#starving and malnourished palestinians.

[martyrbat]

[ID: two screenshots from a TikTok video. In them, we see a Palestinian's hands as they show a MRE (Meals Ready-to-Eat) package that was air dropped. On it, we can see the instructions include pouring water to activate the flameless ration heater. The second photo shows one of the items is peach applesauce. White text over the photos read: “This is the shit America sent to Palestine. Expired army food. You can hear a man saying "this is not halal". Shame on the USA”. Above that is text in Arabic which reads: “What is in US aid??” END ID]

A reminder that the sodium level is dangerously high—being from 1.6g/meal to 2.3g/meal and you have to eat two to three to consume the proper amount of calories since each contains around 1.2k cals. The recommendation for sodium is less than 2k milligrams (1g) a day. These are used as a quick military meal/training one and because of the high intensity activities and the physical health that a soldier is require to have, the levels aren't as dangerous since they're expelling the excess sodium. And MRE aren't meant to be the only meal, even for the military the DoD policy requires MREs to be replaced or paired with fresh foods when able to because these lack essentials nutrients like fatty-acids and fiber

Sources & additional links (many of these are pages to PDFs, you can use Firefox to open them without downloading):

Original TikTok video

DLA website — Homepage for MRE's, page with several photos of the food after time passed (and with different storage conditions) and where it shows the 'menus'. The one in the video is Menu 12 and the last time it included hot sauce (as shown in linked video) was 2020 (MRE XL) and the first time was in 2016 (MRE XXXVI). As found on the homepage link, the shelf life is 3 years unless it was stored in the cold.

During Hurricane Katrina, a 77 year old man had heart failure after primarily relying on MREs for his every meal because they're not meant for usual civilian aid. He was able to make a recovery after having hospital aid, something Palestinians aren't given due to the blockade to medical supplies — Military Medicine (Oxford Academic)

MREs not being sustainable or healthy, especially for long-term use: Total Prepare, Military Medicine, ScienceDirect

MREs usually require water to work and can lead to faster dehydration and blood pressure due to the sodium levels. However, Gaza has been under a water crisis for years in both quantity and quality because of Israel's blockade, which has only grown more dire since Israel's increased attacks — +972mag (January 16, 2024), NPR (December 29, 2023), UNICEF (June 2022)

Israel denying essential supplies, including food, water filtration systems and purification tablets, medical equipment, anesthesia, etc. and murdering Palestinians when aid does get through— CNN (March 2, 2024), UN Human Rights (March 5, 2024), Al Jazeera on the Flour Massacre (March 5, 2024), Twitter thread of IOF shooting and killing starving Palestinians even before the Flour Massacre (warning for graphic imagery), Eyes on Palestine via Instagram (March 1, 2024)

Defense.gov saying it dropped 'over 36,800 meals' in it's second airdrop. The first was 38,000. Using both numbers (if each MRE was able to be received), a person will need 3 meals required to meet their calorie requirement for one day. If meeting the requirements, it'll feed only 24,933 people for one day out of the over 2.3 million people who are being starved. If you divide it for one meal per person, it'll only feed 74,800 people.

Biden still funding Israel despite the massive aid blockade that's killing thousands — CBS News (March 5, 2024)

Airdrops are incredibly inefficient in delivering aid. They supply less while being more expensive, they're unreliable to be received (especially considering the state of Gaza after being bombed consistently for almost 5 months, landing in the ocean, wind that has blown some in Israeli territory, IOF soldiers still murdering Palestinians if out in the open, health crisis from malnutrition, stampede risks, etc) The fact that they're saying it's being used as 'a last resort' when Isreal is refusing thousands of aid trucks from entering and are using them as bait to murder Palestinians when they do allow entry is beyond insulting. — The Electronic Intifada, NPR, BBC

The effects of starvation: your body eventually starts eating your muscles for protein after the fat reserves are exhausted (which makes receiving the airdrops even more dangerous). Your heart walls grow weaker and the chambers grow larger which makes pumping blood harder, making you more at risk of heart failure. You're fatigued, your immune system is dangerously weak and your organs physically grow smaller as your body eats itself and your organs fail. — NPR, Disease-related Malnutrition: An Evidence-based Approach to Treatment, PCRM, Starvation Response

So the "food" that the US dropped to Gaza is MREs. Expired. Saw a stitch of this video from a woman saying this is the same thing they did with Hurricane Katrina survivors.

MREs are shelf stable for 7 years. Total. These ones were over 15 years old.

And ofc there were people in the comments being like "ummm well our military eats them just fine, they were expired when I was in the army too" THATS NOT OKAY THO?? NO ONE SHOULD BE FORCED TO EAT EXPIRED FOOD!

Fuck the US, fuck the Israeli government, and fuck you if you think that this is any kind of help to the people of Gaza. They're starving to death and the US is sending expired applesauce while also giving bombs to their murderers.

