Estimated 27 children killed by famine, with fears many more will suffer lifelong effects, despite Israel’s promise of more aid
Even if the war in Gaza ended tomorrow, for some of the Palestinian territory’s children, it would not help. Hunger and malnutrition have already claimed an estimated 27 young lives, and for many more, it may be too late to reverse the excruciating toll that starvation takes on small, growing bodies.
Nuzha Awad’s triplets, Malek, Khader and Moustafa, born two months before the war began when Hamas attacked Israel on 7 October, did not stop crying as she spoke to the Guardian. She fled Gaza City when food and formula for her babies began to run out; in their new home, a makeshift tent in the central town of Deir al-Balah, she is still desperately afraid for their futures.
“At this age a child should weigh 8 kilos. They weigh 2 kilos … They don’t have thighs yet. At this stage they are supposed to be crawling and preparing to walk. And now you can see the state they’re in,” she said.
“Are these the arms of an eight-month-old child? … It’s death there, death, death. Death in the literal meaning of the word.”
UN-backed food insecurity experts assessed in mid-March that famine n Gaza could set in between later that month and mid-May. Last week, Samantha Power, the head of the US humanitarian and development agency, USAid, became the first American official to confirm publicly that in some areas, famine had already taken hold.
USAID Administrator Samantha Power testifies at a hearing in Washington, D.C. on April 9, 2024. (Photo: Allison Bailey/Middle East Images/AFP via Getty Images)
“In northern Gaza, the rate of malnutrition prior to October 7th was almost zero, and it is now one in three—one in three kids,” said Samantha Power.
The head of the U.S. Agency for International Development admitted during congressional testimony on Wednesday that famine is already underway in the Gaza Strip, publicly confirming an assessment that her agency’s officials outlined in a cable to the White House last week.
USAID Administrator Samantha Power, a well-known liberal interventionist and the author of a famous book on American leaders’ failure to act in the face of genocide, answered in the affirmative after U.S. Rep. Joaquin Castro (D-Texas) asked whether “famine is already occurring” in Gaza, which is under a suffocating Israeli siege and relentless bombing campaign.
“Yes,” said Power. “In northern Gaza, the rate of malnutrition prior to October 7th was almost zero, and it is now one in three—one in three kids.”
During her opening statement at Wednesday’s House Foreign Affairs Committee hearing, Power said that “nearly the entire population” of Gaza is “living under the threat of famine.”
“USAID teams have been working day and night to address the catastrophic humanitarian crisis,” said Power, who earlier this year was confronted by current and former USAID officials over the Biden administration’s support for Israel’s assault on the Palestinian territory, which the United Nations’ highest court has deemed a plausible genocide.
The hearing was interrupted by peace activists with CodePink, who pointed to the number of children Israeli forces have killed in Gaza and condemned the USAID chief for “not using her power and influence to end” the assault.
“Will Samantha Power continue to be a bystander and be complicit in genocide? Or will she, in her own words, be an upstander to stop the genocide?” asked Jennifer Koonings, one of the activists who took part in the protest.
Power’s remarks to the House panel came after HuffPost‘s Akbar Shahid Ahmed reported that USAID officials drafted a cable describing the spread of malnutrition in Gaza as “unprecedented in modern history” and warning that deaths from starvation will likely “accelerate in the weeks ahead”—echoing the conclusions of U.N. experts and human rights organizations.
The cable, Ahmed wrote, “shows the Biden administration is aware of the risk that the death toll there will rise dramatically as it continues to support Israel’s operation and resist calls for a permanent end to the war.”
Last week, hours after Israeli forces killed seven World Central Kitchen aid workers in a series of targeted airstrikes, The New York Timesreported that the Biden administration is pressing Congress to approve a proposed sale of $18 billion worth of F-15 fighter jets to Israel despite U.S. laws barring aid deliveries to nations committing war crimes and obstructing the delivery of American humanitarian assistance.
In late March, the Biden administration quietly approved weapons packages that included more than 1,800 2,000-pound bombs, which the Israeli military has repeatedly dropped on densely populated areas of Gaza.
“The idea that we have supplied and are continuing to supply 2,000-pound bombs which could wipe out an entire block and other military aid is unacceptable,” U.S. Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) told journalist Christiane Amanpour in an interview that aired earlier this week.
