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Famine and genocide in Gaza

Israel’s siege of the North Gaza governorate is pushing the area into famine, which may already be taking place, according to a new analysis published by the Famine Early Warning Systems Network (FEWS NET). 

While a famine hasn’t yet been officially declared, the analysis warned that government decision-makers shouldn’t wait for an official classification and should take immediate action to “facilitate large-scale, sustained delivery of food and nutrition assistance”.

The intentional starvation of the population and mass civilian casualties in the Gaza Strip is “consistent with the characteristics of genocide”, according to a separate 14 November report by a UN special committee investigating Israel’s conduct in the enclave. 

Since early October, Israel has blocked almost all food supplies from entering the three northernmost areas of the Gaza Strip – Jabalia, Beit Hanoun, and Beit Lahia – while carrying out a brutal military campaign that has forcibly displaced the vast majority of residents. The Israeli military has said it has no intention of allowing the people who have been forced out to return. 

At the end of October, the UN’s human rights office warned that Israel’s actions in North Gaza “may be causing the destruction of the Palestinian population”, reminding Israel that it had been ordered by the International Court of Justice to refrain from committing genocidal acts. 

On 13 October, the US gave Israel a 30-day ultimatum to improve the drastically worsening humanitarian conditions in North Gaza and throughout the enclave. Despite humanitarian organisations saying little-to-no progress has been made, American officials said that Israel won’t face any consequences. 

The amount of aid Israel allowed into Gaza in October was at its lowest level since last October, when the entire enclave was under total siege for two weeks, and humanitarian conditions are as bad, if not worse, than they have been at any point during Israel’s war of attrition.

For all our Gaza reporting, visit our Palestine coverage page.

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