[idontmindifuforgetme]

it broke today that biden airdropped aid to gaza. other than the fact that this is an obvious pr move ahead of his re-election campaign, i think it's important to stress how ineffective this method is compared to just allowing humanitarian aid to come through. airdrops carry far less aid than truck convoys, for one, and require an airdrop zone with a lot of idealistic conditions that don't often coincide. this is a major reason why you hear a lot of airdrops being conducted at beaches--and why a lot of them have been blown to the sea. and what's even more dangerous about that is that a lot of these palestinians are malnourished, starving, in a delirious state of mind. many of them are so utterly hungry that they'd be willing to swim through just to get their hands on a sodden meal. but apparently this is the best thing the us, which literally funds israel's ongoing genocide, can do for palestinians at the moment.

[probablyasocialecologist]

Israel is intentionally starving Palestinians and should be held accountable for war crimes – and genocide, according to the UN’s leading expert on the right to food. Hunger and severe malnutrition are widespread in the Gaza Strip, where about 2.2 million Palestinians are facing severe shortages resulting from Israel destroying food supplies and severely restricting the flow of food, medicines and other humanitarian supplies. Aid trucks and Palestinians waiting for humanitarian relief have come under Israeli fire. “There is no reason to intentionally block the passage of humanitarian aid or intentionally obliterate small-scale fishing vessels, greenhouses and orchards in Gaza – other than to deny people access to food,” Michael Fakhri, the UN special rapporteur on the right to food, told the Guardian. “Intentionally depriving people of food is clearly a war crime. Israel has announced its intention to destroy the Palestinian people, in whole or in part, simply for being Palestinian. In my view as a UN human rights expert, this is now a situation of genocide. This means the state of Israel in its entirety is culpable and should be held accountable – not just individuals or this government or that person.”

[...]

“The speed of malnourishment of young children is also astounding. The bombing and people being killed directly is brutal, but this starvation – and the wasting and stunting of children – is torturous and vile. It will have a long-term impact on the population physically, cognitively and morally … All things indicate that this has been intentional,” said Fakhri, a law professor at the University of Oregon. Intentionally starving civilians by “depriving them of objects indispensable to their survival, including willfully impeding relief supplies” is a war crime, according to the Rome statute of the international criminal court. Indispensable objects include food, water and shelter – which Israel is systematically denying Palestinians. Starvation is a war crime under the Geneva conventions and the Rome statute. It was also recognized as a war crime and general violation of international law by the UN security council in 2018.

[...]

The speed of the malnutrition crisis speaks to the fact that even before this war, half of Gazans were food insecure and almost 80% relied on humanitarian aid due to the 16-year blockade. A 2019 study on small-scale agriculture in the Palestinian territories found that “the Israeli occupation is the most important single driver of food and nutrition insecurity.” “It was already a very fragile situation due to Israel’s chokehold on what goes in and out of Gaza. So when the war started, Israel was very easily able to make everyone go hungry because they had most people on the brink,” said Fakhri.

[magz]

Lets Talk Palestine (Instagram channel)

February 24, 2024

• 92 Palestinians killed, 121 injured in Gaza in past 24 hours

• Mass anti-government protests across Tel Aviv as Israeli’s have grown impatient to lack of a hostage deal and are calling for an election to see Netanyahu leave, showing mounting disdain for the government. Police have arrested 21 people and reports show the use of water cannons to disperse protestors

• Israeli air raid hits home housing displaced Palestinians in Rafah, killing 7 incl. 1 child

• Gaza ceasefire talks in Paris seems to be the most serious push in weeks; Israel’s war cabinet will convene to vote on the proposed outline & framework, indicating that something “tangible” was produced, especially as Israeli negotiators will be sent to to Qatar to continue talks. This doesn’t mean a ceasefire is close or that Israel has halted its plan to invade Rafah — these talks are unpredictable & subject to change

• Armed Israeli settlers assault 2 Palestinians at a make-shift checkpoint in Hebron (West Bank)

-

February 25, 2024

• 86 Palestinians killed, 142 injured in Gaza in past 24 hours

• Palestinians in northern Gaza are being starved as they’ve been cut off from aid as Israel’s relentless bombardment has prevented aid transport from southern Gaza; UNRWA hasn’t delivered any aid since Jan 23. Kamal Adwan Hospital (north) reports increased malnutrition: 1 in 6 kids are “severely malnourished” + hospitals struggling due to lack of fuel, medicine & ambulances

👆 Almost all aid in Gaza goes through Rafah crossing (Egypt) in the south but in recent weeks it has been almost totally halted, dropping from 200 trucks/day to 57, some days less than 20. 2,000+ trucks with enough to feed the entire population have piled up outside the crossing, prevented from entering by Israel. Meanwhile, Israelis have been protesting for weeks at Karem Abu Salem crossing, blocking aid trucks

• Netanyahu affirms Rafah ground invasion, saying a hostage deal would only somewhat delay the invasion

[fairuzfan]

im sure you probably get asked this a lot, but i have no idea what the whole deal with israel and palestine is

the only thing ive heard is from someone i overheard next to me in a lecture that palestine terrorists attacked israel or something but im starting to think im missing a lot of important context with that

Hi, thanks for sending this in. I've had this in my inbox for a while now because I feel like I didn't know where to start. There is this new crash course online that educates about history and information regarding Palestine's colonization and the history leading up to October 7th, 2023. I recommend taking a look at this resource first:

Generally, a quick rundown is that on October 7th, a group of resistance fighters launched a coordinates attack on the state of Israel and took some hostages back to Gaza. They had done this specifically because Gaza was experiencing a critical point on the 20 year seige the Israeli state imposed on them — even before this they were struggling to find clean water and their economy was severely damaged since their imports were calculated by the calorie by Israel. So they were starved and malnourished, many people with medical issues were not granted access to seek help outside of Gaza if they needed specialized care.

