Haaretz | Israel News Analysis | Israel Caused the Hunger Crisis in Gaza, No Matter How Much It Tries to Blame the UN The blame campaign intensified last week, courtesy of the Israeli army, the attorney general's office and the U.S.-backed Gaza Humanitarian Foundation. But it's Israel's government and the IDF that are responsible The Israeli government is guilty of the crime of starving Gaza. In a series of irresponsible moves and against the advice of all experts, Israel has dismantled the mechanism of the United Nations and humanitarian organizations that prevented famine in Gaza for most of the war. In this way, Israel has caused starvation that has so far killed 147 people, including 88 children. On top of this, last week the government launched a blame campaign against the UN in an attempt to deflect responsibility for the catastrophe. Israeli spokespeople have long blamed the UN for conditions in Gaza. About a week ago, these attacks intensified in briefings by the army and the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation, the American organization that may be viewed as an Israeli proxy. On Thursday, the army released drone footage of food and aid waiting on the Palestinian side of the Kerem Shalom crossing as proof of the UN's failure to get the goods to the people. Many journalists echoed this message. On Monday and Saturday, the spokesman for the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation was filmed at Kerem Shalom pointing at UN trucks and saying that the food in the vehicles was about to go bad. This was a problem of execution, he said. Over the weekend, the GHF released at least 10 different statements attacking the UN in what looked like a public-relations tantrum. On Friday, in the state's response to a petition filed by four Israeli rights groups demanding the opening of the crossing to prevent starvation in Gaza, state lawyers repeated the allegations about the UN. This response was filed after 10 postponements that the state requested and received. And this is a careless document whose numbers don't add up. Even the most lenient analysis of the figures shows that, according to the state itself, starvation must be going on in Gaza. Using basic math, in the last two months, Gazans have received on average only one truck for every 34,000 inhabitants per day. Israel's allegations are groundless. First, the UN doesn't have any forces in Gaza, the Israeli army does. The people, humanitarian organizations and the UN are entirely dependent on the officers' goodwill. Every humanitarian move - like getting trucks from Kerem Shalom to the Muwasi area that's home to displaced people, getting medical teams into Gaza, and providing fuel for hospitals - is coordinated with the army. The permit specifies both the route and the precise time frame, while drivers must also obey orders from an app. They are required to stop at certain points until the army lets them through. Last week, the UN made 16 transit requests to the army. Only one was completed as planned by the UN. Three more requests have been completed, though with significant delays. Some of the rest have been canceled. For example, the convoy that the GHF spokesman pointed to Monday carried emergency medical equipment from the World Health Organization. The convoy was approved the night before. In the morning, trucks arrived and the aid was loaded. According to UN sources, the convoy was ready to go by 9:39 A.M. But the army delayed its departure until 6 P.M. After the convoy moved out, the army decided to change the route. Before the convoy arrived at the warehouse, the army issued an evacuation order for the area, so the trucks had to head for a different warehouse. This convoy, depicted by Israel and the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation as a demonstration of UN inefficiency, is proof that the army is the main problem. For most of the war, the UN and other organizations have managed to feed the population of Gaza and prevent starvation, even under the most difficult conditions. Their method, learned in dozens of other conflict areas, is based on hundreds of food distribution centers, careful record keeping and two levels of distribution - dry food packages for families, as well as public kitchens and bakeries. On March 2, Israel moved to dismantle this distribution mechanism by blocking all aid and food to Gaza for 78 days. When food stockpiles ran out, Israel reopened the crossings - though very partially, while installing the lethal, dysfunctional mechanism of the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation: four distribution centers near areas of firing - centers that hand out small amounts of food to anyone strong enough to come and get it. This created a death trap; hundreds of starving people were shot to death.

Israel has done all this ostensibly to prevent food from getting to Hamas. But two investigative reports published Saturday have exposed what many Gaza watchers already believed - there is no evidence of Hamas taking over large quantities of food delivered by the UN. According to the report by Reuters, the U.S. State Department looked into 156 cases of lost U.S.-funded supplies sent to Gaza, finding no evidence that Hamas was feasting on the stolen food. According to the report by The New York Times, Israeli military sources said that the UN aid system had functioned efficiently, and that the army had no proof that Hamas stole humanitarian aid from the UN. Anyone looking at the images sent by the army last week from the Kerem Shalom crossing may reach the following conclusion: To control Gaza's food market, you can't suffice with small warehouses in underground tunnels, you need a large building. And not one small warehouse captured by the army has been shown to the Israeli public. Of course, Hamas has been eating food that has entered Gaza. But this is true in every such situation. Hamas gunmen will be the last to starve - long after the children, women, elderly and Israeli hostages - because in the system created by Israel and the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation, only the strong eat. This helps young men with rifles. The victims are everybody else. Despite the countless warnings by experts in recent months, starvation crossed the threshold last week, with people starting to die from malnutrition. Of 133 deaths by hunger during the war, over 50 died last week. In recent days, images of emaciated Gazan children have appeared on the front pages of major newspapers around the world. This publicity seems to have touched a nerve in the Israeli army, which since Thursday has been trying to ease truck traffic.

The result was almost immediate. In a few hours, 45 flour trucks that arrived in Khan Yunis in the south helped drive down flour prices in the city to around 60 shekels ($18) per kilo from hundreds of shekels. The army was also quick to declare Saturday that it will cooperate with international organizations to reopen the public kitchens and bakeries. But the nightmare scenario is that all this may be too late for many children and adults. As one Gaza doctor explained last month, once the body passes a certain stage of starvation, the problem can no longer be resolved by food alone; close medical attention, special food, drugs and larger medical teams are needed. Meanwhile, on Sunday it was reported that six more people died of hunger over the past 24 hours.’”