How Gaza's hospitals became a battleground against Israeli bombs and hunger
'We go to work sometimes without eating and we treat patients while actually feeling dizzy, lightheaded and weak,' said Dr. Mohammed Abu Mughaisib, a physician working in the territory. 'The starvation is not just hitting families in Gaza it's hitting the health workers too.'
Gaza's health sector has been decimated by Israel's devastating military assault. Hospitals have been bombed, doctors killed and detained, and medical supplies cut off.
Beleaguered and bloodied, health care workers are now locked in a daily struggle against hunger and malnutrition affecting people across the entire territory.
If the medical staff cannot eat and are not strong enough to perform the painstaking work needed to treat a battered and malnourished population, the situation can only deteriorate.
In accounts provided to Arab News from medical charities, hospital workers have described their daily struggles to find enough food to sustain them through their long shifts and feed their families.
They describe colleagues fainting at work, struggling to continue their lifesaving care for those bombed, starved and shot at as they try to reach the meagre food supplies making it into the territory.
Abu Mughaisib, who is the deputy medical coordinator for Medecins Sans Frontieres in Gaza, said that despite the decades of conflict affecting the territory, he never imagined such a situation.
He said most days he and his colleagues eat only one basic meal of bread with canned food or lentils.
Some days the market is completely empty, and there are never any vegetables, fruit, or meat.
'Honestly, we don't have options,' he said, almost anticipating that those outside of Gaza would not believe him.
'In the hospitals there is no food for the medical staff. Some health workers faint during their shift. They clean the wounds, they deliver babies, and perform surgeries on empty stomachs.
'Some of my colleagues started to lose weight rapidly. Some of them cannot produce milk to breastfeed their babies. This is not just burnout this is real physical starvation.'
Dr. Saeed Salah, medical director of the Patient's Friends Benevolent Society Hospital in northern Gaza, described the food shortages as the 'greatest crisis' his colleagues and patients have faced.
'Some members of our medical staff themselves are malnourished and can no longer sustain the energy needed to perform their duties,' he said, in response to Arab News questions passed through the charity Medical Aid for Palestinians.
'Our emergency ward is overwhelmed with people who haven't eaten for days and are in urgent need of IV fluids. In over 21 months of operating under crisis, we've never seen days like these.'
Summer Al-Jamal, a finance and admin assistant for MAP based at Nasser Hospital in southern Gaza, described the situation there as 'deeply distressing.'
The hospital has been inundated with victims from shooting attacks on Palestinians gathered at aid distribution hubs nearby, as well as patients injured from Israeli bombings, or who are sick.
Increasingly, they have been treating malnourished families and their children.
'The hospital is heavily burdened with departments overwhelmed by trauma cases and critically injured patients,' she said after a recent visit to the facility. 'The scale of suffering and the intensity of the emergency were unlike anything I had witnessed before.
• Two of three famine thresholds have been reached in Gaza, according to the Integrated Food Security Phase Classification platform.
• Hunger cases crowd Gaza's overwhelmed hospitals, 94 percent of which are damaged or destroyed, the WHO said.
'The medical staff appear exhausted, physically and emotionally. Many looked pale, fatigued, and undernourished. The toll of the past weeks had left them drained.'
After Israel launched its latest Gaza campaign in response to the Hamas-led attack in October 2023, the territory's health service soon came under fire.
Casualties surged into hospitals, and the facilities also became targets for Israeli airstrikes. Nearly two years into the conflict, the health service is broken.
Of the 36 hospitals in the territory before Israel's current war on Gaza, only 18 remain partially operational, and less than 40 percent of primary health care facilities are still functional, according to the World Health Organization.
All the facilities have been damaged and are flooded with patients far beyond their maximum operating capacities.
Gaza's Health Ministry says Israeli forces have killed more than 1,500 Palestinian health workers since October 2023, with the WHO recording at least 700 attacks on health care facilities in the territory.