In 2018, Gazans had launched the "Great March Of Return" where they marched en masse to the militarized fence separating Gaza and "Israel." This was, by all accounts, a peaceful protest, though the Israeli government responded with brutal force, killing children as small as 2 years old and elderly people as old as about 80 years old.

This had gone on for a while in 2018, after every Friday prayer, and hundreds died. Even if they were not killed, a large number of them were critically wounded. There are many Palestinians disabled from bullet wounds, and the Israeli government purposefully does not allow them to seek treatment if they require it.

This, coupled with the estimation that Gaza would be absolutely unlivable in a couple years, caused an armed resistance to break out, which is what you hear with the "terrorists" attacking Israeli settlements. Now the reports of who killed Israeli civilians is widely argued, with many claiming that Hamas (some of the resistance fighters) did not kill the majority of Israeli casualties, like in this account from a survivor in which they described that the majority of deaths from the kibbutz were because of Israeli indiscriminate firing:

I can't say I totally understand what is going on now with the resistance fighters, but I know that Israel has tried, and failed, a number of times to invade gaza, always getting fended off by the resistance.

Now, gazans are suffering collective punishment where they are bombed indiscriminately in residential areas, hospitals, and schools, all under the excuse that there are "Hamas tunnels" they wish to destroy that lie under Gaza. They provide no evidence of this — they just claim it and drop the bombs. About 10,000 Palestinians have died from the bombing, many of them in pieces, about half of them children. They are also suffering an unprecedented siege where absolutely NO water, fuel, or food is allowed in Gaza (except for like 20 trucks one time) since October 7th. Gazans are reported to have completely run out of clean water. A vast majority of them are showing symptoms from drinking dirty water like vomiting and diarrhea. The water in Gaza does not work, so they are suffering from sanitation issues that will no doubt make the spread of disease proliferate.

I can go on about the issues the Gazans face, but you can scroll through my blog to learn more. Right now Gaza is suffering a humanitarian crisis and genocide. Palestinians in the west Bank are getting arrested en masse, tortured and humiliated by Israeli police and settlers. They are also getting shot randomly. Right now is the collective effort to completely erase Palestinians off the face of the earth, led by Israel and the United States, all for their own selfish interests.

Check out some posts here as well:

Please let me know if you have any questions about anything. Feel free to dm.

[petrowriting]

Ahmed and his family from Palestine need our help to get out of Gaza and to safety. Israel is deliberatley starving the people of Gaza, and he and his family have been moving from place to place seeking shelter and safety, but the occupier has beseiged every part of Gaza, leaving nowhere safe. Ahmed, Eman, Zain and Leen need funds to cross the border into Egypt. Zain and Leen are only children, both under 10 years of age, and Israel's deliberate starvation has left them malnourished and weak. Even their family's cat did not survive, succumbing to the constant bombardment. To cross into Egypt, they have been asked to pay $5000 for each person over 16 years old and $2500 for those under 16. The total goal is €15,000. It's an exploitation even amidst a genocide that the money simply goes to those who take it in Egypt, but it's what they need to make it out and to survive. Please consider donating even $10 to help Ahmed and his family cross the border and get to safety!

[the-garbanzo-annex-jr]

by Rachel O'Donoghue

On March 6, the United Nations warned that a current conflict that has already killed and displaced millions of people risks triggering “the world’s worst hunger crisis.”

Some of the statement’s key points include:

“A staggering 14 million children are in desperate need of lifesaving assistance”

“Millions of lives and the peace and stability of an entire region are at stake”

“Across the war-torn country, 18 million people are acutely food insecure and five million now face starvation”

“Restricted in their movements by ongoing violence and interference from warring parties and severely underfunded, humanitarian aid workers can barely help those in need”

“Humanitarian assistance was further disrupted after the authorities revoked permits for cross-border truck convoys”

Less than 24 hours later on March 7, the United Nations issued another warning:

“The situation is appalling. Every minute, every hour, it is getting worse”

“In the north, one in six children under the age of two is acutely malnourished…”

“We need to flood the market… with humanitarian goods as well as re-energize the private sector so commercial goods can enter to meet the need of civilians…”

“At the same time, humanitarian supplies via air or sea are ‘not a substitute for what we need to see arrive on land…’”

The first statement was about Sudan, a country that has been racked by a conflict that erupted between the Sudanese Armed Forces (SAF) and a paramilitary group called the Rapid Support Forces (RSF) in April 2023.

According to the International Rescue Committee (IRC), which placed Sudan at the top of its Emergency Watchlist last year, nearly 6 million people have been displaced, and more than half the population (24.8 million people) needs humanitarian aid, with 17.7 million people facing crisis-level or worse food insecurity.

