Despite the allegations of Israeli Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu, that there is no extreme hunger in the Gaza Strip, the current delivery of humanitarian aid in the territory is insufficient to contain the profound crisis of malnutrition, according to calculations by the Israeli newspaper Haaretz.
The Gaza Humanitarian Foundation (GHF), a private organization supported by Israel and the United States that has been busy with the distribution of help in the territory since Tel-AVIV imposed an entry block, said this week that it distributed more than 85 million meals since the operations started more than 50 days ago.
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The number, however, is far below what is needed so that the Palestinians do not starve. According to calculations made by Haaretz, if there are more than 2 million Palestinians in Gaza currently requiring at least three meals a day not to be malnourished, 353 million meals would be required during this period.
“Even though, by some miracle, the inhabitants of Gaza had managed to divide the foods distributed by the organization equally, cook them and extract all the calories and nutrients they contained, this would still be just a small fraction of the foods they need to survive. And this gap reveals only the tip of the hunger math iceberg,” writes the publication.
The newspaper also highlights the limitation of products provided by the Foundation. According to the publication, each aid package generally contains four pounds of flour, three pasta, a pot of tahin, four pounds of chickpeas and lentils, a bottle of oil, one kilo of salt and two kilos of rice. Foods that require cooking.
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“But this is an impossible mission in Gaza today, where almost no one has a kitchen working, or even gas to cook,” the newspaper points out. “In addition, there is a serious shortage of clean water, which is also necessary to cook these foods. And this not to mention the obvious: the difficulties of storing and storing food for a few days amid repeated flights and displacements.”
Another problem is logistical. GHF concentrates distributions in just four centers. This forces Palestinians to move to the places, contrary to the humanitarian distribution standards that usually go to the needy. According to Haaretz, these locations work for a short period of time, usually 15 minutes, which is time to end. In addition, the schedules are not defined and warned in advance, forcing people to wait.
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This dynamic creates a dangerous situation in the distribution centers, with crowded people, vying for limited help packages. Witnesses and health professionals claim that Israeli forces killed hundreds of people by opening fire against Palestinians trying to reach these distribution centers or when they cluster around the aid trucks. The Israeli army claims to have fired warning shots to disperse the threats.
The research of the Israeli newspaper also points out that the Palestinians who can survive the riots in front of the distribution centers come collecting the packages they can carry, without an egalitarian distribution – and prioritizing vulnerable groups such as children, women and people with some special need.
In the midst of this, there are reports of those who are profiting from the help packs you can collect. Some men who can get food – some of them more expensive such as tuna, cheese and oil – sell in places far from centers. The further from distribution, the more expensive.
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Finally, the newspaper denounces the lack of variety in distributed foods. There are no specialized foods for people with celiac disease, heart disease or kidney disease. And even more serious, there is a great shortage of children’s formulas.
Hunger Deaths
Going against all international reports and images of skeletal babies in Gaza, Premie Netanyahu said no one in Gaza is starving: “There is no hunger policy in Gaza, and there is no hunger in Gaza. We allow humanitarian aid to reach Gaza throughout the war – otherwise there would be no residents in Gaza.”
But Netanyahu saw his greatest ally, President Donald Trump, disagreeing with the statement, observing the images of hungry people: “These children seem to be very hungry,” he said.
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On Monday night, Netanyahu was dubious and issued a statement in which he acknowledged that the situation in Palestinian territory is “difficult” and said that Israel is working to increase the flow of humanitarian aid in Gaza.
The World Health Organization reported on Sunday, 27, that there were 63 deaths related to malnutrition in Gaza this month, including 24 children under 5 years – an increase over 11 deaths in the previous six months of the year.
The Gaza Ministry of Health, controlled by Hamas, raises the number even more, reporting 82 deaths this month for causes related to malnutrition: 24 children and 58 adults. On Monday, the ministry reported that 14 deaths were recorded in 24 hours.
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After international pressure, Israel announced over the weekend daily breaks in air attacks and to allow foreign aid to enter Gaza. But the local population states that little or nothing has changed on the field. The UN described the measure as an increase of one week in humanitarian aid, and Israel did not say how long these measures would last.
The Israeli army states that more than 95,000 humanitarian aid trucks have entered Gaza since the beginning of the war. This represents an average of 146 trucks a day, well below 500 to 600 trucks per day the UN considers necessary.
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In addition, Israel also authorized the sending of help through the air, which is a risk to Palestinians as products may fall on people or even get lost in the sea.
“This help, given this way, is an insult to the Palestinian people,” said Hasan Al-Zalaan, who was at the scene of a air release while some fought for the crumpled chickpeas and crumpled cans that were scattered across the floor.
Israel states that the terrorist group Hamas is why humanitarian aid does not reach Palestinians in Gaza and accuses their fighters to divert help to support their domain in the territory. The UN denies that the withdrawal of humanitarian aid is systematic and that decreases or ceases completely when a sufficient amount of help is allowed to enter Gaza.
The UN says that delivering the allowed help in Gaza has become increasingly difficult. When it arrives, it is left inside the Gaza border, and the organization needs to obtain Israeli military permission to send trucks to pick it up. But the UN states that the military has denied or prevented just over half of the requests for movement of their trucks in the last three months.
If the UN can collect help, hungry crowds and armed gangs invade the trains and plunder supplies. The Civil Police run by Hamas has provided security on some routes, but this stopped after Israel attacked them with air attacks.
