The Electronic Intifada
Oct 21, 2024
This week, the Associated Press reported rather matter of factly that Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu “is examining a plan to seal off humanitarian aid to northern Gaza in an attempt to starve out Hamas militants, a plan that, if implemented, could trap without food or water hundreds of thousands of Palestinians unwilling or unable to leave their homes.”
Any Palestinians remaining in northern Gaza – a large area including Gaza City – “would be considered combatants – meaning military regulations would allow troops to kill them – and denied food, water, medicine and fuel.” But that intensified genocide-by-starvation plan is already well underway.
On Saturday, the United Nations World Food Programme said that no food aid has entered northern Gaza since 1 October. “People have run out of ways to cope, food systems have collapsed, and the risk of famine is real,” Antoine Renard, WFP country director for Palestine, said.
In reality, Palestinians in northern Gaza, particularly children, have been starving to death for months as the direct result of Israel’s declared policy of cutting off all life-sustaining supplies to the territory. Yet while Israel is open about its intentions, it could not carry out this mass-murder by starvation without the aid and support of the United States – which still purports to be working towards getting more aid into Gaza.
Following the news brief from Nora Barrows-Friedman, we’ll speak about the situation with Laila Al-Arian. An Emmy and Peabody award-winning journalist, Laila is executive producer of Al Jazeera’s flagship documentary series Fault Lines. A recent episode, “Starving Gaza,” documents how the United States government has been knowingly covering up for Israel as it deliberately starves Palestinians to death. You can watch it here: • How Israel’s man-made famine is killi...
This is a segment from The Electronic Intifada's day 376 livestream. Ali Abunimah, Nora Barrows-Friedman, Jon Elmer and Asa Winstanley were joined by EI contributor Abubaker Abed live from the Gaza Strip, and award winning journalist Laila Al-Arian. You can watch the entire broadcast here: https://youtube.com/live/7S1C_PQDQmM