Doctors and hospital staff have been detained, and more than 10,000 critically ill patients need to be evacuated.
And then there is the dwindling medical supplies. Israel imposed a complete 11-week blockade on Gaza in March, leading to desperate shortages of medicines and equipment for hospitals, along with basic food for the entire population.
The main UN agency distributing aid was forced to stop operating and was eventually replaced by the US- and Israeli-run Gaza Humanitarian Foundation. Some supplies have resumed but at a fraction of what aid agencies say is required.
The dire situation for the health sector was further exacerbated by the sharp increase in casualties last month as Israel ramped up its campaign in the face of an international outcry and widespread accusations of genocide.
The WHO reported 13,500 injuries in Gaza in July — the highest since the first three months of Israel's war on the territory. Many of these took place when Israeli troops repeatedly opened fire on crowds of Palestinians as they waited to collect food from GHF distribution points.
Amid all the carnage, the shortage of food means Gaza's people are now dying from starvation.
Late last month, the Integrated Food Security Phase Classification, a global initiative that analyses food security, warned that the 'worst-case scenario of famine is currently playing out in Gaza.' The body said there would be 'widespread death' without immediate action.
The Gaza Health Ministry said on Monday that 263 Palestinians had died of malnutrition and starvation, including 112 children, since the war started.
Images of emaciated children being treated at hospitals have shocked the global community in recent weeks.
Israeli officials have claimed the numbers are inflated and that the children died from pre-existing health conditions. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has dismissed reports of severe hunger as Hamas 'lies' and insisted last week there is 'no policy of starvation.'
His claims are at odds with those of doctors working in the territory, who have seen a surge in severe malnutrition cases.
Rowida Sabbah, MAP's nutrition program lead in southern Gaza, described a recent case of a mother and her two children, aged 5 and 7, who had not eaten any bread for two months.
'For two days she had only been able to give them just water,' Sabbah said. The mother finally reached a medical hub for help. 'She was crying when she received the supplies,' she said.
'Every time I see children suffering from severe hunger and wasting away, my heart breaks. They beg for anything … even just a slice of bread with a pinch of salt. That's all they hope for.'
For medical staff, the food shortages have pushed them to breaking point. Accounts given to Arab News describe the daily battle to source the most meagre of supplies, and desperate searches for small quantities of flour now selling at vastly inflated prices.
'Even health workers, already stretched to their physical and mental limits, are working long hours on little food, growing weaker as shortages persist,' Dr. Rik Peeperkorn, the WHO representative for the occupied Palestinian territory, told Arab News.
'No one can sustain this, yet they keep showing up because patients have no one else. We call for large-scale aid, including diverse and nutritious food, to be allowed via all routes.'
Support for Gaza's medical teams has also come from more than 100 fellow health workers around the world who have spent time working in the territory during the conflict.
Last week they signed a letter expressing solidarity with their Palestinian colleagues as they are 'starved and shot by Israel' as part of a 'methodical attack' of the health system.
'Doctors, nurses, and first responders are all rapidly losing weight due to forced starvation at the hands of the Israeli government,' the letter stated.
'Many suffer from hunger, dizziness and fainting episodes while performing operations and triaging patients in emergency rooms. Most have been displaced into tents after being forced from their homes, and many are surviving on less than a single serving of rice a day.'
The letter called for the immediate release of detained health workers, an end to attacks on medical facilities, and the lifting of Israel's blockade of humanitarian supplies.
With little sign of progress on a ceasefire and Israel's ramping up of military operations around Gaza City, doctors in the territory are bracing for things to get even worse.
Yet despite their hardship, they are working to provide the best treatment possible to a people brutalized by Israel's war.
'We are also facing a severe shortage of therapeutic infant formula,' Salah at the PFBS hospital said, focusing on the immediate challenges.
'Mothers are dehydrated and unable to breastfeed, and pregnant women are suffering complications and are at increased risk of miscarriage. Malnourished patients are deteriorating.