“There is an imminent risk of famine for the majority, if not all, the 2.2 million population of Gaza. This is not a point in debate.”
Fears of mass starvation in the Gaza Strip have mounted in recent days as Israel continues to restrict the flow of necessary aid to Gaza, sparking accusations that the Netanyahu government is using hunger as a weapon of war—a grave violation of international law.
“There is an imminent risk of famine for the majority, if not all, the 2.2 million population of Gaza,” David Satterfield, the U.S. special envoy for Gaza humanitarian efforts, said Wednesday during a virtual event hosted by the American Jewish Committee.
“This is not a point in debate,” he added. “It is an established fact, which the United States, its experts, the international community, its experts assess and believe is real.”
A report released earlier this week by the International Crisis Group found that the Israeli government has been directing limited Gaza aid to “big families who agree to embrace its agenda, while targeting those who refuse.”
“It has not coordinated military with humanitarian action, endangering aid workers and recipients, and frequently halting convoys,” reads the damning report. “It has attacked civilian police, citing links to Hamas, and compelled their retreat, which leaves supplies vulnerable to plunder, whether by profiteers or the desperately hungry. It has tried to work around the international aid system and its protocols for famine prevention and response, doling out assistance on an ad hoc basis in hopes of building a network to administer Gaza on its behalf after the war.”
Police attacked the protest organized by UTEP in Buenos Aires. Photo: UTEP
Police cracked down on a protest of thousands of workers in the capital who demanded the government listen to its demands to send food to the community kitchens and address the growing hunger in the country
On Wednesday April 10, the Federal Police and the Police of the city of Buenos Aires violently evicted and repressed a peaceful demonstration on 9 de Julio Avenue in the center of the capital. The mobilization organized by the Union of Workers of the Popular Economy (UTEP) was one of many which took place in cities across the country to raise awareness to the critical situation faced by workers in the popular, or informal, economy in Argentina.
Organizations part of UTEP claim that the national government has suspended programs providing food to community kitchens and has also refused to dialogue with organizations who have repeatedly denounced the suspension and now, are unable to provide food to the thousands of families that they previously worked with. Many poor families across the country have also suffered from a freezing and arbitrary reduction of their “Social Complementary Salary”, a government program which provided supplementary economic aid to workers of the popular economy.
In Buenos Aires, thousands of protesters attempted to march to the Ministry of Human Capital when they were violently attacked by police with gas, water cannons. Over 10 were arrested in the brutal police repression and several were injured, including one protester who was dragged down the street and hit against the asphalt. Additionally, a journalist with the outlet Crónica TV driver was hit with a rubber bullet in the face.
The Ministry of Human Capital is a creation of the Milei government as a part of his promise to cut the majority of ministries and secretaries and create “super ministries”. It is the combination of the former Ministry of Labor, Ministry of Employment and Social Security, Ministry of Education, Ministry of Culture, and the Ministry of Social Development. This move, in addition to massively reducing the number of people working for the ministry, also saw severe cuts be made to the dozens of social programs run by those areas.
Milei, who was in Miami visiting with zionist and far-right US leaders such as Ben Shapiro, celebrated the repression of the protesters who were demanding government action against hunger amid unprecedented levels of poverty in the country. Milei reposted a publication from user Diego Álzaga Unzué on X which said: “Applause, gentlemen, see how the fire hydrant truck came out to remove the picketers who wanted to get dirty and cut off 9 de Julio Avenue, harming the workers. This is cinema. Enjoy, my friends.”
His Minister of Security Patricia Bullrich declared: “Law and order” in her post praising the “effective” crackdown on the mobilization through her “anti-picket protocol”.
Following the repressive operation, UTEP wrote in a statement: “We tried to create a channel of dialogue by all possible means, but once again the only response to the social and economic crisis is batons, gas and bullets. We denounce the violent actions of this Government, which the only thing it proposes for the people is planned misery. Our fight plan will continue to deepen to get food for our community kitchens, work and projects in our working class neighborhoods and social wages for the workers of the popular economy.”
A Palestinian child receives treatment at a private children’s hospital in Rafah that specializes in providing care to children suffering from malnutrition. (Photo: Mohammed Talatene/Picture Alliance via Getty Images)
The United Nations Children’s Fund said at least 10 kids in a northern Gaza hospital have died of malnutrition and dehydration—and many more are “fighting for their lives.”
