Two rights groups are first Israeli voices to accuse Israel of genocide
JERUSALEM − Two Israeli human rights organizations said Israel was committing genocide against Palestinians in Gaza, the first major voices in Israeli society to level the strongest possible accusation against the state, which vehemently denies it.
Rights group B'Tselem and Physicians for Human Rights Israel released their reports at a July 28 press conference in Jerusalem, saying Israel was carrying out "coordinated, deliberate action to destroy Palestinian society in the Gaza strip."
"The report we are publishing today is one we never imagined we would have to write," said B'Tselem Executive Director Yuli Novak. "The people of Gaza have been displaced, bombed and starved, left completely stripped of their humanity and rights."
More: One meal a day. $20 for an egg. Choosing which kid gets fed. Starvation stalks Gaza
Physicians for Human Rights Israel focused on damage to Gaza's healthcare system, saying: "Israel's actions have destroyed Gaza's healthcare infrastructure in a manner that is both calculated and systematic".
Israel has fended off accusations of genocide since the early days of the Gaza war, including a case brought by South Africa at the International Court of Justice in the Hague that Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu condemned as "outrageous".
A spokesperson for the Israeli government called the allegation made by the rights groups on Monday "baseless."
More: 'Children look very hungry': Trump rejects Netanyahu's claim of no starvation in Gaza
"There is no intent, (which is) key for the charge of genocide ... it simply doesn't make sense for a country to send in 1.9 million tons of aid, most of that being food, if there is an intent of genocide," said spokesperson David Mencer.
A spokesperson for Israel's military did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Accusations of genocide have particular gravity in Israel because of the origins of the concept in the work of Jewish legal scholars in the wake of the Nazi Holocaust. Israeli officials have in the past said using the word against Israel was libellous and antisemitic.
When Amnesty International said in December that Israel had committed genocidal acts, Israel's foreign ministry called the global rights group a "deplorable and fanatical organization."
The 1948 Genocide Convention, adopted globally after the mass murder of Jews by the Nazis, defines genocide as "acts committed with intent to destroy, in whole or in part, a national, ethnic, racial or religious group".
More: USAID analysis found no evidence of massive Hamas theft of Gaza aid
Israel launched its war in Gaza after Hamas-led fighters attacked Israeli communities across the border on October 7, 2023, killing 1,200 people, mostly civilians, and taking 251 hostages back to Gaza, according to its tallies. Israel has often described that attack, the deadliest day for Jews since the Holocaust, as genocidal.
Since then, Israel's offensive has killed nearly 60,000 people in Gaza, mostly civilians, according to Gaza health officials, reduced much of the enclave to ruins, and displaced nearly the entire population of more than two million.
Israel has consistently said its actions are justified as self-defence, and Hamas is to blame for all harm to civilians, for refusing to release hostages and surrender, and for operating in civilian areas, which the group denies.
'I feel horror'
At a Jerusalem cafe, Carmella, a 48-year-old teacher whose grandparents survived the Holocaust, said that she was distressed over the suffering an hour's drive away, inside Gaza.
More: Israel and US recall teams from Gaza truce talks, US says Hamas not showing good faith
"It feels difficult to me as an Israeli, as a Jew, to watch those images and feel anything but tremendous compassion and horror, to be honest. I feel horror."
International attention to the plight of the Palestinians in Gaza has intensified in recent weeks, with U.N. agencies saying the territory is running out of food for its 2.2 million people.
Israel, which controls all supplies in and out of Gaza, says it has let enough food in, and blames the U.N. for failing to distribute it. Israel shut off all supplies in March for nearly three months, reopening the territory in May but with restrictions it says are needed to prevent aid from ending up in the hands of fighters.
Since then, its forces have shot dead hundreds of Gazans trying to reach food distribution sites, according to the United Nations.
'You see cracks'
Israel has announced measures in recent days to increase aid supplies, including pausing fighting in some locations, allowing airlifts of food and safer corridors for aid.
Throughout the conflict, Israeli media have tended to focus mainly on the plight of Israeli hostages in Gaza. Footage widely broadcast in other countries of destruction and casualties in Gaza is rarely shown on Israeli TV.