The IRC has also stated that amid mass displacement and reports of mass killings, humanitarian access has been severely curtailed.

The second statement was about Gaza and the ongoing aid delivery problems that have affected the Strip as Israel battles Hamas to protect its citizens from harm.

As the United Nations makes clear in its statements, both Sudan and Gaza are facing a humanitarian catastrophe. However, the war in Sudan is impacting a much larger number of people and has gone on for much longer.

One might think that media organizations would think both crises were worthy of attention. After all, the UN statements were published mere hours apart and warned of similarly dire situations.

Alas, not so.

The Guardian and The New York Times, for example, both included details of the UN’s statement about Gaza in their coverage of what was variously described as a “humanitarian disaster” affecting millions of “besieged Palestinians.”

Likewise, both publications covered in depth the March 5 UN statement — signed by several UN rapporteurs — which, among other grotesque and unfounded allegations, accused Israel of “intentionally starving the Palestinian people in Gaza…”

Yet, neither outlet dedicated any coverage to the UN’s statement about Sudan — not a single paragraph was printed about an impending catastrophe that would amount to “the world’s worst hunger crisis.”

[diabolicalworldwriter]

I don't talk much on tumblr anymore, I'm mostly active on Instagram and say a lot more there, but I needed to put this here because wherever I can say something it feels right that I should and I regret not being more vocal all along.

Over the last seven months I have seen mothers sobbing over what's left of their children, fathers begging for anything to get their families to safety, children desperately trying to prove their humanity to people around them so someone will care enough to help them stay alive. Starvation, bodies crushed under rubble, destroyed homes, ruined hospitals and malnourished animals. Devastating violence that never seems to end when it never should have started.

I am incredibly lucky. I am not there living through it. I can turn off my phone and look away - though it sickens me to do so. These people cannot. They are trapped there, begging for any and all aid, no matter how small. They live in overpopulated tents in the burning heat, they drink contaminated water because at least it's water, mothers deliver their babies without proper medical assistance and children undergo amputations without anesthesia.

This is a manmade atrocity. None of this needed to happen. The Israeli government and its allies - including the government of my own country, the USA - are intentionally causing this. They are bombing the civilians. They are blocking and destroying the aid. They are dehumanizing every person within Palestine and crying victim when we refuse to go along with them.

Over 40,000 civilians have been killed. The rest are severely traumatized, injured, sick, starving and dehydrated, living on the brink of destruction and begging, pleading for anyone to care.

Here's a document with a lot of different actions to help. Even if you don't do that, here's a site that you can go to and click daily and they'll donate to relief funds. You just click, that's it. Educate yourselves, talk about and amplify the voices of the Palestinian people, don't sit back in silence and let them keep suffering and dying.

Please. That could be your family. That could be you. Be grateful that it's not, and be compassionate because these are real people with real stories and they deserve so much better than the hell they've been given. The least we can give them is a chance to survive, to tell their stories, to make the world a better place for themselves than it has thus far been.

Thank you for reading. Free Palestine.

with any luck the doodle and tags will help a few more people see this and think about what's going on.

[workersolidarity]

[ 📹 Footage shows scenes of the extent of the massive destruction in Hamad Town, in the Khan Yunis governate, in the southern Gaza Strip, resulting from the bombardment and purposeful destruction of local infrastructure by the Israali occupation army.]

[ 📸 A photograph published by WAFA News showing a Palestinian family performing Iftar after managing to scrape together enough food to break their fast during Ramadan in the south of Gaza after being displaced from the Jabalia Refugee Camp.]

[ 📈 A graphic showing the current death toll of 31'645 civilians killed and 73'676 others wounded as a result of the Zionist genocide in Gaza.]

🇮🇱⚔️🇵🇸 🚀🚀🚀🏘️💥🚑 🚨

STARVATION AND DESTITUION DURING RAMADAN AS BOMBINGS CONTINUE ON DAY 163 OF ISRAEL'S ONGOING GENOCIDE IN THE GAZA STRIP

On the 163rd day of Israel's ongoing war of genocide in the Gaza Strip, the Israeli occupation forces (IOF) committed a total of 9 new massacres of Palestinian families, resulting in the deaths of 92 Palestinian civilians, mostly women and children, and wounding another 130 others over the previous 24-hours.

As the majority of the Arab world break their fasts in the evening with large, warm, family meals, many of the Palestinian families of the Gaza Strip have nothing for iftar, and are unable to break their fasts or instead rely on soups of herbs or feed their families rotting bread as a shortage in flour continues largely unabated.

The Zionist occupation army continues to prevent the entry of the vast majority of food aid being sent to Gaza via various Arab and Western countries, especially aid intended for the northern Gaza Strip as residents starve in the streets, picking through garbage and consuming rotting food and contaminated water.

Even in the southern Gazan city of Rafah, stripped of its usual Ramadan decorations, only a few food stalls remain open in the local market, selling kunafa stuffed with nuts at a sticker-shock price of 80 sheckels per kilogram, or roughly $10 per pound, well beyond the reach of starving families who've been without work for more than five months as Israel continues its bombing and shelling campaign across the Palestinian enclave, even as basic materials and fuel necessary for rebuilding the Strip are blocked from entry.

