Israel is actively preventing the delivery of essential supplies such as water, food, and fuel to Gaza, leading Human Rights Watch to accuse the nation of employing starvation as a weapon of war. According to Omar Shakir, the Israel and Palestine director at Human Rights Watch, 97% of Gaza’s groundwater is unsuitable for human consumption due to the destruction of pipelines and treatment sources. This, coupled with the refusal of humanitarian aid and the collapse of the medical system amid continuous bombings, has resulted in widespread dehydration and the spread of contagious diseases.
Shakir is urging the international community to condemn Israel’s actions and to exert increased pressure, particularly on U.S. support. He points out that both the United States and Israel stand isolated in the international community, emphasizing that the application of double standards in the Israel-Palestine conflict has far-reaching consequences, negatively impacting civilians globally. The call for scrutiny and condemnation underscores the urgency of addressing the humanitarian crisis in Gaza and advocating for a more equitable and humane resolution to the ongoing conflict.
This is Democracy Now!, democracynow.org, The War and Peace Report. I’m Amy Goodman, with Juan González.
As the death toll in Gaza nears 20,000, Human Rights Watch has accused the Israeli government of using starvation as a weapon of war in Gaza. Human Rights Watch says Israel has deliberately blocked the delivery of water, food and fuel, while willfully impeding humanitarian assistance. The group said Israel has also apparently razed agricultural areas inside Gaza as many Palestinians face starvation.
We’re joined now by Omar Shakir, Israel and Palestine director at Human Rights Watch, which has just published a report headlined “Israel: Starvation Used as Weapon of War in Gaza.” He’s joining us from Amman, Jordan. Israel is actively preventing
Omar, why don’t you lay out your findings?
OMAR SHAKIR: We found five very disturbing trends coming together that led us to this conclusion, the first of which has been for more than two months now the Israeli government has been blocking all but a trickle of aid, food and water from entering the Gaza Strip.
Secondly, the Israeli government has, in essence, cut off the entry and exit of goods from its own crossings with Gaza, despite being the occupying power that’s obligated to provide for the civilian population. Third, satellite imagery that we’ve been carefully studying shows the apparent deliberate razing of agricultural land. You can see entire farms and other areas turned from lush green agricultural land into barren wasteland in different parts of the Gaza Strip.
Fourth, we look at the destruction of the kinds of objects necessary for human survival — bakeries, wheat mills, sanitation and water facilities, hospitals. In northern Gaza, you cannot find many of these facilities that are functioning. And fifth and finally, statements from Israeli government officials that set out in very plain terms and this includes the defense minister, the national security minister, members of COGAT, the Israeli army that state clearly that they will continue to prevent these basic supplies food, water, aid from entering until they accomplish the objectives they’ve set, such as the return of hostages and the destruction of Hamas. All this collectively amounts to starvation used as weapon of war, which is an abhorrent war crime, adding to the Israeli government’s many other war crimes, like collective punishment, that have been taking over the last 10 weeks.