That has been changing, with recent images of starving children having a little more impact, said Oren Persico from The Seventh Eye, a group that tracks trends in Israeli media.
"It's very slowly evolving," he said. "You see cracks."
But he did not expect the genocide allegation would spark a major shift in attitudes: "The Israeli perception is: 'what do you want from us? It's Hamas' fault, if it would only put down its weapons and (release) the hostages this could all be over'."
In an editorial in the Jerusalem Post on Sunday, Dani Dayan, the chairman of Israel's Yad Vashem Holocaust memorial, said it was not accurate to accuse Israel of committing genocide.
"But that does not mean we should not acknowledge the suffering of civilians in Gaza. There are many men, women, and children with no connection to terrorism who are experiencing devastation, displacement, and loss," he wrote. "Their anguish is real, and our moral tradition obligates us not to turn away from it."
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Chicago Tribune
24 minutes ago
- Chicago Tribune
Elizabeth Shackelford: Gaza's starvation is America's shame
Early in my foreign affairs career, I mostly avoided working on Israel and Palestine. The issues were fraught with emotion. I didn't think I understood it well enough to have an informed position. I believe the same sentiment that led me to avoid the topic before is what shapes many reactions (or nonreactions) to this conflict today. But we must not mistake passion for knowledge. Many have become outraged at the ongoing war and famine in Gaza, including hundreds of former members and leaders of Israel's own military and intelligence services. Yet my social media feed is still replete with zealous defenses of the Israeli government, regardless of its actions, and accusations of antisemitism for anyone who says otherwise. This passion is driving other people to look away. I have empathy for the history that drives these hardened positions, but they are emotional, uninformed and deadly. It's time for us all to face the reality that Israel's government is committing atrocities in Gaza and is doing so with American support. Hamas' war crimes against Israelis (and Palestinians) do not change that calculation. The people of Gaza deserve basic humanity regardless of Hamas' actions. If you disagree with that statement, look at the photos of skeletal children in Gaza — who make up half of the strip's population — and tell me they are terrorists who deserve that fate. Even if Israel's own assertions about aid delivery in Gaza were accurate, Gazans, and the hostages, would still be starving. Israel claims that 1 million meals are being distributed a day, which is only one-sixth of the food the population requires. This would be grossly inadequate under ordinary circumstances, but it comes after an 11-week blockade this spring. Gazans are already severely malnourished, so meeting basic needs requires much more, including specialized treatment to prevent people from dying from eating foods their bodies can't process in their deteriorated state. The fact is this: International law and basic human decency demand that Israel provide the basic needs of the civilians trapped in areas it occupies. No military necessity or advantage is served by denying them food. Humanitarian organizations are ready to provide that aid. But Israel has blocked those capable of delivering aid at scale and replaced them with a cynical show: a paramilitary organization with inadequate capacity and experience. The result is not only failure to relieve the starvation, but also death at distribution sites. Over 1,000 people have been killed trying to secure food so far, shot down by Israeli forces and American contractors reacting to the predictably chaotic scenes that Israel created. As Jeremy Konyndyk, president of Refugees International and former director of the U.S. government's foreign disaster assistance program, indicated in a recent interview, the crisis in Gaza can be managed if Israel simply allows access to real humanitarian organizations. The geography is small, and the population of 2 million is far less than in other complex humanitarian crises, such as Sudan. The immediate emergency is solvable. This famine is a policy choice. It's important to understand as well that 'famines have momentum,' as Konyndyk said. The standards for categorizing a situation as famine are exceedingly high and hard to document in the best of conditions. By the time you reach famine levels of hunger, human suffering increases exponentially. The catch-22 of not being able to muster up enough concern over deteriorating food security until it reaches a point in which the population is permanently damaged has plagued humanitarians for decades. I saw it myself in South Sudan years ago. Starving to death is a horrific way to go, but things are so bad in Gaza that people suffering from mass malnutrition will die of disease before starvation can set in, so the pace of death will rapidly escalate. International responses are often hampered by terminology. Have we reached famine levels? Does it qualify as a genocide? Waiting for official use of these terms is dangerous, as it allows culpable leaders to continuously classify disasters just below what is considered unacceptable. But whatever you call this, it is unacceptable. And since the United States is Israel's largest supporter, its sole defender today at the United Nations and supplier of most of its weapons of war, we have leverage. Because Israel has chosen to starve an entire population, that leverage gives us responsibility. I have friends in the U.S. government who still say it's not that simple, that Israel would stay on this path regardless of America's actions. I say to them: Prove me wrong. At a minimum, we would stop our complicity. A majority of the Senate voted down an effort to stop the sale of bombs and firearms to Israel in response to widespread suffering in Gaza just days ago. Shame on the senators who refused to support even a small gesture to pressure Israel to change its path and Gaza's future. To the 24 Democrats who voted to stop our complicity, thank you. Elizabeth Shackelford, a foreign affairs columnist for the Chicago Tribune, is a program director with the Institute for Global Affairs and a lecturer at Dartmouth College. She is currently co-writing the book 'How US Foreign Policy Really Works' and is also the author of 'The Dissent Channel: American Diplomacy in a Dishonest Age.' She was a senior fellow at the Chicago Council on Global Affairs and a career diplomat with the U.S. Department of State.
