Human Rights Watch released a report on Monday that said Israel is committing a war crime in Gaza by using starvation as a weapon of war against civilians.
HRW said 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.”
The report pointed to comments from Israeli officials expressing their aim to deprive Palestinian civilians of food and other basic necessities. At the beginning of the onslaught, Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant announced a “complete siege” on the already-blockaded Gaza Strip and said the Israeli military was fighting “human animals.”
Israel has since allowed limited aid deliveries through Gaza’s border crossing with Egypt, but HRW said the amount of aid is “at grossly insufficient levels.” UN officials have said the increased Israeli military operations in south Gaza have made relief efforts impossible.
“For over two months, Israel has been depriving Gaza’s population of food and water, a policy spurred on or endorsed by high-ranking Israeli officials and reflecting an intent to starve civilians as a method of warfare,” said Omar Shakir, HRW’s Israel and Palestine director. “World leaders should be speaking out against this abhorrent war crime, which has devastating effects on Gaza’s population.”
Earlier this month, the UN’s World Food Program said that nine out of 10 households in northern Gaza and two out of three households in southern Gaza had spent at least one full day and night without food. Besides the food deprivation in Gaza, the disease is also spreading due to the lack of clean water and other conditions caused by the Israeli siege.
The Israeli bombardment and ground invasion have killed over 19,000 Palestinians, including over 7,500 children. As the onslaught continues, the risk of Palestinians dying of disease and starvation en masse continues to grow. Despite the Israeli atrocities, the US is still providing unconditional military support for the massacre.
Warm Crimes… Crimes against Humanity?…
You don’t have to ask, too many examples to be anything but.
Yes, HRW is making the point that the siege, denying the population water, food, fuel, and medicine, clearly indicates that Hamas is not the target, but the excuse; their aim is to kill and displace the people of Gaza.
Israel has been doing it for a long time. It is known that the think tanks in Israel calculate the caloric requirements so as to meet the standard of starvation +, or, just above the starvation point. Israel controls the entering and leaving of Gaza, controlling the amount of food entering. Evil………………….
Human Rights Watch (HRW) is so smart, but sometimes a bit slow especially when it comes to our …own allies, if you know what I mean. The operative word here is “Watch.” They like more to “Watch” countries we target for regime change. Not a country as nice as Israel that hasn’t been exactly starving, genociding, and ethnic cleansing Palestinians for a very long time. There wasn’t anything to “Watch.” Wink wink.
Putin ends up in the ICC dock for temoving children from war zone to safe areas. Biden sends block buster 2000 pound bombs to kill & maim civilians imprisoned in a war zone, but no action to indict him for war crimes. Is the ICC just impotent, or is it a jelly fish..???? What Gives?
Just like the UN it is just a bunch of crock with no bite. Kind of like when W. said that the Constitution was “just a piece of G-d D*mned paper. So goes that attitude. I would love to be a employee of the UN, just fiddle f*k around all day, push papers. Do nothing………..
Didn’t the ICC also indict Putin for dropping two perfectly good nuclear bombs on two Japanese cities, one of them was home for 50,000 Japanese Catholics and the target for that bomb was the Catholic Cathedral itself? No…? Then you’re correct. The ICC is an impotent jelly fish.
Not just Israel committing this War Crime, it is all the countries watching, supporting Israel in carrying out their War Crimes. NO excuses for the ICC, they need to start charging Biden, USA, UK, Canada, EU, Israel with War Crimes. Anyone who is not blind, can see the war crimes being committed, so why wait to list the War Criminals and charge them?
neither the US nor Israel recognizes the ICC’s authority
Irrelevant. The state of Palestine does recognize that authority, and Gaza is therefore under ICC jurisdiction.
Looks like the US is hell bent on turning “the Hunger Games” into a documentary.