Israel Is Using Starvation To Commit Genocide In Gaza, New Amnesty Report Says

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Israel’s ongoing and widely acknowledged weaponization of food under the guise of humanitarian aid is deliberately being used to commit genocide against Palestinians in Gaza, according to an Amnesty International report published Thursday.

The human rights report highlighted how Israel has been fueling a campaign of mass starvation in the war-torn territory ― particularly since May, when the U.S.-backed Gaza Humanitarian Foundation (GHF) began setting up its militarized aid distribution system that most of the international community has warned against.

Since launching the secretive GHF, video and witness testimony show Israeli soldiers opening fire nearly every day on hungry Palestinians corralled into lines at the aid sites, a scene that the United Nations has described as a “killing field” and “a murderous free for all.” At least 600 Palestinians have been killed trying to get food at these sites, according to the Gaza Health Ministry.

“Israel has continued to use starvation of civilians as a weapon of war against Palestinians in the occupied Gaza Strip and to deliberately impose conditions of life calculated to bring about their physician destruction as part of its ongoing genocide,” Amnesty said in its report, adding that the military has turned aid-seeking “into a booby trap” for desperate families.

The Israeli Foreign Ministry denounced the report, accusing Amnesty of having “joined forces with Hamas and fully adopted all of its propaganda lies.” Israel’s military has previously maintained that it only fires warning shots, and has fervently rejected the increasing accusations of genocide.

“Each time Israeli soldiers kill Palestinians trying to get food, the army issues a statement denying, deflecting and attempting to blame the victims – the fathers, sons, mothers and daughters who were murdered while trying to get a box of flour for their families,” said Hani Almadhoun, co-founder of the Gaza Soup Kitchen and director of philanthropy at UNRWA USA.

“These statements, designed for Western media and audiences, sow confusion and muddle the horrifying truth of what Israel is doing,” he told the Institute for Middle East Understanding on Wednesday.

In addition to GHF, Israel has maintained a near-total blockade of all humanitarian assistance since March, exacerbating the starvation crisis that has disproportionately impacted Palestinian children. At least 66 children have died as a direct result of malnutrition since October 2023, Amnesty said, not including the many more who died of diseases they didn’t have the strength to fight because there was no food.

“In an ideal world, I would recommend the parents to provide the child with nutritious food, rich with protein. I would advise that they maintain a hygienic environment for their children. I would stress the importance of clean water,” said Susan Maarouf, a nutritional expert at the Patient Friend Benevolent Society hospital in Gaza City. “In our situation … any recommendation you give … sometimes you feel like you are rubbing salt into these parents’ wounds.”

Despite the blockade, humanitarian organizations are still trying to bring aid inside Gaza. More than 850 trucks carrying mostly food aid from international groups remained stuck just outside the Gaza border as of June 16, according to the UN. When the World Food Program and some local organizations were finally permitted on June 26 to distribute flour, Amnesty said the “relatively smooth distribution that took place” with no injuries is “a damning indictment of Israel’s militarized GHF scheme.”

Amnesty is one of many groups and public figures calling for states to hold Israel accountable for the deliberate starvation of the Palestinian people, including by suspending all military support to Israel, imposing sanctions and cooperating with the demands of international courts.

“Do you understand the performance of stupidity that we have all been part of for decades? And now it’s the time to stop. If 60,000 people killed do not push us to take in seriously international obligations then we’re really, really beyond the pale,” Francesca Albanese, the UN special rapporteur for the Palestinian territories, told the Human Rights Council on Thursday.

“It’s not about asking for a ceasefire. This is not war, this is a genocidal campaign … carried out under the pretense of humanitarian food distribution,” she continued. “This is a death trap.”