Israel's Calculated Genocide Campaign Against Gaza: Starving a Nation
By: M. Sharifi
For decades, the Israeli regime has used hunger as a weapon with cold-blooded precision against the besieged civilians in Gaza, a tactic. Nowhere is this more apparent than in its chokehold on food aid, a right it has reserved exclusively for itself, despite the undeniable documentation and mounting evidence.
The war on Gaza, which began on October 7, 2023, provides the most recent and horrific example of this, as the people of Gaza continue to endure an unrelenting siege. As Israeli troops tighten their grip, the civilians in Gaza face catastrophic shortages of food and medical supplies, yet the Israeli occupiers openly and without remorse block humanitarian aid, preventing the entry of potable water, food, and fuel. In a vile display of barbarity, even humanitarian convoys have become targets of Israeli aggression.
Gаzа, long held hostage by Israel's brutal blockade, is suffocating under a systematic and sustained policy of starvation. Since 2007, this regime has imposed a stranglehold on all entry and exit points to Gaza’s shores, ruthlessly controlling its access to the open sea. Any attempt to violate this humanitarian blockade is met with swift and violent retaliation, as witnessed on May 31, 2010, when Israeli forces intercepted the Freedom Flotilla from Turkey—ships carrying humanitarian aid to Gaza—using excessive force that left a trail of casualties in its wake. This state-sanctioned violence sparked global outrage, yet the world’s protests have fallen on deaf ears.
Forcibly starving the people of Gaza into submission is not merely a tactic—it is a policy. Eleven months into this unyielding assault, the world bears witness to an unprecedented massacre. They have shredded international law, trampled human dignity, and called into question the very essence of humanity itself. Israel, driven by an ideology of racial supremacy, seeks to seize all Palestinian land, using ethnic cleansing as a vehicle to achieve its territorial ambitions. Tel Aviv aims to control Gaza's demographic future by imposing forced starvation, ensuring the death of its people not only through bombs but also through hunger and deprivation. Malnutrition robs children of their futures, leaving their bodies weakened and traumatizing their lives. Israel has met the United Nations' dire warnings with contemptuous disregard.
The attack on humanitarian convoys is an unmistakable sign of Israel's moral bankruptcy. Often referred to as the world's largest open-air prison, Gaza remains one of the world's most densely populated areas, depriving its people of basic necessities. Numerous incidents, including the most recent attack on a convoy by an American humanitarian organization, have documented Israeli forces' grotesque habit of obstructing aid and targeting relief workers. Israel’s predictable defense? The assertion that the aid workers were armed is unfounded. However, these excuses lack credibility when confronted with the undeniable atrocities in progress.
In one particularly heinous act of cruelty, Israeli occupiers opened fire on thousands of Palestinian civilians awaiting humanitarian aid trucks in the Sheikh Ijlin area of Gaza. The result? There were over 100 Palestinians murdered and dozens more injured. This was no accident; this was deliberate. Even Jens Laerke, spokesperson for the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs, condemned these attacks in Geneva, stating unequivocally that Israeli forces are intentionally targeting aid workers, harassing them, detaining them, and in some cases killing them. This is not only inhumane—it is intolerable.
Now in the eleventh month of Israel’s ongoing war against Gaza, the situation has reached a crescendo of cruelty. With food supplies nearly depleted and aid trickling in drop by drop, Gaza has become the most hunger-ravaged place on earth. The Israeli regime has made starvation its deadliest weapon. The destruction of medical facilities and infrastructure has deepened the humanitarian crisis, creating conditions that have no precedent in recent memory. It is now more urgent than ever for the international community to act. Humanitarian organizations and international institutions must confront Israel's genocidal policies head-on. If they do not, the Israeli regime will continue to march forward with its ultimate goal: the racial and ethnic cleansing of Palestine. The consequences, if left unchecked, will be catastrophic and irreversible.
