top of an empty UN convoy that had already dropped off its aid and was going from North Gaza to South Gaza along the route IDF told the UN to go down and if Hamas had hijacked that empty convoy, why wouldn’t the UN say so?

As we can see with the situation now, it’s beyond any control. Starving civilians are mobbing every aid truck as it comes in.

What sort of weapons?

It looks like they might be holding sticks but I can't see any guns.

Can clearly see the gun in this one.i obviously don't know the circumstances of the particular article posted so can't comment t. But people are so quick to blame israel for their plight.
Who kicked off the conflict leading to this? Hamas. Who is taking the aid however much there is or isn't? Hamas. Who won't give up the hostages to help the situation? Hamas

@Jingleballs2 hate to burst your pro-IDF bubble. From the Human Rights Watch report:

• The Israeli government is using starvation of civilians as a method of warfare in the Gaza Strip, which is a war crime.

• Israeli officials have made public statements expressing their aim to deprive civilians in Gaza of food, water, and fuel – statements reflected in Israeli forces’ military operations.

• The Israeli government should not attack objects necessary for the survival of the civilian population, lift its blockade of the Gaza Strip, and restore electricity and water.

The Israeli government is using starvation of civilians as a method of warfare in the occupied Gaza Strip, which is a war crime, Human Rights Watch said today.

Israeli forces are deliberately blocking the delivery of water, food, and fuel, while willfully impeding humanitarian assistance, apparently razing agricultural areas, and depriving the civilian population of objects indispensable to their survival.

Well yes I can clearly see the guns in that photo but I have no idea where or when that photo was taken. The trucks look nothing like the aid trucks going into Gaza.

Was it attached to an article with more detail?

Why are you posting a random photo to support your point when the lack of verification undermines it?

Why do you resort to "but they started it" when you can't evidence your claim?

Maybe Hamas is commandeering aid but you haven't provided anything to prove it.

Those videos of desperate starving Gazans are appalling. It's absolutely shocking. Israel frustrating all attempts to provide aid - there are no words for this level of depravity. I've never seen anything like it. And it's supported by the US/UK/EU.

• Wilfuly impeding humanitarian assistance
• Razing agricultural areas
• Deliberately blocking food, fuel and water delivery
• Depriving the civilian population of objects essential to their survival

Makes for grim reading doesn't it. And all the doing of the Israeli govt.

I don't know how anyone can make excuses for them any more.

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.

@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.

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

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

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

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.

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

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

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.

@BigandBeefy it is absolutely disgusting and that the human rights reports say is being done deliberately is truly sickening.

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

Hamas would rather people die than they surrender. Priorities

@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.

• Wilfuly impeding humanitarian assistance
• Razing agricultural areas
• Deliberately blocking food, fuel and water delivery
• Depriving the civilian population of objects essential to their survival

According to Human Rights Watch this is what Israel are doing. Disgusting.

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

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