'Without urgent intervention, more lives will be lost.'
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Arab News
14 hours ago
- Arab News
How Gaza's hospitals became a battleground against Israeli bombs and hunger
LONDON: In Gaza's overwhelmed hospitals, doctors, nurses and other medical staff are battling against what many fear could be their most insurmountable challenge in nearly two years of Israel's war on the territory's people — hunger. 'We go to work sometimes without eating and we treat patients while actually feeling dizzy, lightheaded and weak,' said Dr. Mohammed Abu Mughaisib, a physician working in the territory. 'The starvation is not just hitting families in Gaza it's hitting the health workers too.' Gaza's health sector has been decimated by Israel's devastating military assault. Hospitals have been bombed, doctors killed and detained, and medical supplies cut off. Beleaguered and bloodied, health care workers are now locked in a daily struggle against hunger and malnutrition affecting people across the entire territory. If the medical staff cannot eat and are not strong enough to perform the painstaking work needed to treat a battered and malnourished population, the situation can only deteriorate. In accounts provided to Arab News from medical charities, hospital workers have described their daily struggles to find enough food to sustain them through their long shifts and feed their families. They describe colleagues fainting at work, struggling to continue their lifesaving care for those bombed, starved and shot at as they try to reach the meagre food supplies making it into the territory. Abu Mughaisib, who is the deputy medical coordinator for Medecins Sans Frontieres in Gaza, said that despite the decades of conflict affecting the territory, he never imagined such a situation. He said most days he and his colleagues eat only one basic meal of bread with canned food or lentils. Some days the market is completely empty, and there are never any vegetables, fruit, or meat. 'Honestly, we don't have options,' he said, almost anticipating that those outside of Gaza would not believe him. 'In the hospitals there is no food for the medical staff. Some health workers faint during their shift. They clean the wounds, they deliver babies, and perform surgeries on empty stomachs. 'Some of my colleagues started to lose weight rapidly. Some of them cannot produce milk to breastfeed their babies. This is not just burnout this is real physical starvation.' Dr. Saeed Salah, medical director of the Patient's Friends Benevolent Society Hospital in northern Gaza, described the food shortages as the 'greatest crisis' his colleagues and patients have faced. 'Some members of our medical staff themselves are malnourished and can no longer sustain the energy needed to perform their duties,' he said, in response to Arab News questions passed through the charity Medical Aid for Palestinians. 'Our emergency ward is overwhelmed with people who haven't eaten for days and are in urgent need of IV fluids. In over 21 months of operating under crisis, we've never seen days like these.' Summer Al-Jamal, a finance and admin assistant for MAP based at Nasser Hospital in southern Gaza, described the situation there as 'deeply distressing.' The hospital has been inundated with victims from shooting attacks on Palestinians gathered at aid distribution hubs nearby, as well as patients injured from Israeli bombings, or who are sick. Increasingly, they have been treating malnourished families and their children. 'The hospital is heavily burdened with departments overwhelmed by trauma cases and critically injured patients,' she said after a recent visit to the facility. 'The scale of suffering and the intensity of the emergency were unlike anything I had witnessed before. • Two of three famine thresholds have been reached in Gaza, according to the Integrated Food Security Phase Classification platform. • Hunger cases crowd Gaza's overwhelmed hospitals, 94 percent of which are damaged or destroyed, the WHO said. 'The medical staff appear exhausted, physically and emotionally. Many looked pale, fatigued, and undernourished. The toll of the past weeks had left them drained.' After Israel launched its latest Gaza campaign in response to the Hamas-led attack in October 2023, the territory's health service soon came under fire. Casualties surged into hospitals, and the facilities also became targets for Israeli airstrikes. Nearly two years into the conflict, the health service is broken. Of the 36 hospitals in the territory before Israel's current war on Gaza, only 18 remain partially operational, and less than 40 percent of primary health care facilities are still functional, according to the World Health Organization. All the facilities have been damaged and are flooded with patients far beyond their maximum operating capacities. Gaza's Health Ministry says Israeli forces have killed more than 1,500 Palestinian health workers since October 2023, with the WHO recording at least 700 