An Israeli official told The Associated Press on Saturday that Israel is planning to halt or slow the meager aid supplies that are entering Gaza City and other parts of northern Gaza as Israel is expanding its military offensive amid a famine in the area.
The UN-backed Integrated Food Security Phase Classification (IPC) and the US-funded Famine Early Warning Systems Network (FEWS Net) have both determined that famine is taking place in the Gaza Governorate, which includes Gaza City. In the areas to the north of Gaza City, the hunger monitors say famine is likely occurring and may actually be worse, but they lack the data to make a formal declaration.
The Israeli official speaking to the AP said that in the coming days, Israel would stop allowing aid drops over Gaza City and start limiting the number of trucks that can enter northern Gaza, steps that will ensure more people will starve to death. A day earlier, the Israeli military said it would stop so-called “humanitarian pauses” of its attacks in Gaza City and declared the entire city a “combat zone.”
The IDF is trying to force the more than 1 million Palestinian civilians sheltering in Gaza City to southern Gaza as part of its plans to take over the city and raze it to the ground. The Israeli military estimates that just 10,000 Palestinians have fled Gaza City and headed south since it announced its plans to forcibly displace the civilian population and ramped up its bombing of the city.
Palestinian civilians in Gaza City aren’t leaving for a number of reasons, including the fact that Israel continues to bomb southern Gaza, meaning there’s nowhere safe to go. Aid groups say that southern Gaza doesn’t have the capacity to absorb another mass displacement.
Many sick and malnourished civilians don’t have the strength for another forced displacement, which would likely be a death sentence for people already struggling to survive. Palestinians also believe that once they leave Gaza City, they will never be able to return, as Israeli officials have made clear their ultimate goal is the ethnic cleansing of the Palestinian territory.
