Israel’s genocidal war continues as it inflicts a state of “total siege” on the people of Gaza. Access to food and water has been severely restricted by the Israeli siege. UNRWA (The United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East) says Israel has blocked it from making any deliveries of much-needed supplies, including food, since Jan. 23. Hospitals in Gaza have reported ongoing deaths as children die from malnutrition. At least 20 people have died from lack of food and dehydration at Kamal Adwan and Shifa hospitals. At the Emirati hospital in Rafa, 16 premature babies have died from malnutrition. According to hospital staff, 300 to 400 children per day are being treated for diseases, and 75 percent of them are suffering from malnutrition. The United Nations recently reported that 575,000 people are confronting “catastrophic levels of deprivation and starvation.”
Meanwhile, the ongoing attacks have pushed the death toll beyond 30,000. Israel claims it is facilitating the delivery of food and water, but on multiple occasions Israeli troops have opened fire on people while food is being delivered. The U.S., through its military aid to Israel, has facilitated this genocidal war, shipping tens of thousands of bombs so that Israel can carry out one of the most extensive bombing campaigns in history. Washington has approved more than 100 military sales to Israel since the invasion of Gaza began.
Israel’s brutality has gone so far that even the Biden administration has been forced to say a few words in opposition to the severity of the situation. The U.S. has put on a little show of concern, airdropping food to Gaza, and promising to build a pier on the Gaza coast to receive food and supplies. These measures are just for show, to try to save face, and to lose less votes for Biden’s reelection. The airdrops only provided food and supplies for one percent of Gaza’s population. And while the Biden administration promises to build a pier, it continues to ship weapons and munitions to Israel to carry out the genocide. As Biden said in a recent speech, “There is no red line (in which) I want to cut off all weapons so they don’t have the Iron Dome (air defense system) to protect them.” As if Israel was in need of protection in this situation.
There can be no doubt that the U.S. and the Biden administration continue to facilitate, in front of the whole world, an act of genocide against the Palestinian people in which hunger, thirst, and disease are as much a weapon as the bombs bankrolled by Washington.