The Hill
24 minutes ago
- The Hill
The Latest: Israel plans to take control of Gaza City, drawing international condemnation
Israel said early Friday that it plans to take over Gaza City, drawing rejection from the Palestinians and international condemnation. The decision, agreed in a late-night meeting of its security Cabinet, marks a further escalation of Israel's 22-month war with Hamas. It also provoked worries in Israel over the fate of hostages still held by Hamas. Another major ground operation would almost certainly exacerbate the humanitarian catastrophe, in which Israel's air and ground war has pushed the territory toward famine. Hamas said people in Gaza would 'remain defiant against occupation.' Here's the Latest: UK, Spain, Turkey and Australia criticize Israel's Gaza City plan Israel's plan to escalate military operations in Gaza drew international condemnation Friday. British Prime Minister Keir Starmer urged Israel to reconsider, saying the expanded offensive would do nothing to end the conflict or secure the release of the remaining hostages. 'Our message is clear: a diplomatic solution is possible, but both parties must step away from the path of destruction,' Starmer said. Spain's Foreign Minister José Albares said Israel's plan would 'only lead to more destruction and suffering.' Turkey's Foreign Ministry said the escalation marked a new phase of Israel's 'expansionist' policies in the region. 'Israel must immediately halt its war plans, accept a ceasefire in Gaza, and begin negotiations toward a two-state solution,' it said in a statement on Friday. Australia also condemned a further occupation of Gaza. Foreign Minister Penny Wong said a two-state solution is the only pathway to secure an enduring peace: a Palestinian state and the State of Israel, living side-by-side in peace and security within internationally recognized borders.
The Intercept
24 minutes ago
- The Intercept
'A Purely Manmade Famine': How Israel Is Starving Gaza
As the Israeli government weighs, once again, expanding its genocidal military campaign in Gaza, the enclave is sliding into a full-scale famine. 'We're seeing a purely manmade famine,' says Bob Kitchen, vice president of emergencies at the International Rescue Committee. 'The Gaza Strip is surrounded by very fertile farming territory. All of the countries around Gaza have more than enough food.' This week on the Intercept Briefing, Intercept reporter Jonah Valdez speaks with Kitchen about what U.N.-backed hunger experts have called a 'worst-case scenario.' Kitchen lays out how Israel's ongoing war, combined with severe restrictions on humanitarian aid and commercial access, has created near-impossible conditions for food and medical supplies to enter Gaza — accelerating a crisis that could soon be irreversible. 'The only thing that's changed is the war, the restrictions on humanitarian aid, the restrictions on the market economy where commercial traffic can't get in,' says Kitchen. 'That's the only thing that is driving the hunger right now.' Listen to the full conversation of The Intercept Briefing on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or wherever you listen. Transcript Jonah Valdez: Welcome to The Intercept Briefing. I'm Jonah Valdez. Since Israel began choking off aid to Gaza nearly six months ago, U.N.-backed hunger experts issued their gravest warning yet: that a worst-case famine scenario was unfolding. There are three criteria that must be met for a famine to be officially declared: widespread extreme food shortages, high levels of acute malnutrition, and the extent of malnutrition related-mortality. The first two are evident — the third is hard to confirm. But Palestinians in Gaza did not need this confirmation. At least 18,000 children have been hospitalized for acute malnutrition since the beginning of this year. Though officials say the vast majority of malnourished children can't reach medical care. At least 175 people — 92 children and 82 adults — have died of hunger in Gaza in recent weeks, according to Gaza health officials. And over 1500 people have been killed in the last few months while trying to access food — many near distribution sites that were supposed to provide safety. This is a crisis created by Israel's policy — one that aid organizations say could be solved. To help us understand what's happening on the ground and what it would take to address this crisis, we're joined by Bob Kitchen from the International Rescue Committee. He is the vice president of global emergency and humanitarian actions in the Occupied Palestinian Territories. Bob, thanks for joining us. Bob Kitchen: Thanks for having me. Jonah Valdez: So we're speaking on Wednesday, August 6th, and you've worked in humanitarian crises around the world for over two decades. How does what you're seeing in Gaza compare to other famines you've witnessed and what makes this situation unique? Bob Kitchen: Well, I was just gonna say unprecedented, 'unique' is a good term. When we see famines normally, it's normally as a result of the intersection of conflict and then some form of natural disaster, natural