As 40yo Ahmed Al-Kayyal tells local news organization WAFA, "There is no taste to Ramadan in this dirty and bloody war, a war of extermination, with no food or drink."

Local resident, Jamal Al-Khatib, had similar sentiments, telling the Palestinian news agency, "There is no food at all, so how will we break our fast in Ramadan? How can we rejoice when there is no shelter, electricity, or water?"

According to the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine (UNRWA), one in three children in the Gaza Strip are now "acutely malnourished" as famine looms over the Palestinian population of the enclave.

"Malnutrition among children is spreading fast and reaching devastating and unprecedented levels in the Gaza Strip due to the wide-reaching impacts of the war and ongoing restrictions on aid delivery," UNRWA shared in a post on the social media platform X.

"An immediate humanitarian ceasefire continues to provide the only chance to save children’s lives and end their suffering," the aid organization added.

Meanwhile, the bombing and shelling of civilian homes by the IOF continued relentlessly overnight, with a concentration of firepower on the central Gaza Strip.

In one example from last night's carnage, Zionist air forces bombed a civilian home belonging to the Thabet family in the Beshara neighborhood of Deir al-Balah, in the central Gaza Strip, resulting in the tragic deaths of at least 11 civilians, with the majority of victims being women and children. An update on the massacre said the death toll in the bombing has since risen to 12, with a large number of wounded victims reported in the atrocity as well.

An additional Israeli airstrike targeting a civilian vehicle in the city of Al-Zahra, in the central Gaza Strip, resulted in the killing of two Palestinians and wounded another.

Similarly, an Israeli bombing of a residential home in the New Camp area of Al-Nuseirat, also in central Gaza, killed another six Palestinians and wounded at least 10 others.

Occupation warplanes also concentrated their firepower on various neighborhoods of Gaza City, ensuring the complete and utter destruction of the local infrastructure of the most developed city in the Gaza Strip, making the future of the city uncertain as the landscape becomes more and more uninhabitable.

In one example, Zionist fighter jets bombarded the Al-Manara building in the vicinity of the Ashlelon Mosque in the Al-Shati Refugee Camp, west of Gaza City, while occupation aircraft also bombed the Nabil building on Al-Jalaa Street.

Occupation warplanes also bombed a group of Palestinian civilians picking hibiscus plants in the east of Gaza, with Al-Shifa Medical Complex reporting the death of one of the victims and the wounding of five others as a result.

In the southern Gaza Strip, the Israeli occupation army launched a firebelt targeting a residential square in Al-Qarara, east of Khan Yunis, while occupation air forces bombarded a tract of agricultural land near the border with Egypt, which, although no casualties were reported in the bombing, the systematic destruction of agricultural lands in the Gaza Strip is helping to contribute to the enforced famine and starvation of the Palestinian population.

In another sickening atrocity, Zionist occupation forces in gunboats opened fire on the tents of displaced Palestinian families on the coast, west of Rafah, in the south of Gaza, killing a 19yo woman when two of the Zionist soldiers' live bullets entered her skull.

As a result of Israel's ongoing war of genocide in the Gaza Strip, the endlessly rising death toll has now exceeded 31'645 Palestinians killed, more than 25'000 of which being women and children according to the United States Pentagon, with another 73'676 civilians wounded since the beginning of the current round of Israeli aggression beginning on October 7th, 2023.

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@WorkerSolidarityNews

[catdotjpeg]

Sunday evening marked the beginning of the Muslim holy month of Ramadan, as Israel’s relentless attacks on Gaza amid severe foot shortages continue. Instead of celebrating, Palestinians in Gaza are entering the month with heavy hearts.  The Palestinian Ministry of Foreign Affairs says Ramadan in the Gaza Strip this year is “unlike the holy month in previous years or anywhere else in the world,” especially in light of the destruction of all aspects of life in the Gaza Strip, including dozens of mosques. Ramadan has arrived as “Palestinians have been suffering from the lack and scarcity of food and drinkable water for more than five consecutive months,” it continued.  Half of the besieged enclave population crammed into the southern city of Rafah, many living in plastic tents and facing severe shortages of food. 

“Everyone we’ve known has lost a family member or loved one or someone they knew from their networks, which makes it very difficult for people. People used to prepare and start the first day of Ramadan with festivities, decorations, lights, and lanterns in the streets, markets, and mosques; the vast majority of those are now destroyed, according to Al Jazeera correspondent Hani Mahmoud from Rafah. Ramadan is usually filled with family feasts; however, Israel’s ongoing siege has rendered this almost impossible for those living in Gaza. Even where food is available, there is little beyond canned goods, and the prices are too high for many. Philippe Lazzarini, head of the UN agency for Palestinian refugees, says Ramadan is here as “displacement continues, and fear and anxiety prevail amid threats of a military operation on Rafah,” Gaza’s southernmost point.