attacks on health care facilities in the territory. Doctors and hospital staff have been detained, and more than 10,000 critically ill patients need to be evacuated. And then there is the dwindling medical supplies. Israel imposed a complete 11-week blockade on Gaza in March, leading to desperate shortages of medicines and equipment for hospitals, along with basic food for the entire population. The main UN agency distributing aid was forced to stop operating and was eventually replaced by the US- and Israeli-run Gaza Humanitarian Foundation. Some supplies have resumed but at a fraction of what aid agencies say is required. The dire situation for the health sector was further exacerbated by the sharp increase in casualties last month as Israel ramped up its campaign in the face of an international outcry and widespread accusations of genocide. The WHO reported 13,500 injuries in Gaza in July — the highest since the first three months of Israel's war on the territory. Many of these took place when Israeli troops repeatedly opened fire on crowds of Palestinians as they waited to collect food from GHF distribution points. Amid all the carnage, the shortage of food means Gaza's people are now dying from starvation. Late last month, the Integrated Food Security Phase Classification, a global initiative that analyses food security, warned that the 'worst-case scenario of famine is currently playing out in Gaza.' The body said there would be 'widespread death' without immediate action. The Gaza Health Ministry said on Monday that 263 Palestinians had died of malnutrition and starvation, including 112 children, since the war started. Images of emaciated children being treated at hospitals have shocked the global community in recent weeks. Israeli officials have claimed the numbers are inflated and that the children died from pre-existing health conditions. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has dismissed reports of severe hunger as Hamas 'lies' and insisted last week there is 'no policy of starvation.' His claims are at odds with those of doctors working in the territory, who have seen a surge in severe malnutrition cases. Rowida Sabbah, MAP's nutrition program lead in southern Gaza, described a recent case of a mother and her two children, aged 5 and 7, who had not eaten any bread for two months. 'For two days she had only been able to give them just water,' Sabbah said. The mother finally reached a medical hub for help. 'She was crying when she received the supplies,' she said. 'Every time I see children suffering from severe hunger and wasting away, my heart breaks. They beg for anything … even just a slice of bread with a pinch of salt. That's all they hope for.' For medical staff, the food shortages have pushed them to breaking point. Accounts given to Arab News describe the daily battle to source the most meagre of supplies, and desperate searches for small quantities of flour now selling at vastly inflated prices. 'Even health workers, already stretched to their physical and mental limits, are working long hours on little food, growing weaker as shortages persist,' Dr. Rik Peeperkorn, the WHO representative for the occupied Palestinian territory, told Arab News. 'No one can sustain this, yet they keep showing up because patients have no one else. We call for large-scale aid, including diverse and nutritious food, to be allowed via all routes.' Support for Gaza's medical teams has also come from more than 100 fellow health workers around the world who have spent time working in the territory during the conflict. Last week they signed a letter expressing solidarity with their Palestinian colleagues as they are 'starved and shot by Israel' as part of a 'methodical attack' of the health system. 'Doctors, nurses, and first responders are all rapidly losing weight due to forced starvation at the hands of the Israeli government,' the letter stated. 'Many suffer from hunger, dizziness and fainting episodes while performing operations and triaging patients in emergency rooms. Most have been displaced into tents after being forced from their homes, and many are surviving on less than a single serving of rice a day.' The letter called for the immediate release of detained health workers, an end to attacks on medical facilities, and the lifting of Israel's blockade of humanitarian supplies. With little sign of progress on a ceasefire and Israel's ramping up of military operations around Gaza City, doctors in the territory are bracing for things to get even worse. Yet despite their hardship, they are working to provide the best treatment possible to a people brutalized by Israel's war. 'We are also facing a severe shortage of therapeutic infant formula,' Salah at the PFBS hospital said, focusing on the immediate challenges. 'Mothers are dehydrated and unable to breastfeed, and pregnant women are suffering complications and are at increased risk of miscarriage. Malnourished patients are deteriorating. 'Without urgent intervention, more lives will be lost.'