hazard where the man-made conflict turbocharges the effects of climate — where whether it's a drought, where food has failed, the crop has failed, where farmers can't get to market because of insecurity. What we're seeing now is not that. We're seeing a purely manmade famine where Gaza, the Gaza Strip, is surrounded by very fertile farming territory. All of the countries around Gaza have more than enough food. So the only thing that's changed is the war, the restrictions on humanitarian aid, the restrictions on the market economy where commercial traffic can't get in. That's the only thing that is driving the hunger right now. JV: And I want to ask you more about those conditions specifically. But first, could you tell us more about the work IRC is doing on the ground to help alleviate hunger and malnutrition? BK: People very rarely die of just hunger. As people get more and more hungry, their system becomes more and more prone to communicable diseases. People normally die of dehydration as a result of dirty water. So our primary focus is on distributing clean water, helping with the sanitation system — so installing and maintaining latrines, cleaning up solid waste and sewers. And then as a secondary priority that is urgent in and of itself, we're looking at nutritional screenings. So we're doing massive screening campaigns to identify particularly children who are themselves slipping into acute malnutrition, and then either helping them or referring them into inpatient care so they can try and stabilize and recover. JV: And as you alluded to, aid organizations, as you know, have been clear that this isn't a supply problem and there's enough food and medical supplies available elsewhere, but the crisis stems from the conditions that the Israeli government has created that prevent aid from reaching people who need it. Can you walk us through the specific logistical barriers your team is facing? BK: It starts with the fact that there's tens of thousands of tons of food waiting to go into Gaza — prepositioned in Jordan, in Egypt, all around, ready to go in. But before any aid is allowed into Gaza, we all have to ask for permission with the government of Israel. It's a long, bureaucratic process. And at the moment, a lot of aid is turned down. It's rejected. It's not allowed in. So for us, for example, we have multiple trucks of what's called RUTF, reinforced therapeutic feeding supplies, that we use to help particularly children, as I said, stabilize and begin the process of recovery from acute malnutrition. We have trucks full of it. We have pharmaceutical supplies ready to go, and we've been asking for permission for almost six months to bring these trucks across the border from Jordan and in through Israel, into the Gaza Strip. It would help thousands of people, particularly children, and we have not been given that permission, so they're just sitting waiting. And that is our situation, but it's mirrored across the tens, hundreds of U.N. agencies and international and local organizations that are trying to provide assistance to the 2 million civilians on the ground who have run out of food. JV: And I want to zoom in a little bit on what you said about these trucks just sitting there and you've been asking for permission for six months, you said. It's worth mentioning the Israeli government, its defenders, and the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation have all propagated this line that aid restrictions are necessary to prevent Hamas from stealing aid and they have to do this for security purposes and that the United Nations is refusing to actually distribute the aid, there's no blockage — despite ever providing evidence to back any of these claims. What do you and IRC make of these explanations and justification for the ongoing blockade? BK: Well, not to put too blunt a point on it, I think they're incorrect. I think they're wrong. I think the humanitarian community, comprised of the United Nations and international organizations like the IRC, have decades of experience working in complex war zones where resources are scant and parties to the conflict frequently try and get their hands on aid. And we have a history of being able to ensure the delivery of humanitarian assistance, food, water, medicines to civilians. We are audited all of the time, all around the world. And what's called aid diversion, where food supplies is stolen by parties to the conflict, is a big issue for auditors. They look at it and take it very seriously, and we pass with flying colors, all of these audits because we know what we're doing. What's more ironic is that we have collectively decades of experience of doing this inside Gaza. I was particularly struck in the last couple of weeks by a New York Times report where a government of Israel, an IDF person, spoke to the fact that based on their assessment there's no evidence of aid diversion. There's no evidence of aid being stolen, of it benefiting Hamas. That seems to be a pretty clear statement to the fact that the previous system run by the United Nations, run by international NGOs, were