Israel continues to deny what aid agencies and governments are saying is the man-made starvation it is forcing on Gaza
One hundred twenty-seven people, 85 of them children, have died from hunger or malnutrition as a result of Israel’s siege of Gaza, according to Gaza’s Health Ministry.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu blocked all aid to Gaza in March, claiming that it was to pressure Hamas into accepting a ceasefire that Israel broke unilaterally later that month.
This week, the Israeli government has blamed the United Nations for the situation, even accusing its aid agency of working with Hamas to restrict food from getting to people.
This was not the first time Israel blocked aid from entering Gaza. In March 2024, Israel stopped UN aid convoys from reaching northern Gaza as it attempted to starve the population there into fleeing.
In September, 15 international aid organisations said Israel was blocking 83 percent of Gaza’s aid.
In both instances, Israel denied blocking aid, blaming either UN inefficiency or Hamas for aid not reaching people in areas it has claimed to control for much of the war.
After receiving much criticism over the increased threat of famine that its siege had inflicted on Gaza, Israel, along with its US ally, backed the creation of the GHF in May.
The GHF was intended to replace the UN and international aid agencies, which have operated some 400 aid distribution points across Gaza, with four erratically operated distribution points in Gaza’s centre and south.
Since May, the Israeli military and private contractors, understood to be American, have killed more than 1,000 people trying to access food at GHF distribution points.
There are still some limited UN aid distribution operations, but they are so severely restricted that their effect cannot be felt.
It does not.
So is there no aid system in Gaza now?
On Friday, Israel’s Coordinator of Government Activities in the Territories (COGAT), which is responsible for coordinating aid into Gaza, contradicted the claims of numerous aid agencies, asserting that “there is no famine in the Gaza Strip”.
However, it said, there were “pockets” across Gaza where people had “issues of access to food”.
Israel’s military radio, Kan, recently reported that the Israeli army has burned or buried some 1,000 trucks’ worth of aid that it deemed spoiled or expired.
David Mencer, a spokesperson for Netanyahu’s office, told the BBC on Friday that the UN in Gaza is a “billion-dollar racket” and accused the UN of working with Hamas to “restrict … aid to its own people”.
Mercer did not provide any reason as to why the UN might do that, or any evidence to back his claims.
Not according to the UN itself.
On Wednesday, addressing the UN Security Council, Israel’s ambassador, Danny Danon, accused UN aid chief, Tom Fletcher, as well as the Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs, of somehow being affiliated with Hamas.
Danon provided no evidence.
Responding in writing the following day, Fletcher said, “I expect the Israeli authorities to immediately share any evidence that led them to make such claims.”
In January 2024, Israel accused another UN aid body, the UN Relief and Works Agency, of working with Hamas.
An independent review into Israel’s allegations concluded in April 2024 that it had provided no evidence to support its claim.
Not according to Israel’s military and its principal ally, the US.
Citing unnamed Israeli military officials, The New York Times reported on Saturday that the UN aid operation was relatively reliable and less vulnerable to interference than others, adding that there was no evidence Hamas regularly stole from the UN.
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