Israel’s efforts to deflect blame, however, are undermined by its sole responsibility: that as an occupying power in a conflict, it is legally obligated to provide living conditions for those under occupation. And while Israel has repeatedly tried to blame Hamas for the blockade and seizure of aid, that claim has been refuted by a US report that says it has found no evidence of systematic theft of US supplies by Hamas.
Israel is waging a massive public image campaign to deflect blame for the starvation and killing of Palestinian civilians in Gaza, in the face of overwhelming evidence that Israel is responsible. While dozens of governments, UN agencies, and other international figures have detailed Israel’s culpability, Israeli officials and ministers have sought to suggest that there is no starvation in Gaza, that if there is starvation, it is not Israel’s fault, or have sought to blame Hamas or the UN and humanitarian organizations for problems with aid distribution. The Israeli effort has continued even as one of the government’s ministers, the far-right Heritage Minister Amichai Eliyahu, has described Israeli policy as one of starvation, genocide, and ethnic cleansing.
Amid evidence of a growing number of deaths from starvation in Gaza, including children, and shocking images of people, Israel has sought to deflect blame for what the head of the World Health Organization has described as a “massive man-made famine.”
That view was supported by a joint statement this week from 28 countries that clearly blamed Israel. “The suffering of civilians in Gaza has reached new depths. The Israeli government’s aid distribution model is dangerous, fuels instability and deprives the people of Gaza of their human dignity,” the statement said. Some Israeli officials have been more cautious in public statements, including Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who has made a vague promise that “there will be no hunger” in Gaza. “There is no hunger in Gaza – there is a lack of truth,” David Menzer, an Israeli government spokesman, told SkyNews.
Disputing that claim, Doctors Without Borders said a quarter of young children and pregnant women treated at its clinics last week were malnourished. The UN said one in five children in Gaza was malnourished.
Israel’s efforts to deflect blame, however, are undermined by its sole responsibility: that as an occupying power in a conflict, it is legally obligated to provide living conditions for those under occupation. And while Israel has repeatedly tried to blame Hamas for the blockade and seizure of aid, that claim has been dismissed by a U.S. report that said it found no evidence of systematic theft of U.S. supplies by Hamas. The report was published by Reuters. It examined 156 incidents of theft or loss of U.S. aid, but found “no reports that Hamas” benefited from those supplies.
Israel has recently intensified its efforts to blame the UN for the problems with aid distribution, complaining that the international community and organizations are not cooperating. Israel’s claims are belied by clear evidence of its efforts to undermine aid distribution.
Despite international warnings about the humanitarian risk posed by Israel’s closure of UNRWA, the UN’s main agency for Palestinians, its operations have been shut down, complicating aid efforts. Israel, backed by the US, has relied on the inexperienced and controversial Gaza Humanitarian Fund, whose areas have been the focus of a number of fatal incidents, in which Palestinians desperate for food have been killed by Israeli soldiers. Israel’s efforts to hinder aid efforts have continued. Last week, Israel said it would not renew the work visa of Jonathan Whittall, the UN’s top aid official in Gaza. Stephane Dujarric, the UN spokesman, told reporters on Thursday that Israel had rejected eight of 16 UN requests to transport humanitarian aid to Gaza.
He added that two other requests, initially approved, later faced obstacles on the ground, describing those obstacles as a pattern of “bureaucratic, logistical, administrative and other operational obstacles imposed by the Israeli authorities.”
All of this has added a new sense of urgency to the disaster in Gaza, as UN agencies warned they were on the verge of running out of special food needed to save the lives of severely malnourished children. “Most of the supplies to treat malnutrition have been used up and what is left will run out very quickly if not replenished,” a World Health Organization spokesman said on Thursday. More starvation deaths appear inevitable. (The Guardian)