“This month should bring a ceasefire for those who have suffered the most. They need respite and peace of mind. It’s long overdue,” he continued on X. Sabah al-Hendi, who was shopping for food on Sunday in the southernmost city of Rafah, told AP: “You don’t see anyone with joy in their eyes. Every family is sad. Every family has a martyr.” Meanwhile, in the north of Gaza, Palestinians continue to face famine, as severe food and aid shortages continue.

On Monday afternoon, two more children in northern Gaza died of starvation, reported Al Jazeera, citing local sources, bringing the total number to 27, most of them children who have starved to death. At least one in six children in the north are malnourished, according to the World Health Organization.  “I came here to buy but I can’t find anything to buy,” Sufian al-Yazji, a displaced Palestinian in the north, told Al Jazeera.

“There’s nothing, no dates or milk, or anything. One can’t find anything for their children. All these canned goods are full of germs that infect the stomach. We need vegetables and fruits to feed our children because they’ve weakened and will die from hunger.”  Over 2,000 medical staff in northern Gaza are exhausted and struggling to keep up under immense physical pressure with nothing to eat as they work around the clock, says the Palestinian Ministry of Health.  As a result of the lack of healthcare, bombing, starvation, and dehydration, the enclave’s elderly population are dying at an alarmingly high rate.

Euro-Mediterranean Human Rights Monitor said in a statement on Sunday that its team in Gaza “is recording nearly daily deaths among the elderly due to Israel’s systematic and pervasive crimes of starvation and treatment deprivation in the Gaza Strip, especially in Gaza City and the Strip’s northern regions.” “The majority of these cases do not reach hospitals, which are only partially operational in northern Gaza because of the difficulty of access given the ongoing Israeli military attacks. Consequently, after dying at home, the elderly are buried either close to their residences or in makeshift graves dispersed across the Strip. There are currently more than 140 such cemeteries,” Euro-Med said. 

-- From "‘Operation Al-Aqsa Flood’ Day 157" by Leila Warah for Mondoweiss, 11 Mar 2024

[plethoraworldatlas]

As a United Nations agency halted aid deliveries in northern Gaza, where acute malnourishment is rampant among children, citing a "breakdown of social order" fueled by Israel's bombardment of and blockade on the enclave, the United States for a third time on Tuesday vetoed a cease-fire resolution at the U.N. Security Council—saying it was an inopportune time to demand that Israel end its massacre of Palestinians.

U.S. Ambassador to the U.N. Linda Thomas-Greenfield said the cease-fire resolution, proposed by Algeria, would "negatively impact" negotiations for a truce that are ongoing.

Amar Bendjama, Algeria's ambassador to the U.N., said the U.S. ambassador's lone vote against the resolution "implies an endorsement of the brutal violence and collective punishment inflicted upon" Palestinians in Gaza.

Thirteen countries supported the resolution, while the U.K.—which has veto power, like the U.S., China, France, and Russia—abstained from voting.The vote marked the third time the U.S. has vetoed a cease-fire resolution at the U.N. Security Council (UNSC). Meanwhile, the Biden administration has approved weapons transfers to Israel without the oversight of the U.S. Congress since the assault began in October, and has vehemently defended the bombardment as being focused on defeating Hamas, even as Israel has killed more than 29,000 Palestinians including more than 11,500 children.

"We should ask ourselves: How many innocent lives must be sacrificed before the council deems it necessary to call for a cease-fire?" said Bendjama. "Palestinian lives matter. Each one of us decides where to stand in this tragic chapter of history."

[sophia-zofia]

The United Nations' humanitarian aid agency warned Friday that an Israeli ground invasion of Rafah would put hundreds of thousands of Palestinians "at imminent risk of death." "Any ground operation would mean more suffering and death" for the approximately 1.5 million Palestinians—including around 1.2 million people forcibly displaced from other areas of the embattled enclave—sheltering in Gaza's southernmost city, U.N. Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) spokesperson Jens Laerke told reporters in Geneva on Friday. "The hundreds of thousands of people who are there would be at imminent risk of death if there is an assault," he added, warning of not only "a slaughter of civilians, but also at the same time an incredible blow to the humanitarian operation in the entire strip, because it is run primarily out of Rafah." According toPolitico, Israel has shared with the U.S. government its plan to move the civilian population out of Rafah ahead of a looming ground assault the Wall Street Journalreported earlier on Friday could begin next week. Conditions in Rafah are already dire. The city—which was home to fewer than 300,000 people before the war—is now one of the most densely populated places on the planet. Hundreds of thousands of refugees are crowded together in tents and other makeshift shelters. Water and other necessities are in desperately short supply. According to James Elder, the global spokesperson for the United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF), there is approximately one toilet for every 850 people in Rafah and one shower for every 3,500 people. "Try to imagine, as a teenage girl, or elderly man, or pregnant woman, queueing for an entire day just to have a shower," Elder wrote for The Guardian this week. There are nearly 600,000 children in Rafah, nearly all of whom are "injured, sick, malnourished, traumatized, or living with disabilities," UNICEF executive director Catherine Russell said Wednesday.

