Deliberately Starved By Israelis

By Angela Crane MD

Published: 15 Oct 2024, 18:27 pm Gaza time.


The plight of Palestinian children is dire, not only due to the bombs dropped by Israel but also because of Israel’s deliberate policy of forced starvation. This policy has led to widespread malnutrition, making it impossible for families to grow or access food. The United Nations warns that one in three children in Gaza is malnourished, and families are forced to make bread from animal feed due to Israel's enforced flour shortages.

Both malnutrition and famine in Gaza are preventable. They are direct consequences of Israel's blockade of aid and its deliberate destruction of agricultural and water infrastructure necessary for food production. That includes the killing of livestock and the blockade of essential supplies like food, medicine, water, and electricity, along with the fuel needed for cooking and transportation.

The use of starvation as a method of warfare and collective punishment has been devastating for Palestinian civilians, especially children, pregnant women, and senior citizens. Gaza, once blessed with fertile land, has seen Israel poison its resources with fires, white phosphorus, and other harmful chemicals, alongside water contaminated with sewage and decaying bodies. The use of starvation as a method of warfare has resulted in an increase in deaths among Palestinian children due to malnutrition and famine. Israel’s starvation policy has weakened health and social structures, leading to malnutrition and an unknown number of fatalities among Palestinians.

Forced starvation affects the body's ability to function correctly, resulting in the breakdown of tissues for sustenance. The immune system is one of the first to be affected, leaving individuals highly susceptible to illness and infections. Even if children survive malnutrition, the lasting consequences can hinder growth and development, disrupt metabolic functions, and result in behavioral and physical illnesses.

Forced starvation leading to malnutrition causes malabsorption, rendering the gut unable to absorb essential nutrients and worsening malnutrition. Additionally, malnutrition can cause significant changes to the brain that lead to a smaller brain size. This stunted development results in various cognitive, behavioral, and physical issues in children.

Pregnant women, deliberately starved by Israel, encounter numerous challenges, even when their pregnancies result in viable babies. These Gazan women often cannot access quality baby formula or clean water, leading them to feed newborns diluted powdered feed mixed with rainwater or brackish water from polluted wells, resulting in diarrhea that can be fatal for newborns. A Palestinian woman expressed, "There is no chance to get proper food to produce breast milk; there is no meat, no protein, no calcium—none of the elements necessary for good milk."

This lack of nutrients results in poor-quality breast milk, and diluted formula poses risks of diarrhea, which can be fatal. Moderately malnourished mothers may still breastfeed, sacrificing their own nutritional needs for their children. However, severely malnourished women struggle to provide adequate nourishment.

The suffering of children and civilians in Gaza is a humanitarian crisis deliberately brought on by Israel's forced starvation policy. The international community must come together to advocate for an immediate ceasefire, an arms embargo on Israel, and the prompt delivery of humanitarian aid. It is crucial to stand up against Israel's actions and work towards alleviating the suffering of the Palestinian people, as well as providing justice by holding Israel accountable.

Editor's note: Under normal circumstances text-book scientific solutions could well be beneficial and fruitful. But when implemented with total disregard to a conflict-zone's conditions, then those solutions could at some point be implemented in vain. In the case of Gaza, where the whole strip is under total siege and there is no possiblity to isolate patients or vaccinated children, then, out of the box solutions need to be brought forward. At @RebuildGaza24, we remain of the opinion that a permanent ceasefire and allowing for the entry of food, clean water and proper medication could well enable the Palestinian children of Gaza to develope a stronger immune system that would enable them to fight the side effects of the active OPV vaccine which could be fatal in their current case


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