A baby in Gaza, hospitalized due to malnutrition and dehydration.
‘Starvation Taking Place’: Sanders Demands
Biden Cut Off All Military Aid to Israel
Jon Queally / Common Dreams
(March 3, 2024) — Sen. Bernie Sanders on Sunday accused Israel of standing in clear violation of the US Foreign Assistance Act by creating the conditions for mass starvation within the Gaza Strip as he called on the Biden administration to halt all military aid to the country until Palestinians are granted the life-saving humanitarian relief they urgently need.
Sen. Bernie Sanders on Sunday accused Israel of standing in clear violation of the US Foreign Assistance Act by creating the conditions for mass starvation within the Gaza Strip as he called on the Biden administration to halt all military aid to the country until Palestinians are granted the life-saving humanitarian relief they urgently need.
“Starvation is taking place in Gaza,” Sanders said in a statement. “Israel is prohibiting aid convoys from delivering desperately needed food and water.”
While the US government initiated airdrops over the weekend with the aim of providing tens of thousands of meals for those starving and suffering malnutrition in the besieged territory of Gaza, relief agencies said the effort was only a drop in the bucket of what is needed to stem what the UN Relief and Works Agency for Palestinian Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA) on Sunday called a “hell on earth” situation.
On Sunday, as Common Dreams reported, UNICEF issued a warning to the world that ten child deaths from starvation had already been documented, that others had likely occurred, and many more should be expected if conditions on the ground were not immediately addressed.
“Horrific reports confirmed that, over the last few days only, at least 10 children died of malnutrition in Gaza,” the agency said. “These deaths are man-made, predictable, and entirely preventable.”
Agnes Callamard, secretary-general of Amnesty International, called the situation in Gaza an “engineered famine” created by Israel and its international allies who have stood aside or provided backing to Netanyahu.
As Sanders’ office noted in its Sunday statement, Israel’s ongoing blockade of food, water, medical supplies, and fuel as the civilian population suffers at such levels is a clear violation of Section 620I of the Foreign Assistance Act, which states:
No assistance shall be furnished … to any country when it is made known to the President that the government of such country prohibits or otherwise restricts, directly or indirectly, the transport or delivery of United States humanitarian assistance.
“Today,” said Sanders, “I urge President Biden to implement this law and make it clear to Israel that, if aid access is not immediately opened up, he will impose consequences under the Foreign Assistance Act and stop military assistance to Israel.”
‘The Child Deaths We Feared
Are Here,’ Says UNICEF
Jake Johnson / Common Dreams
Israeli forces continue to obstruct and attack aid convoys, fueling desperation across the territory.
(March 3, 2024) — 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.”
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.”
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.”
“if nothing changes, a famine is imminent in northern Gaza.”
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,”
Posted in accordance with Title 17, Section 107, US Code, for noncommercial, educational purposes.
