The NGO Human Rights Watch (HRW) this Monday accused the Israeli government of “deliberately” using hunger as a weapon of war against Palestinian civilians as part of its military operations against the Islamic Resistance Movement (Hamas) in the Gaza Strip. “For more than two months, Israel has been depriving people of Gaza of food and water, a policy promoted or supported by senior Israeli officials and which reflects an intent to starve civilians as a method of warfare. World leaders should speak out against it.” “It is a heinous war crime that is having a devastating impact on the people of Gaza,” said Omar Shakir, HRW director for Israel and Palestine. Since the attacks by the Islamic Resistance Movement (Hamas) on October 7, which left 1,200 dead and 240 hostages, officials such as Defense Minister Yoav Gallant, National Security Minister Itamar Ben Gvir and Energy Minister . Israel Katz have publicly declared their intention to “deprive Gaza civilians of food, water and fuel,” while others have conditioned the entry of humanitarian aid on prisoner exchanges with the Palestinian militia. “We had no food, no electricity, no internet, nothing at all. We don’t know how we survived,” a displaced Palestinian from the north of the enclave said in an interview with the NGO. In the south of the territory, the situation is not much better, as the lack of drinking water and food shortages have caused serious shortages in many shops, resulting in “long queues and inflated prices”. Added to this is the blockade that Israel has imposed on the Gaza Strip for 16 years, which would amount to “collective punishment,” which is a war crime under the Geneva Conventions. The same laws also prohibit the use of starvation as a method of war, even if the accused power does not admit it, but it may be based on facts and circumstances. Despite an initial blockade, Israeli authorities have resumed water supplies to some areas of the southern Gaza Strip and allowed the arrival of limited humanitarian aid through the Rafah border crossing with Egypt on October 21, albeit in insufficient quantities, according to numerous NGOs. It was only on November 15th that fuel began to be allowed to pass through, and despite numerous warnings about the enormous need in bakeries, hospitals, sewage pumping stations, water desalination plants and wells, many were forced to stop work. In mid-November, the World Food Program (WFP) warned of the “imminent possibility” of famine due to lack of food and water supplies, and later reported that the enclave's food system was “on the verge of collapse.” For its part, the Norwegian Refugee Council (NRC) said Gaza was facing “catastrophic needs for water, sanitation and hygiene.” Furthermore, ongoing Israeli bombings have worsened the already dire humanitarian situation; According to authorities in the Hamas-controlled Gaza Strip, at least 18,800 Palestinians have died since October 7, and they have also caused severe damage to the food sector, both at the level of infrastructure and through the destruction of farmland, endangering food security more than half of Gaza's population, an estimated 2.2 million people. For this reason, HRW has called on the Israeli authorities to end the use of starvation as a method of war, calling for a ban on attacks on structures necessary for the survival of civilians and the restoration of water and electricity supplies. Finally, he called on the governments of the United States, United Kingdom, Canada and Germany to suspend their military aid to Israel until they stop committing “serious abuses” against civilians with complete “impunity.”
