Israel using starvation as ‘weapon of war’
Israel is intentionally cutting people’s access to water and food, which is a war crime, said HRW
Israel is using starvation as a ‘weapon of war’ in Gaza by intentionally cutting people’s access to water and food, which is a war crime, the Human Rights Watch (HRW) said on Monday.
“Israeli forces are deliberately blocking the delivery of water, food, and fuel, while willfully impeding humanitarian assistance, apparently razing agricultural areas, and depriving the civilian population of objects indispensable to their survival,” the rights group said in a statement.
It pointed out to the statements made by high-ranking Israeli officials, including Defense Minister Yoav Gallant, National Security Minister Itamar BenGvir, and Energy Minister Israel Katz on their intention to ‘deprive civilians in Gaza of food, water and fuel – statements reflecting a policy being carried out by Israeli forces’.
Other Israeli officials, it added, have publicly stated that humanitarian aid to Gaza would be conditioned either on the release of hostages unlawfully held by Hamas or Hamas’s destruction.
“For over two months, Israel has been depriving Gaza’s population of food and water, a policy spurred on or endorsed by highranking Israeli officials and reflecting an intent to starve civilians as a method of warfare,” said Omar Shakir, HRW’S Israel and Palestine director.
“World leaders should be speaking out against this abhorrent war crime, which has devastating effects on Gaza’s population.”
The HRW said international humanitarian law, or the laws of war, prohibits the starvation of civilians as a method of warfare.
The Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court, it said, provides that intentionally starving civilians by ‘depriving them of objects indispensable to their survival, including willfully impeding relief supplies’ is a war crime.
“Criminal intent does not require the attacker’s admission but can also be inferred from the totality of the circumstances of the military campaign.”
Israel’s continuing blockade of Gaza, as well as its more than 16year closure, amounts to collective punishment of the civilian population, a war crime, the nonprofit based in New York said.
At least 18,800 Palestinians have been killed in Israeli attacks since October 7, mostly of them women and children, and 51,000 injured, according to Gaza’s health authorities.
The Israeli death toll in the Hamas attack stands at 1,200, while more than 130 hostages are still being held by the Palestinian group in Gaza, according to official figures.
The war has left Gaza in ruins with half of the coastal territory’s housing stock damaged or destroyed, and nearly 2mn people displaced within the denselypopulated enclave amid shortages of food and clean water.
The HRW called on Tel Aviv to immediately cease using starvation of civilians as a method of warfare, and abide by the prohibition on attacks on objects necessary for the survival of the civilian population and lift its blockade of the Gaza Strip.
“The government should restore water and electricity access, and allow desperately needed food, medical aid, and fuel into Gaza, including via its crossing at Kerem Shalom,” it said.
It also called on the US, UK, Canada, Germany, and other countries to ‘suspend military assistance and arms sales to Israel as long as its forces continue to commit widespread and serious abuses amounting to war crimes against civilians with impunity’.
More than 100 killed Meanwhile, more than 100
Palestinians were killed and scores were missing following Israeli airstrikes on houses in the city of Jabalia in northern Gaza.
According to the Palestinian news agency Wafa, health sources reported on Monday morning that more than 100 Palestinians were killed in Jabalia, with as many people still trapped under the rubble. At least 20 people were also injured in the attacks.
On Sunday, it was reported that civil defense teams recovered more than 30 bodies.
Around 100 people are estimated to remain trapped under the rubble, according to the Palestine TV Channel.
Call for probe
Gaza health officials have called for probe after Israeli forces were accused of using bulldozers and unleashing attacker dogs during a raid on the Kamal Adwan Hospital.
Israeli forces raided the hospital last week after besieging and shelling it for several days.
At a press conference on Sunday, Munir al-bursh, the general director of hospitals in the Gaza Strip, and the hospital’s pediatric department head Hussam Abu Safiya said Israeli forces destroyed some sections of the medical facility, denied access to aid, and attacked health workers, the wounded, and displaced civilians seeking refuge.
“The hospital gate and surroundings were bombed, shots were fired at buildings within the hospital compound, the second floor housing the maternity ward was bombed ... hospital director Ahmed al-kahlout was detained and taken to an undisclosed location.
“Israeli soldiers gathered displaced civilians and health workers, who had sought refuge in the hospital, in a large pit, half-naked, and unleashed attack dogs on them. Israeli construction machinery demolished the hospital’s oxygen unit, water tank, central archive, and pharmacy,” he said.
‘Israeli forces used a bulldozer to dig a large pit in the hospital courtyard and threw approximately 12 bodies of those they had killed into the pit. We do not know if any of the wounded were among those thrown into the pit. We demand a relevant international investigation into these heinous crimes,’ he added.
World leaders should be speaking out against this abhorrent war crime, which has devastating effects on Gaza’s population
OMAR SHAKIR