The United Nations Children’s Fund said Sunday that at least 10 children have reportedly died of starvation and dehydration at a hospital in northern Gaza as Israeli forces continue to obstruct and attack aid convoys, fueling desperation across the territory.
Adele Khodr, UNICEF’s regional director for the Middle East and North Africa, said malnutrition is ravaging the Gaza Strip and warned that child deaths “are likely to rapidly increase” unless Israel ends its military assault and allows humanitarian aid to flow unimpeded.
“The child deaths we feared are here,” said Khodr. “At least ten children have reportedly died because of dehydration and malnutrition in Kamal Adwan Hospital in the northern Gaza Strip in recent days. There are likely more children fighting for their lives somewhere in one of Gaza’s few remaining hospitals, and likely even more children in the north unable to obtain care at all.”
“These tragic and horrific deaths are man-made, predictable, and entirely preventable,” Khodr added.
Nearly half of the more than 30,000 people killed by U.S.-backed Israeli forces in Gaza since October have been children, and humanitarian officials have said disease and famine could soon become bigger killers than Israel’s bombs and bullets. United Nations experts and human rights groups have accused the Israeli government of using starvation as a weapon of war, intentionally depriving Gazans of food and other necessities.
A group of U.N. officials warned last month that an “explosion in preventable child deaths” was looming.
“The sense of helplessness and despair among parents and doctors in realizing that lifesaving aid, just a few kilometers away, is being kept out of reach, must be as unbearable, but worse still are the anguished cries of those babies slowly perishing under the world’s gaze,” Khodr said Sunday. “The lives of thousands more babies and children depend on urgent action being taken now.”
At least 10 children have reportedly died because of dehydration and malnutrition in Kamal Adwan Hospital in the Northern Gaza Strip in recent days.
— UNICEF MENA – يونيسف الشرق الأوسط وشمال إفريقيا (@UNICEFmena) March 3, 2024
Agnes Callamard, secretary-general of Amnesty International, said that “these deaths are unlawful, the result of acts by Israel authorities which engineered famine.”
“They knew the likely outcome of their actions but persisted. Over weeks and months,” Callamard added. “And all states that cut UNRWA funding, sold weapons, and supported Israel bear responsibility too.”
While virtually all of Gaza’s population is in need of food, conditions are particularly dire in the northern part of the territory. Carl Skau, deputy executive director of the World Food Program, told members of the U.N. Security Council last week that “if nothing changes, a famine is imminent in northern Gaza.”
With aid deliveries plummeting due to Israel’s obstruction, families have been forced to eat grass, leaves, animal feed, and scraps left behind by rats. On Saturday, the U.S. airdropped 38,000 meals into Gaza—a move that critics said would do little to slow the rapid spread of hunger across the Palestinian territory.
Melanie Ward, CEO of Medical Aid for Palestinians, described conditions in Gaza as “the fastest decline in a population’s nutrition status ever recorded.”
“That means children are being starved at the fastest rate the world has ever seen,” Ward said in an appearance on CNN. “We could save them all. But we’re not being able to.”
This story has been updated to include comment from Agnes Callamard of Amnesty International.
U.S. President Joe Biden speaks during a campaign event at Mother Emanuel AME Church on January 8, 2024 in Charleston, South Carolina. (Photo: Sean Rayford/Getty Images)
The electoral base that Biden is going to need for re-election is heavily against his support for Israel’s war on Gaza. There is no way to hide from that fact.
For more than four months, President Biden has been the main enabler for Israel’s mass murder of Palestinian people in Gaza. Every day, hundreds of civilians are killed by U.S. weaponry and, increasingly, by hunger and disease. The cruelty and magnitude of the slaughter are repugnant to anyone who isn’t somehow numb to the human agony.
Such numbing is widespread in the United States. Some factors include ethnocentric, racial, and religious biases against Arabs and Muslims. The steep pro-Israel tilt of news media runs parallel to the slant of U.S. government officials, with language that routinely conveys much lower regard for Palestinian lives than Israeli lives.
