Ann Arbor (Informed Comment) – The known deaths from starvation of Palestinian children in Gaza hospitals rose to 16 on Monday. This is a fraction of the actual such deaths, since Israel has put most of the Strip’s hospitals out of commission and many infants and children are dying of malnutrition at home. In February, Israel let only half as many food and aid trucks into Gaza as it had in January, with UN and other aid workers warning that mass starvation of 500,000 people is imminent if these policies continue.
The response of some in the Biden administration to do an end-run around President Joe Biden’s studied unconcern with these child deaths by joining in a Jordanian air drop effort ends up being more a public relations effort than an effective food provision strategy. On Sunday, the US air-dropped 38,000 meals for 2.2 million people, which is like putting a band aid on an amputated leg. Air drops are costly and inefficient and would be rendered unnecessary if Israel allowed in sufficient food aid and actually began governing this territory it military occupies instead of playing shooting fish in a barrel with it.
Although the Biden administration says it has pleaded with the fascist government of Binyamin Netanyahu to allow in more food trucks, the US doesn’t have to beg. The Israelis ran out of ammunition a long time ago, and can only continue to bomb and shell Gaza because Mr. Biden supplies them with the requisite rockets and shells on a daily basis. After the Israeli government promised to let in more flour under (mild) US pressure, fascist Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich said that he personally intervened to sequester the flour and keep it from going into Gaza. Unless Biden cuts off the arms supplies, his PR pleadings that he wishes Netanyahu and his black shirts would behave more humanely are just bunk.
Israel’s indiscriminate bombing of civilian structures and refugee camps has killed some 12,500 children, but many times that are in danger of dying of lack of food and potable water. UN’s OCHA reports that “Between the afternoon of 1 March and 10:30 on 4 March, according to the MoH in Gaza, 306 Palestinians were killed, and 543 Palestinians were injured, including 124 killed and 210 injured in the past 24 hours.” These deaths are disproportionately women and children and cannot be justified as a war on “Hamas,” since you cannot destroy a clan-based guerrilla movement with bombing raids on densely populated buildings and camps.
Ten-year-old Yazan al-Kafarneh put a face on the horrifying phenomenon of deliberate child starvation as a weapon of war when pictures of his leathery, emaciated little corpse emerged onto the internet.
“Yazan al-Kafarneh,” by Juan Cole, 2024, Digital, LunaPic/ IbisPaint.
World Health Organization chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus reported on a visit by WHO aid workers to two hospitals in northern Gaza over the weekend.
- “Grim findings during @WHO visits to Al-Awda and Kamal Adwan hospitals in northern #Gaza: severe levels of malnutrition, children dying of starvation, serious shortages of fuel, food and medical supplies, hospital buildings destroyed.
The visits over the weekend were the first since early October 2023 despite our efforts to gain more regular access to the north of Gaza.
The situation at Al-Awda Hospital is particularly appalling, as one of the buildings is destroyed.
Kamal Adwan Hospital is the only paediatrics hospital in the north of Gaza, and is overwhelmed with patients. The lack of food resulted in the deaths of 10 children. The lack of electricity poses a serious threat to patient care, especially in critical areas like the intensive care unit and the neonatal unit.
We managed to deliver 9,500 litres of fuel to each hospital, and some essential medical supplies. This is a fraction of the urgent lifesaving needs.
We appeal to Israel to ensure humanitarian aid can be delivered safely, and regularly. Civilians, especially children, and health staff need scaled-up help immediately. But the key medicine all these patients need is peace. Ceasefire.”
Given this situation, and the way in which the US is deeply implicated in these starvation deaths, the air drop comes across as a tasteless gimmick, a mere blowing of kisses to dying children.