successful in getting aid through to civilians. And that has now, not completely but almost stopped and has been replaced by another system run by the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation that is struggling to feed less than a quarter of the population. And while they do it, many people are being killed. JV: Right. Right. And thanks for mentioning other coverage disputing some of the lines coming from the Israeli government. I'm wondering if there's anything else, as far as what you would want people to understand about this crisis, that isn't getting through in most media coverage. BK: I think the starting point for me is the fear of providing material support to a terror group is legitimate. But we have a proven track record that the military of Israel has said that — in its own words — is not providing material support to Hamas. And the one thing I know for sure is that you don't create terrorists by feeding very hungry children — it's the inverse. If you don't feed children, if you don't feed a population to the point where they're starving, that's where anger really festers, that's where resistance really builds. So in the overarching theory of change of defeating Hamas, this is not going to work. JV: The IRC website says, 'Gaza is not just experiencing hunger — it is enduring a slow, systematic death by starvation.' The IRC [is] also warning the Israeli government that its 'tactical pause and limited humanitarian corridors will not meaningfully alleviate Gaza's catastrophic hunger crisis.' Could you talk more again about the role the Israeli government is playing in creating and perpetuating this crisis? BK: I will do, but let me just say some things about that statement. JV: Please. BK: It's not just about food. If you reflect on what I said to start with — that people very rarely die of just hunger, it's normally complications that come alongside that. It therefore is not just food that is urgently required. It's food. It's medicine. It's oral rehydration salts to help people recover. It's IVs. It's the materials that we require to be able to give people jerry cans so they can safely store water. It's getting money, cash in to pay our staff and to buy things. Delivering aid to 2 million people who have suffered nearly two years of real violence — it takes everything that a society needs because there's nothing left inside Gaza. So under international humanitarian law, states are obliged to ensure the provision of food, medicine, and water. They're failing to do that at the moment. We're collectively failing to do that because of the restrictions that have been placed on us. But it takes a lot more than that to mitigate the risks that this population is facing after such a long time. And it's the bureaucratic impediments that we have to navigate are broad and well-seated. So requesting aid, getting aid across the primary checkpoint, close to Rafah, getting it — everything is searched, offloaded and searched, put back onto trucks. That's the first major hurdle. But then getting it into Gaza, moving it away from the 'border,' from the checkpoint, and across the territory to where so many people are still based itself is complex because there is a war going on. The pauses that have been declared are short-term. They're focused primarily in the west of the territory, which is on the opposite side of the strip from where the majority of aid is crossing. 'The only solution is an overwhelming amount of aid to go in.' So getting in through an active war zone is possible, but it's not straightforward. And then we're distributing and moving within a population of 2 million that we spent the last 15 minutes talking about extreme levels of hunger — so there is matching levels of desperation. So it is an increasingly insecure place where it is difficult to move around in trucks that have aid in with people surrounding you that are desperate, without them trying to access the aid themselves. So it is a multilayered and complex situation and frankly, the only solution is an overwhelming amount of aid to go in, in a way that is sustained. It will take months of unimpeded and free-flowing aid to catch up with the needs of people so that things can settle down. JV: Right. And you know, you mentioned the desperation. I'm wondering if you could walk us through more of those logistical challenges on the ground that continue in getting aid delivered to Palestinians. There was a stat published by the United Nations that since May, 2,604 U.N. aid trucks have entered the strip, but only a small fraction of those have actually reached their destination. And of course, I think it's worth mentioning that GHF and the Israeli government has said, well, this looting is more evidence that Hamas is doing the looting, that they're stealing aid. Talk about the desperation, the logistical challenges that these aid groups are facing. BK: So it's the right question to ask, and my answer is going to be both understandable and unacceptable at the same time. We don't tolerate crime, we don't tolerate the theft of humanitarian aid — but that's what we're facing