Dr. Rik Peeperkorn, who represents the U.N. World Health Organization in the illegally occupied Palestinian territories, on Friday called contingency response plans for a Rafah invasion a "Band-Aid" solution. "It will absolutely not prevent the expected substantial additional mortality and morbidity caused by a military operation," he stressed. Israel's 210-day assault on Gaza in retaliation for the October 7 attacks has already killed at least 34,622 Palestinians—a large majority of them civilian men, women, and children—while wounding more than 77,800 others, according to Palestinian and international officials. At least 11,000 other Gazans are missing and presumed dead and buried beneath the rubble of the more than 370,000 homes and other buildings destroyed or damaged during the war. As many as 90% of Gaza's 2.3 million people have also been forcibly displaced by Israeli forces, who despite a January International Court of Justice (ICJ) order to prevent genocidal acts continue to block adequate humanitarian aid from reaching the starving people of Gaza. Despite pleas and protestations from world leaders including U.S. President Joe Biden, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has vowed to invade Rafah to "eliminate Hamas' battalions there." Earlier this week, far-right Israeli Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich called for the "total annihilation" of Gaza, specifically mentioning Rafah. The South Africa-led case against Israel at the ICJ has centered similar statements of intent to destroy Palestinians—which are key to proving the crime of genocide—made by Israeli officials since October. Meanwhile, Israeli forces have ramped up aerial attacks on Rafah in what is likely preparation for a ground invasion. Palestinian and international media reported Friday that an overnight Israeli airstrike on a home killed at least eight people, mostly children. "After almost seven months of brutal hostilities that have killed tens of thousands of people and maimed tens of thousands more, Gaza is bracing for even more suffering and misery," U.N. Under-Secretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs and Emergency Relief Coordinator Martin Griffiths said earlier this week. "The world has been appealing to the Israeli authorities for weeks to spare Rafah, but a ground operation there is on the immediate horizon," he continued. "For the hundreds of thousands of people who have fled to Gaza's southernmost point to escape disease, famine, mass graves, and direct fighting, a ground invasion would spell even more trauma and death." "The simplest truth is that a ground operation in Rafah will be nothing short of a tragedy beyond words," Griffiths added. "No humanitarian plan can counter that. The rest is detail." U.S. officials have also privately sounded the alarm over the likely consequences of an Israeli invasion of Rafah. In March, according to a leaked cable obtained by The Intercept, members of the Bureau for Humanitarian Assistance at the U.S. Agency for International Development warned the State Department that a Rafah invasion "could result in catastrophic humanitarian consequences, including mass civilian casualties, extensive population displacement, and the collapse of the existing humanitarian response."

[idontmindifuforgetme]

I’m actually so physically sick reading this. These Palestinians were malnourished, sick, frail. They just wanted sustenance for themselves, for their children. And Israel knows this. It knows it has created a fish bowl where people are starving every day, where they’re so desperate for the smallest morsel of food that they’re willing to go anywhere to get it. So they deliberately—on purpose—planted aid in a certain location, stayed waiting while Palestinians all rushed over for this promise of food, and then they opened fire. Now 104 Palestinians are dead, and the footage of this is so heartbreaking it actually made me wanna throw up. I am so incredibly tired of Arab lives being dispensable, or fodder for shock value videos. And with the UN having cut entry for aid trucks, I don’t know what the surviving Palestinians will do. It’s hard living with the fact that people care for Arab people so little, they’re willing to watch this and do nothing. Why are we not human to you?

[tieflingkisser]

Report: Vast Majority of Children Under 5 in Gaza Going Full Days Without Food

Since Israel began its Rafah invasion, the amount of aid entering the region has dropped by two-thirds.

The vast majority of children under the age of 5 in Gaza are regularly forced to go at least one full day without eating as Israel’s manufactured famine has intensified in recent weeks, aid groups have reported. According to a food survey conducted by humanitarian aid groups in May, 85 percent of children under 5 were deprived of food at least one day over a three day period. Official death counts reported by Gaza’s government do not include deaths by starvation; at least 30 children have been recorded starving to death in Gaza so far. Israel’s starvation campaign has resulted in the rapid spread of famine across the region, which aid groups are warning is worsening by the day as Israel continues its near-total humanitarian aid blockade. According to an Oxfam report released Monday, the risk of famine in Gaza is higher than ever as Israel’s relentless assault and obstruction of aid has made it “virtually impossible” for groups to carry out an aid response. The UN has reported that, since Israel began its Rafah invasion, the amount of aid entering the region has dropped by two-thirds from the already famine-inducing levels prior to May. Since May 6, when Israel seized and closed the main humanitarian aid crossing into Gaza, only about eight trucks of aid have entered on average each day — or about 1 percent of the 500 to 600 trucks that the UN has said need to enter each day in order to meet Palestinians’ needs. On top of the blockade, Israeli forces recently lifted a ban on commercial food deliveries entering Gaza, meaning that commercial deliveries from Israel and the West Bank are now squeezing out aid trucks attempting to enter border crossings. The food and other supplies, like tents, entering from commercial trucks are then sold for extremely high prices, putting them out of reach for Palestinians already struggling to keep their families alive after months of price gouging and destruction. The Guardian reports that far more commercial trucks are entering because they can pay more to Israeli security guards to enter than groups operating aid trucks. Two weeks ago, the UN reported that its food and tent storage warehouses in Gaza are empty because of Israel’s blockade; now, families are reporting having to pay $700 just for a basic tent that they would then have to pitch in cemeteries due to overcrowding. “By the time a famine is declared, it will be too late. When hunger claims many more lives, nobody will be able to deny the horrifying impact of Israel’s deliberate, illegal and cruel obstruction of aid,” said Sally Abi Khalil, Middle East and North Africa director for Oxfam, in a statement. “Obstructing tonnes of food for a malnourished population while waving through caffeine-laced drinks and chocolate is sickening.”