Arab News
17 hours ago
- Arab News
Disease, hunger, war: Sudan's overlooked emergency
The toll of the war in Sudan goes far beyond damaged infrastructure and lost lives — it has inflicted deep wounds on the dignity of its people. Families are torn apart, healthcare systems lie in ruins, and routine medical care has become a distant memory. The conflict has turned everyday survival into a monumental challenge; civilians face violence, displacement, hunger, and illness without access to even basic health services. This unfolding tragedy not only undermines the past sense of normalcy but also erodes hope. The inability to care for the sick and vulnerable assaults the core of human dignity. Hospitals have been attacked, clinics looted and occupied, and health workers have either fled, been threatened, or paid with their lives. These are not just physical injuries — this is a psychological blow to a nation's spirit. Over the past two years, the war between the Sudanese Armed Forces and the Rapid Support Forces has turned critical portions of the health system into ghost towns. Almost 38 percent of health facilities have been rendered nonfunctional, and just 14 percent of hospitals still operate at full capacity, according to assessments by the World Health Organization's HeRAMS monitoring program. Khartoum — once the heartbeat of Sudan's health services, providing close to 70 percent of national care — has been particularly devastated. In many areas, medical facilities lie in ruins, with equipment destroyed or looted, and essential supply chains severed. Physical buildings are one thing, but the collapse of system-wide structure is far worse. Laboratories have shut down, pharmacies stand empty, vaccine cold chains have failed, and even simple medicines like antibiotics or insulin are scarce. Without trained staff, even basic functions like triage or sanitation are impossible. Women face childbirth without skilled attendants; patients with chronic conditions, such as diabetes, hypertension, or kidney disease, are ignored. The interruption of services for dialysis, antenatal care, and trauma threatens countless lives every day. On top of this devastation, Sudan is in the grip of multiple, overlapping epidemics. Cholera has spread to almost all of the country's states, overwhelming treatment centers, particularly in Darfur, where the toll has been especially heavy. Measles, once controlled through routine immunization, is surging, with almost 10,000 cases treated by Medecins Sans Frontieres clinics between June 2024 and May 2025. Hundreds of thousands of children have not received any vaccines, leaving them vulnerable to preventable diseases. Malaria cases are also surging, though true numbers are likely underreported due to collapsed surveillance systems. Alarmingly, 3.4 million children under five are at heightened risk from diseases such as pneumonia, diarrhea, malaria, and measles. This confluence of disease and conflict is happening alongside a humanitarian catastrophe. More than two-thirds of the population now needs aid, with millions facing famine-level hunger. Food shortages, coupled with skyrocketing prices and population displacement, have left countless Sudanese on the brink of starvation. Even in areas not directly under fire, malnutrition is causing immune systems to fail, making people more vulnerable to illness, and more likely to die of what would, in normal times, be treatable or preventable ailments. If current trends continue unchecked, Sudan faces a bleak future. Without functional health services, disease outbreaks will repeat year after year, claiming lives in waves. Preventable deaths will climb as complications from childbirth, infections, and chronic illnesses go untreated. Starvation will weaken the population further, creating a cycle of suffering that deepens with each passing season. Deaths will not just be tallied in tolls from violence but will come quietly, in homes, camps, and the streets. Moreover, Sudan's collapse is already spilling beyond its borders. The country hosts one of the largest internal displacement crises globally, and refugees fleeing by the hundreds of thousands are crossing into Chad, South Sudan, Egypt, and beyond. Overcrowded, under-resourced camps have become breeding grounds for disease, with cholera and measles now spreading across borders. Neighboring countries, many also with fragile systems, risk being overwhelmed. Healthcare resources are being diverted, budgets strained, and regional stability is compromised. Without immediate action, the ripple effects may reach even further, testing the resilience of health systems across the Horn of Africa, Sahel, and along vital Red Sea trade corridors. The need for international intervention is both urgent and obvious. A powerful, coordinated response could make the difference between controlled recovery and