right now. As you cross into Gaza — I was there last year, went into Gaza during the war and saw it firsthand — that as soon as the trucks cross the Israeli checkpoint and go into Gaza, they're entering a territory that no longer has law enforcement. What was provided, the police were Hamas. They have been killed. They've taken the uniforms off, they're hiding. They're no longer on the streets for sure. So what you are then faced with as a truck driver, whether you work for the commercial sector or whether you work for NGOs and U.N. agencies, is a very large number of people that are desperate, who will do almost anything to get their hands on food and other aid supplies. Whether to feed their family — that's the majority now — or whether to sell onto the market to make some food, to make some money. Now, the reality is that that crowd that I'm discussing is made up of both criminals who have organized themselves into gangs, unknown armed elements — I don't know their identity. But then there is also civilians, who are taking desperate actions because of the desperation they feel. So, writ large, it's a dangerous situation. High number of aid convoys that have gone in have been looted and others have just not been able to get into the territory because it's so dangerous. So they're able to cross the checkpoint and then they're parked up. So when [the] government of Israel say X number of trucks have passed through the checkpoint — there is a large number of trucks on any given day that are waiting to try and seek some safety before they proceed along one road that is preyed upon on a daily basis by criminals and civilians and other armed elements that are looting the trucks. So it's a very difficult situation, but I will say you can track it back to there is nothing in Gaza. There is no food, there is no commercial traffic coming in, so there's nothing on the market. Inflation is something like 700 percent. Bags of flour sell at close to a hundred dollars at the moment. People don't have any money. There's no work, they have no food. So it is both understandable and unacceptable at the same time. And the only solution is to open multiple gates so it's not just one gate and one road; and flood the Gaza Strip with food and water and medicine. So the level of desperation, the level of criminal opportunity goes down because there's things on the market and people are getting the aid they need. [BREAK] JV: Could you tell me about the major disparity between what's accessible now versus other points of the conflict, specifically during the ceasefire? We're talking GHF, Gaza Humanitarian Foundation, is operating, I believe, four aid sites right now, which is dwarfed by — BK: A drop in the ocean. JV: Right, right. BK: That's the word you're looking for — a drop in the ocean. JV: A drop in the ocean. How many aid sites were there previously? I mean, hundreds right? BK: Hundreds. UNRWA, the U.N. office for the Occupied Palestinian Territories, operated more than 100 sites for distribution. And then alongside them, organizations like the IRC and many other international groups and then Palestinian organizations had their own distribution sites. So there's a number of very bad, worrying things going on here. Number one, it is no longer an issue of the cost of food and other supplies being prohibitive on the market. It's just the fact that there is nothing on the market anymore. No matter how much money you have, you can't readily buy food off the market. So, for example, my staff on the ground in Gaza, we employ just less than 60 Palestinians on the ground — they can't find food. Their children are now starving. Two things that I have never done in the 25 years I've been in the humanitarian industry is number one: I am now serving one meal a day in the office to try desperately to give my staff some food for them to be able to survive. So I'm finding ways to afford and to import food into the Gaza Strip, specifically for my staff. I have done that in other locations where there is no food because of a natural disaster. I've done that when we're just right out in the middle of the desert. I've never done that when there is plentiful food within 25 kilometers. The other thing I'm doing is I'm opening my nutritional programs to the children of my staff. These are well-paid professionals, highly educated, receiving an NGO salary. But they can no longer find the food to be able to feed their children, and their children are officially falling into acute malnutrition. So we're having to open up our programs to our own staff children. We've never done that before. And it speaks to the desperation of the situation and how unacceptable the situation we face is. So in addition to my staff, this is being faced by people across the Gaza Strip. So you asked about the GHF distribution sites, there's some very important things that you should be aware of. Number one, we've seen a decrease from what I was just saying about there being hundreds of distribution sites to only four — which in itself is crazy to try and serve that number of people from just four sites. No