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Israel’s Imposed Starvation of Gaza is Deadly for ChildrenChildren are dying from starvation-related causes as the Israeli government continues to use starvation as a weapon of war in the Gaza Strip. Human Rights Watch spoke to doctors and families in Gaza who described children, as well as pregnant and breastfeeding mothers, suffering from severe malnutrition and dehydration. Meanwhile, the few remaining operational hospitals are ill-equipped to treat them. War Crimes Deliberately starving civilians as a weapon of war is a war crime. Since the Hamas-led October 7, 2023 attacks in Israel, the Israeli government has deliberately blocked the delivery of aid, food, and fuel into Gaza, while also impeding humanitarian assistance and depriving civilians of the means to survive. Officials ordering or carrying out these actions are committing collective punishment, also a war crime. The result is mass suffering and a civilian infrastructure stretched to its limits. One doctor we spoke with, who had volunteered at a hospital in Khan Younis in southern Gaza in January, said that medical staff were forced to treat patients with limited supplies. He said that one patient’s mother, desperate for solutions, resorted to crushing potatoes to create a makeshift liquid for tube feeding. With limited alternatives, the doctor said, “I ended up telling my other patients to find potatoes and do the same.” Another man told Human Rights Watch how his infant son, Abdelaziz, died just hours after his severely malnourished mother gave birth to him in a hospital on February 24. Abdelaziz’s death certificate said he was born premature. His father said that the hospital staff hooked Abdelaziz up to a ventilator because he was having trouble breathing, but that the ventilator stopped working after the hospital ran out of fuel a few hours later. “Abdelaziz died immediately,” he said. Impending Famine A group of UN agencies and international organizations investigating the hunger crisis said that in northern Gaza, where 70 percent of the population is estimated to be experiencing catastrophic hunger, famine could occur anytime in the next month. The World Health Organization estimates that that the number of children under age 5 who are acutely malnourished is now between 12.4 and 16.5 percent in northern Gaza. Before October 7, large amounts of humanitarian assistance reached the population. As one doctor told us, malnutrition was a rare occurrence. “Now,” he said, “people are dying, and many more are sick.” Time to Act Israel’s allies, like the US, UK, France, and Germany, should impose targeted sanctions and suspend arms transfers to pressure the Israel government to ensure access to humanitarian aid in the Gaza Strip. As HRW’s Israel and Palestine Director Omar Shakir says, “Governments outraged by the Israeli government starving civilians in Gaza should not be looking for band-aid solutions to this humanitarian crisis.” |
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