irreversible collapse. First and foremost, a ceasefire that ensures safe humanitarian corridors is essential. Without peace, or at least reliable access, aid cannot reach those in need. Humanitarian pauses would allow for the repair of water systems, delivery of vaccines, restoration of cold chains, and evacuation of the critically ill. Protection of healthcare must be enforced. More than 600 verified attacks on health facilities since 2023 have destroyed the very structures meant to save lives. Healthcare deserves the highest levels of international legal protection, and perpetrators must be held accountable for destroying hospitals and killing health workers. Every day of inaction means more children dying. Dr. Majid Rafizadeh Donations to support lifesaving health and nutrition interventions are urgently needed. WHO, UNICEF, MSF, International Rescue Committee, and other front-line responders are operating with huge funding gaps. Without emergency financing, services such as oral cholera vaccination, measles campaigns, mobile clinics, trauma kits, and nutrition support will fail. Fuel for generators and cold chains, oxygen for acute care, food for malnourished children, and medicines for chronic patients must be prioritized immediately. High-impact campaigns such as mass vaccinations, and water, sanitation, and hygiene interventions can break disease cycles. Mobile outreach services should follow displaced populations and deliver care even in remote areas. More oral cholera and measles vaccines, hygiene kits, and water chlorination are proven, cost-effective tools. For vulnerable border areas, pre-positioned supplies and technical support can contain the spread of diseases beyond Sudan. Front-line NGOs deserve both support and freedom to operate. They provide surgical services, treat cholera and malnutrition, and keep fragile systems alive in impossible conditions. Unrestricted, flexible funding and eased logistics are lifelines that save lives. In sum, Sudan's health emergency is one of the most urgent global crises of our time. The world cannot afford complacency or wait for a 'window of opportunity' that may never come. Every day of inaction means more children dying from preventable illnesses, more mothers perishing in childbirth, and more families stripped of their dignity. A concerted, compassionate response anchored in humanitarian principles and fueled by international solidarity still has power to prevent further catastrophe. But time is running out — and with it, the chance to preserve the lives and futures of millions.
Arab News
17 hours ago
- Arab News
Israeli government has lost all trace of its humanity
I grew up with stories of starvation at home. Both my parents somehow survived, only just, this horrible fate during the Second World War. My mother was in Stalingrad and my father in a concentration camp in Poland, suffering from that slow and agonizing process of wasting away. Their stories, and those of others who did not survive, exposed me from a young age to this type of cruelty, which one group of human beings is capable of inflicting on another at times of war and conflict. Tragically for humanity, we have completely failed to eradicate it. Starvation, if it doesn't kill you, will induce severe long-term mental and other health vulnerabilities and adversely affect one's life expectancy. Having lived my formative years among those who had suffered from extreme hunger and its consequences, I feel sickened and distressed by the images of starved people in Gaza. It feels personal. Some might argue it evokes a secondary trauma and the inability to reconcile with the fact that no empathy or compassion are being shown by today's Israeli government, not to the very young or old or anyone else there. I can already hear the chorus of criticism for comparing what is taking place in Gaza with the Holocaust. I won't do this, because this is not what matters now and is not my intention. A starved person, especially when their condition is human-made and avoidable, is the victim of a brutality that has no place in a civilized society. And those who are in a position to stop it but do not do so must be held accountable. For a nation that includes so many of its people who suffered the fate of starvation and either perished as a result or somehow survived, there must be an obligation and an expectation to be particularly sensitive to its recent history and to refuse to be complicit, in any way, shape or form, in causing the starvation of other people. Alas, this is not the case. The World Health Organization reports that malnutrition in Gaza is on a dangerous trajectory, marked by a spike in deaths in July. 