wonder they have crowd control issues, no wonder it's a very dangerous situation. What is more worrying is that all of those four sites are in the south of the Gaza Strip, so people are being forced to either move permanently from the north of the Garza Strip down into the south, so there's a greater concentration of desperation, mouths to feed. There's no resources, but whatever resources there are, they're now stretched even further because of the density of the population who have walked down. And if they do try and travel down and then return, they're crossing multiple checkpoints that the government of Israel has installed, which themselves are very dangerous. So either the profile of the population is being forced to change, where people are traveling to the south to find food. Or people are taking double risks by moving down north, south across the strip, across multiple checkpoints before they even take on the danger of going to the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation sites, which themselves are extremely dangerous. JV: Could you talk more about from a health care standpoint of the actual physical toll and the health toll on the body that something like malnutrition has in the short term, in the long term, up until someone's death, or if they happen to survive it? BK: I will flag that I am neither a doctor or a nutritionist. I am proudly a generalist. So I'll tell you what I know, and this is born of working in some of the most severe food security situations around the world, but I'm not a doctor. So there's two groups that we are most concerned about. Obviously under 5s are where we really focus a lot of our attention on because of two pressures. Number one, when you've yet to reach the age of 5, your system is developing in an accelerated fashion and requires nutrition to be able to do so. So if you are starved of nutrients — of food — your development is profoundly and irreversibly impacted, so that results in wasting and stunting. So you may not be able to fulfill your potential of growth. Your organs will not develop in the way they're supposed to. So there is a chance of long-term illness. So that is profoundly serious for this population in the long term, given the number of children who are still in that developmental phase. The other pressure that young kids face is that they're so much more vulnerable to food security. They have less reserves. So if a kid under 5 doesn't get the food they need, they more rapidly move toward the danger zone of severe acute malnutrition where intervention is urgently required, and without it, they will pass away. So what that looks like for them and in a slower way for older children and then adults because of the reserves that we develop as we grow older, is that your system starts to close down. So the body prioritizes getting nutrition, nutrients to your brain. So your major organs start to close down, you are very susceptible to outbreaks and diseases that are sadly common in this type of environment. So, as I said earlier, people rarely die of just acute hunger. What they normally die of is diarrhea — acute watery diarrhea — where they're eating in unsanitary environments. The food is dirty, their hands are dirty as they're eating, or they're drinking contaminated water. That gives them — what we would see as an upset stomach — what they see is a life-threatening disease because as soon as you get acute watery diarrhea or diarrhea of any form, your system is rapidly becoming dehydrated. And that is a cause of death when you're that hungry. JV: Not to mention individuals who may have preexisting conditions. BK: Oh, for sure. JV: I'm wondering if you could say more about people with injuries from airstrikes or military operations. How it's even more— I've seen reporting [say] that it's more difficult to recover from those injuries when malnourished or lacking food. BK: I'm not a doctor, but this is not brain surgery. This is simple math. Your body requires more good nutrients to recover from injury, to rebuild bones or heal wounds, or recover even just from trauma. So when you don't have those, the healing process is slow or non-existent. And because of the trauma that your body's trying to handle and trying to keep the systems running, you have less resilience and therefore things start closing down more rapidly. It's terrible for the individuals who have already suffered violence and injuries to now not get the nutrients they need to recover. JV: Right. And in preparing for this interview, one of your colleagues mentioned that there's a real potential for a lost generation in Gaza. What does that mean? BK: They're probably referring to what I was referring to before: the children who [are] unable to develop in the way they need to, whether that's physical or brain power. Brain function is affected by lack of nutrition, lack of growth — developmental. So there's a real risk of physical constraints. But it doesn't need to be even that. It can be: We're now two years into there not being any schools. So there is a generation of children who are not only deeply traumatized, but