Not since the 1980s, when an immense drought resulted in a killing famine in the Horn of Africa, or perhaps not since the pre-Green Revolution crop failures in India in 1943 (and the huge famines under British rule in the 1870s), and Stalin's policy-induced great famine in Ukraine in the early 1930s, have so many persons across the globe been threatened with acute hunger. And this time needless war is mostly the cause, imperiling the lives of millions, especially children in Gaza and Sudan. Even President Biden and Dr. Jill Biden, the first spouse, have become alarmed and (finally) demanded remedial action from Israel.
Gaza
Although 117 truckloads of food (grains, sugar, flour, MREs, oil, water, and more) are now moving daily into Gaza after being inspected by Israel's Defense Force, and Jordan and the U. S. are parachuting pallets of foodstuffs into northern Gaza, those deliveries supply -- at best -- 50 percent of the daily needs of the imperiled inhabitants of Gaza who are surviving acute hunger and have been scraping by on the food and water margin for too many months. We -- the rest of the world -- and Israel foremost, must do much better even if (or precisely because) Hamas's atrocities are ultimately responsible for the suffering of its own people. Hamas' thousands of murders is no excuse for military initiatives that imperil entire populations and children.
At least half of the remaining people residing in Gaza -- possibly1.2 million? -- are today acutely hungry all the time; 200 people starve to death daily. An Integrated Food Security Phase Classification report from late March says that more than 1 million Gazans could face famine by this summer if the violence levels continue to escalate. The obvious translation is that thousands, perhaps more than 1 million, lives can be saved if President Biden and the leaders of Europe can persuade Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu of Israel that he not only can, but must, put saving civilian lives before annihilating Hamas -- especially since the latter accomplishment is proving almost impossible to achieve.
About 20 percent of all Gazan households today face extreme lack of food and an estimated 30 percent of all Gazan children already suffer from intense malnutrition. Gazans are surviving on 245 calories a day, says Oxfam. That means that for them starvation is around the next corner. And, even if relief food reaches them in time to keep their bones from protruding through skin, a large number of Gazan children already will suffer intellectual impairment as well as long-lasting physical damage.
As David Andelman's Unleashed on Substack said yesterday, quoting from Le Monde: "More children have been killed [in Gaza] in six months than in four years of all other conflicts of the world. Israel having deprived the enclave of medical equipment: so children must be operated on even amputated without anesthesia."
Food shortages cause severe acute malnutrition. In turn, acute malnutrition results in blurred vision, brittle hair, peeling skin, swollen feet and ankles, the breaking down of muscles and muscle power, and the wasting away and exhaustion that overwhelms the body and leads to death. Must all of that become a lasting charge on Netanyahu and Israel and, by extension, on us?
Surely it should be possible for an army as accomplished as Israel's to continue to pursue Hamas in its tunnels and other hiding places without blasting living quarters; busting open hospitals; keeping civilians from food, water, and shelter; and generally making life unbearable for ordinary Gazans and specifically NOT so far for Hamas' leadership?
The IDF need not bomb Rafah to smithereens to pursue Hamas and its chiefs. There should be a surgical option that will go a little in the direction of retrieving Israel's massive losses in the critical information war. Bomb the tunnels and pursue Hamas into their other hiding places, but -- the message to the IDF must be -- stop dropping 200- pound bombs on clusters of civilians and stop shooting at clearly marked convoys bringing aid.
In simple other words, Netanyahu and the IDF need to fight smart, not carelessly and thoughtlessly. Surely that should not be difficult for Biden to demand and the IDF (maybe even Netanyahu) to execute.
This weekend Biden finally forced Netanyahu to listen, to open new border crossing points, and thus to enable more food aid to flow into Gaza from Jordan, from the U.S., and from relief agencies. But Netanyahu has not yet agreed or committed to ordering the IDF to distribute food assistance directly; nor has he provided a plan for Israel -- at the very least - to police Gaza so as to make sure that food supplies actually reach needy recipients and are not confiscated by Gazan criminal gangs and sold profitably.
As in so many famines, food is only available at a price. Not reported upon fully, but related by individuals to the BBC, Mercy Corps, Save the Children, and other concerned outlets, too much of what little food and water reaches (especially northern) Gaza is grabbed by gangs and then resold at high price. Israel must take charge fully of the distribution of aid in order to forestall mass starvation and to return Gaza to a sense of order -- even amid the ruins. Doing so will enhance Israel's credibility and also keep Hamas from again becoming the only administrative authority in the Strip.
Ameliorating a humanitarian catastrophe -- even at this late date -- is essential. It can also allow Israel to retrieve a little of its lost legitimacy and esteem.
Next time: Alleviating Hunger in Sudan, Haiti, Central Africa, and Mongolia
No one should suffer the way the Gazan innocents are suffering. Just wondering why the onus is on Israel to monitor the distribution of the food. Why not a UN force? or the Red Cross?
And why does Egypt refuse Gazan civilians? How does Jordan get away with, “We will not take any refugees.” The World Central Kitchen volunteers and so many others would be alive today had Hamas not barbarically attacked innocent Israelis. Why is not “RELEASE THE HOSTAGES” on everyone’s lips?
This is all so tragically, desperately true, professor …. Thanks so much for pointing it out so effectively !