[keep reading]

[magz]

March 5 to March 7, 2024 update from Let's Talk Palestine (instagram channel)

March 5

• 97 Palestinians killed, 123 injured in Gaza in past 24 hours

• Israeli forces recapture 2 Palestinian women who were previously released in the November hostage exchange deal — total 11 Palestinian women and children recaptured since their release, a clear violation of the agreement

​​• WHO: 1 in 6 children under age of 2 is “acutely malnourished” in north Gaza; 16+ kids killed by starvation in past week. Israel continues to block entry & distribution of aid + attacks aid convoys & aid seekers attempting to receive what little aid reaches the north

• Journalist Mohamad Salama killed by Israeli strike in Deir el-Balah; 133 journalists killed in Gaza since Oct 7

​​🇦🇺 Australian lawyers refer Australian PM to ICC for “accessory to genocide in Gaza”, citing the halt of UNRWA funds, military aid to Israel & deploying Australian troops

• Israeli airstrike on home in southern Lebanon killed a Hezbollah fighter and 2 family members amid rising Hezbollah-Israel tensions

March 6

• 86 Palestinians killed, 113 injured in Gaza in past 24 hours

🇺🇳 UNRWA accuses Israel of detaining & torturing its staff to extract false confessions on ties to Hamas. The unpublished UNRWA report details multiple incidents of abuse incl. torture, sexual abuse & deprivation of basic needs

🇺🇸 Washington Post: US quietly approved 100+ foreign military sales to Israel since Oct 7, disclosed in a classified congress briefing. The sales bypassed public scrutiny as their value didn’t meet the threshold requiring congressional notification, yet in total they amount to a “massive transfer of firepower”

• 20 Palestinians killed by starvation from malnutrition & dehydration, while Israel continues to block aid + attacking aid seekers, injuring 8 in Gaza City

🇨🇦 Canada was meant to announce its reinstatement of funding to UNRWA on March 6, but last minute decided to cancel the press conference. Leaving this decision unconfirmed. Canada was originally planned to announce they would resume UNRWA funding with a scheduled payment of $25m for April. Canada was one of the first countries that followed the US in halting funding due to the unsupported allegations made by Israel in January.

March 7

🚨 SOUTH AFRICA URGENT ICJ REQUEST

South Africa has once again requested the ICJ for additional emergency measures against Israel, urging the Court “to do what is within its power to save Palestinians in Gaza from genocidal starvation.” Its previous request was denied by the Court.

This was prompted by the harrowing deterioration in Gaza since the original measures in January. Using powerful language, South Africa highlights to the Court that “Palestinian children are starving to death as a direct result of the deliberate acts and omissions of Israel.”

Underscoring that Israel is “massacring desperate, starving Palestinians seeking to obtain food for their slowly dying children,” referencing the ‘flour massacre’ that killed 118 Palestinians and injured 760.

South Africa concluded by saying it “fears this Application may be the last opportunity that this Court shall have to save the Palestinian people in Gaza.”

Read the full request here:

https://tinyurl.com/mmy9rvfx

March 7, part 2

• 83 Palestinians killed, 143 injured in Gaza in past 24 hours

🇳🇴 Norway issues official advice against any trade or business with Israeli settlements in the occupied West Bank, which risks contributing to violations of international law. This was prompted by Israel’s recent approval of permits for 3,500 new units in 3 settlements in the West Bank, the first since Oct 7. This has faced global condemnation incl. from close allies like the US & Germany + many Arab countries

• 60,000 pregnant women in Gaza suffer from dehydration, malnutrition & lack of healthcare; 5,000 women give birth every month in Gaza in extremely unsafe & unhealthy conditions

🇪🇺 EU Foreign Minister says they will probe into Israel’s compliance with human rights obligations stipulated in EU-Israel trade deal following requests from Spain & Ireland

🇪🇸🇶🇦 Spain to send $22 million + $25 million from Qatar in extra funding to UNRWA

• Israel granted access to only 6/24 aid operations to north Gaza last month

[eldriitchbones]

thought I’d share this QR code to help people find resources! they have a great spreadsheet that has a lot of links and programs to help support those in gaza! please do what you can to help families evacuate safely, to get medical care that so many are desperate for, and to help those who are starving and malnourished the things they need to survive. this is an active genocide. and we are able to help those in need in many different ways. please support gaza in any way you can. world governments have made it clear that they do not care about an active genocide and humanitarian crisis. we need to step up and show up for Palestinians who are actively suffering at the hands of Israel.

again, do what you can and spread resources as much as possible so that Palestinians can find safety and continue living. this IS life or death. this IS a genocide. and we can help do something about it.