they also don't have access to education. They don't have the ability to continue to develop, have normal relationships with other kids, [and] have normal relationships with anyone because of the violence that they're surrounded by. JV: Thanks for that. So last month, as I'm sure you know, more than 100 humanitarian aid and human rights organizations signed a letter urging for governments to act — to push the Israeli government for an immediate ceasefire and to end the siege, and immediate flood of aid. Things we've talked about here in this conversation. And I noticed that IRC was notably absent from the letter, which included other notable organizations such as Doctors Without Borders, Amnesty International, MedGlobal, CARE. I'm wondering, I just want to give you a chance to explain IRC's thinking around this issue and why IRC didn't join other aid groups in making these calls in that letter at least. BK: Yeah, it's a simple answer. Much of that letter is right on the money. We agree with it completely, but as an organization, we prioritize the continuation of delivery of services on the ground. So we've chosen to prioritize staff safety and program continuity over signing joint letters such as that one. JV: On a similar topic, as you know, some humanitarian organizations, a growing number of organizations are using the word 'genocide' to describe what's happening in Gaza. I'm wondering where does IRC stand on that? BK: We stand as a humanitarian organization. We [are] approaching 100 years of experience helping communities affected by conflict around the world. But we're a humanitarian organization rather than a human rights organization. We don't feel as though we have the mandate or expertise to be able to define, to make that decision ourselves. We'll leave that to the responsible courts and member states who have to judge that. I hope they do soon. JV: Yeah. And speaking of courts and this shift in the past week that we've been seeing in tone across the globe from the U.K., France, and Canada signaling they're ready to accept Palestinian statehood to a U.S. Senate vote last week where a record number of Democrats voted against a weapons deal with Israel. And new polls showing the majority of Americans disapprove of Israel's offensive in Gaza. I'm wondering in terms of accountability, who has the power to change the situation that we laid out, that you laid out in the conversation today, and what pressure points exist to make that happen? And more specifically, what can the U.S. government and other western governments as well as average Americans do in this moment? BK: Yeah, I think it's going to take — a very American sports term — but a full court press from all member states, international governments, to convey to the government of Israel that it's enough that 2 million civilians are suffering and are dying. And the violence on October 7 was unforgivable. But more violence is not the answer. More death is not the answer. So the only route forward is a ceasefire and the release of all of the hostages immediately. And, as we discussed before, an overwhelming flood of humanitarian aid going into Gaza to protect against more loss of life. JV: And to close, are there any final thoughts that you wanted to share? BK: Only to say thank you for your interest. It is part of what we were just discussing. The whole world needs to convey through their governments, through their elected officials, that there's been enough suffering, there's been enough loss of life, and the way forward is a ceasefire, and that needs to happen now. That won't happen unless elected officials hear from people — interested members of the population — saying enough. So they can then turn around. I think your question earlier about the U.S. government, I think the U.S. government is one of the only governments in the world that has the influence still to say to the government of Israel that we understand your suffering. We understand the need to get your people back, the hostages back, but the route forward is the ceasefire and it needs to happen now. JV: Well, thanks for joining me on the Intercept Briefing. BK: Thank you for having me. JV: That does it for this episode of The Intercept Briefing. We want to hear from you. Share your story with us at 530-POD-CAST. That's 530-763-2278. You can also email us at podcasts at the intercept dot com. This episode was produced by Laura Flynn. Sumi Aggarwal is our executive producer. Ben Muessig is our editor-in-chief. Chelsey B. Coombs is our social and video producer. Fei Liu is our product and design manager. Nara Shin is our copy editor. Will Stanton mixed our show. Legal review by Shawn Musgrave. And transcript by Anya Mehta. Slip Stream provided our theme music. You can support our work at Your donation, no matter the amount, makes a real difference. If you haven't already, please subscribe to The Intercept Briefing wherever you listen to podcasts. And tell all of your friends about us, and better yet, leave us a rating or review to help other listeners find us. Until next time, I'm Jonah Valdez. Thanks for listening.
