In Gaza, there is no bread, but there are bullets
Gaza: Hunger as a Weapon
In Gaza, there is no bread, but there are bullets three months after the conflict began, while Israel ignores pressures to reduce violence, people in Gaza are dying of hunger. More than 23,000 Palestinians have lost their lives in this period.
Three months after the October 7 attack and the start of the war, the humanitarian crisis in the Gaza Strip has surpassed all warning levels. In the besieged area, access to healthcare has become almost impossible. Over 90% of the population has been displaced, while aid and basic needs, including food, are slowly entering the region.
International agencies have repeatedly warned that Gaza is dying of hunger. According to a UN report, one in four people is dying of hunger, and in some areas, nine out of ten households have long been without access to food. A report from the World Food Program’s Integrated Food Security Phase Classification predicts that by February, the entire population of 2 million in the Gaza Strip will face acute food insecurity, with at least one in four families experiencing food deprivation and famine conditions.
Vulnerable individuals, such as pregnant women and children, are more at risk of malnutrition because baby formula is alarmingly scarce. Additionally, the few humanitarian aids that enter the Gaza Strip have become very complicated and difficult to deliver due to ongoing bombings. As a result, according to a UN report, in the last week of December, food aid reached only 8% of those in need.
Wandering between hunger and destruction
The tragic and distressing humanitarian situation unfolding in Gaza cannot be considered a side effect of the war. Israeli bombings across the Gaza Strip have severely damaged bakeries, food warehouses, and roads used for transporting humanitarian aid. However, even if all these are rebuilt, there is still a severe shortage of raw materials.
After the October 7 attack, Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant ordered a complete blockade of the Gaza Strip, stating that no electricity, food, or fuel would be provided to the area. Meanwhile, on October 17, National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir announced that no aid should enter Gaza until Hamas releases the hostages.
Thirteen weeks after the conflict began, Operation Al-Aqsa Storm, several human rights groups and legal experts viewed these statements, along with Israeli actions to prevent access to water and food in Palestinian territories, as collective punishment against civilians and part of a strategy of using food deprivation as a weapon of war. They condemned it as a clear violation of international laws.
Journalists in the Crosshairs
While Gaza Strip residents fight to survive and the death toll has exceeded 23,000, other aspects of war news are also emerging in social and traditional media. This includes the killing of a large number of journalists and media personnel since the conflict between Hamas and Israel began.
Precisely 109 journalists have been killed over the course of 13 weeks. According to the Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ), this unprecedented number exceeds any recorded in other wars and conflicts in modern times. This international body emphasized in a press release that journalists are civilians who perform important work during crises and should not be targeted by warring parties.
The latest victims, in chronological order, were Hamza Al-Dahdouh, a journalist and cameraman for Al Jazeera, Wael Al-Dahdouh, the son of the head of Al Jazeera’s TV network’s correspondence office, and Mustafa Thouraya, an independent employee of the network, who were killed in a drone attack in the southern Gaza Strip.
Al Jazeera, one of the few networks present in the Gaza Strip despite Israel’s ban on international press access, has openly accused the Jewish state of targeting journalists to actually target messengers of information and events, thereby silencing their testimonies about the ongoing massacre of civilians.
America’s Impossible Mission
The current situation in the Gaza Strip can be summed up in one sentence: an unimaginable tragedy. U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken spoke to reporters during a mission in Doha, the capital of Qatar, about the death of Hamza Al-Dahdouh.
Blinken, referring to the fact that the Al Jazeera journalist had previously lost his wife in a bombing in December, said, ‘I am also a father and cannot imagine the horror and grief he went through, not just once, but for the second time: a wife, a son, a daughter, and a nephew.’
However, despite all the details reported by the Arab press and the Netanyahu government’s resistance to America’s request for humanitarian pauses, the U.S. Secretary of State avoided condemning Israel for the high number of civilian and journalist deaths. In fact, it is no secret that Israel continues to enjoy full support from Washington, as it has never called for a permanent ceasefire.
Nevertheless, the U.S. Secretary of State, who has also traveled to the United Arab Emirates and Saudi Arabia—a journey that was not easy or comfortable—currently has the number one priority and main goal for the U.S. government, which is grappling with election campaigns, to prevent escalation and find a suitable solution for managing the Gaza Strip after the conflict ends. However, due to the high number of civilian casualties that continue to rise, for most Arab countries, hearing the phrase ‘we will talk about priorities in the coming days’ is unacceptable.
The Washington Post revealed in a report that within the White House, there is a belief that Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu intends to expand the conflict to ensure his political survival and, if successful, to increase his popularity among the people. A goal that, if confirmed by evidence and with the start of targeted killings in Lebanon, would turn Antony Blinken’s new trip into an impossible mission.
Three months after the conflict began, with no end in sight, the international community watches helplessly and impatiently as a massive humanitarian disaster unfolds in the Gaza Strip. According to humanitarian organizations that continue their work in tortured Gaza with great effort and limited resources, the number of Palestinian civilian casualties is staggering and appears to be increasing.
The lack of security in the Gaza Strip makes the distribution of the few aids that have arrived to meet the immense needs of the exhausted and distressed population of the Strip very difficult. Against this backdrop, one might ask what tangible and real results U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken, who on several trips to Israel has announced the protection of civilian lives and increased aid to the Gaza Strip as two main priorities of the U.S. government, can bring back home.