And while the credibility of the Israeli government has tumbled, the brawny arms of the Israel lobby—notably AIPAC and Democratic Majority for Israel—still exert enormous leverage over the vast majority of Congress. Few legislators are willing to vote against massive military aid that makes the carnage in Gaza possible.
Instead of candor, the routine choices have been euphemisms and silence. But—morally and politically—that’s a big mistake.
A chilling example is Sen. Chris Van Hollen of Maryland. On Monday night, he took to the Senate floor and condemned Israel in no uncertain terms. “Kids in Gaza are now dying from the deliberate withholding of food,” he said. “In addition to the horror of that news, one other thing is true. That is a war crime. It is a textbook war crime. And that makes those who orchestrate it war criminals.”
Watching video from Van Hollen’s impassioned speech, you might assume that he would vote against sending $14 billion in further military aid to those “war criminals.” But hours later, he did just the opposite. As journalist Ryan Grim noted, “the senator’s speech pulsed with moral clarity—until it petered out into a stumbling rationale for his forthcoming yes vote.”
In contrast, three senators in the Democratic caucus—Jeff Merkley, Peter Welch, and Bernie Sanders—voted no. Sanders delivered a powerful speech calling for decency instead of further moral collapse from the top of the U.S. government.
While the Senate deliberated, the White House again made clear that it wasn’t serious about getting in the way of Israel’s planned assault on the city of Rafah. That’s where most of Gaza’s 2.2 million surviving residents have taken unsafe refuge from the Orwellian-named Israel Defense Forces.
An exchange at a White House news conference on Monday underscored that Biden is determined to keep enabling Israel’s continuous war crimes in Gaza:
Reporter: “Has the president ever threatened to strip military assistance from Israel if they move ahead with a Rafah operation that does not take into consequence what happens with civilians?”
Spokesman John Kirby: “We’re going to continue to support Israel. They have a right to defend themselves against Hamas and we’re going to continue to make sure they have the tools and the capabilities to do that.”
Later this week, Politico summed up: “The Biden administration is not planning to punish Israel if it launches a military campaign in Rafah without ensuring civilian safety.” Citing interviews with three U.S. officials, the article reported that “no reprimand plans are in the works, meaning Israeli forces could enter the city and harm civilians without facing American consequences.”
Biden continues to serve as an accomplice while mouthing platitudes of concern about the lives of civilians in Gaza. Month after month, he has done all he can to supply the Israeli military to the max.
With just eight months until the voting starts that could propel Donald Trump back into the presidency, the prospect of his return to power is all too real.
Under an apt headline—“Biden Is Mad at Netanyahu? Spare Me.”—The Nation senior editor Jack Mirkinson wrote this week: “In the real world, Biden and his legislative partners have continued to arm Israel; the Democratic leadership in the Senate actually brought people in on Super Bowl Sunday to take a vote on a bill that would, along with rearming Ukraine, send Israel another $14.1 billion for what is euphemistically dubbed ‘security assistance.’”
Ever since October, inspiring protests and activism in the United States have challenged U.S. support for Israel’s military assault on Gaza. However, boosted by revulsion at the atrocities that Hamas committed against Israeli civilians on October 7, the usual rationales for supporting Israel’s violence against Palestinians have been hard at work.
In this election year, an additional factor looms large. With just eight months until the voting starts that could propel Donald Trump back into the presidency, the prospect of his return to power is all too real. And with Biden set to be the Democratic Party’s nominee, countless individuals and groups are careful to avoid saying much that’s critical of the president they want to see re-elected.
Instead of candor, the routine choices have been euphemisms and silence. But—morally and politically—that’s a big mistake.
The electoral base that Biden is going to need for re-election is heavily against his support for Israel’s war on Gaza. Polling shows that young people in particular are overwhelmingly opposed. Most have seen through the thin veneer of his weak pleas for Israel to not kill so many civilians.
No amount of evasions, silences or doubletalk can make Biden’s policies morally acceptable. But—while the administration combines its PR hand-wringing with military arms-supplying—Biden apologists go on and on with evasion and verbal gymnastics to defend the indefensible.
A far better course of action would be actual candor about current realities: Joe Biden’s moral collapse is enabling the Israeli government to continue, with impunity, its large-scale massacre of Palestinian people. In the process, Biden is increasing the chances that the Republican Party, led by fascistic Donald Trump, will gain control of the White House in January.