'Of 74 malnutrition-related deaths in 2025, 63 occurred in July — including 24 children under five, a child over five, and 38 adults … (and) their bodies showing clear signs of severe wasting.' In the first two weeks of last month alone, more than 5,000 children under five were admitted for outpatient treatment of malnutrition, nearly a fifth of them with severe acute malnutrition. According to the Integrated Food Security Phase Classification platform, two out of three famine thresholds have been reached in Gaza: plummeting food consumption and acute malnutrition. There is mounting evidence that 'widespread starvation, malnutrition and disease' are driving a rise in hunger-related deaths, which is the third famine indicator, but not yet on levels where famine can be formally declared. A starved person, especially when their condition is avoidable, is the victim of a brutality that has no place in a civilized society. Yossi Mekelberg The Israeli government, and first and foremost Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, are denying the fact of starvation or hunger in Gaza, something that has even angered the PM's close backer, US President Donald Trump. Netanyahu does not sound convincing by first denying that there is a severe shortage of food despite mounting evidence to the contrary and then accusing Hamas of causing these shortages that he denies exist. In reality, Israel could have prevented this acute shortage of food by flooding, so to speak, the place with food to circumvent anyone who tries to control the food market, for either racketeering or political gain, and by that deprive them of having any leverage over the Gazan population. To meet the basic needs of the 2.1 million people who live in Gaza, there is a need for 62,000 tonnes of food staples monthly. In a decision that represents both extreme callousness and a complete lack of judgment, in the months of March and April, Israel did not allow any food to enter Gaza. Then, under international pressure, a trickle of food was allowed in, but only about a quarter of what was required. This slowed the trajectory of Gaza's descent into starvation, but it did not stop it. Moreover, the Israeli decision to declare war on UNRWA and other UN agencies that were best equipped to provide humanitarian aid to Palestinians in Gaza — thanks to their experience and the trust they enjoy with the local population — has backfired. The failed attempt to replace these organizations with the American-backed Gaza Humanitarian Fund resulted in not enough food entering Gaza. And, to make things worse, according to the UN, at least 1,373 Palestinians have been killed while seeking food — 859 in the vicinity of this group's sites and 514 along the food delivery routes. Supplying humanitarian aid by airdrops was mainly a PR exercise and it has delivered only a fraction of the quantities needed, and at times led to the deaths of those desperate to get food. Those are the facts and, without an urgent, immediate and substantial increase in the supply of food and medicine, we are likely to see an exponential rise in the number of those dying from hunger — meanwhile, there is heartless political wrangling over who is to blame. As there is mounting evidence of many and various war crimes committed in Gaza, mass starvation is the one that has led the international community, at last, to voice its grave concerns and apply some pressure on Israel, albeit with limited results, to end this inhumane policy and start allowing food in. It is simply beyond comprehension how this Israeli government could have lost all trace of its humanity and morality, not to mention its basic common sense, and sunk to a new low of withdrawing the most basic needs for subsistence from people who have already suffered immeasurable loss and pain. Nothing has united the world in its criticism of Israel, not before the war and not during it, more than its inflicting of such degrees of hunger and distress in Gaza. If future historians should look at one single aspect of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict that gave the impetus for leading Western countries such as the UK, France and Canada, among others, to recognize the Palestinian state — or for Germany of all countries to impose a partial military embargo — it would most probably be this current Israeli government's decision that starving the people of Gaza is permissible and might serve Israeli interests. No one else shares this view. Alexander Solzhenitsyn, the Soviet and Russian author and dissident who was incarcerated in Stalin's gulag prison system, wrote on this experience in his book 'One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich': 'That bowl of soup — it was dearer than freedom, dearer than life itself, past, present and future.' Those who deliberately deprive people of food do so because they want their total submission, which is Israel's intention in Gaza. • Yossi Mekelberg is professor of international relations and an associate fellow of the MENA Program at Chatham House. X: @YMekelberg
