The Hunger Games: Pressure Builds On Israel To Stop Gaza’s Mass Starvation That It Denies Exists
NEED TO KNOW
The Hunger Games: Pressure Builds On Israel To Stop Gaza’s Mass Starvation That It Denies Exists
ISRAEL / WEST BANK & GAZA
Open the border, open the border – this is the substance of the rising clamor heard around the world for weeks and even months, a plea, a demand, aimed at Israel to allow food into the besieged enclave of Gaza, where hundreds of thousands of people now don’t eat for days at a time.
After four months of an Israeli siege that mostly closed the border to aid deliveries, the country is coming under intensifying pressure – from allies and also from within.
That’s because the scenes of mass starvation emanating out of the enclave depicting emaciated children are shocking even those observers used to the daily violence and death toll from the conflict in Gaza: This has now cumulatively topped 60,000 since October 2023, when Hamas attacked Israel, killing 1,200 people, took 251 more hostage, and began a war.
But now, say world leaders, United Nations officials, and protesters around the world, the situation has become intolerable. “I don’t know what else you would call it other than mass starvation,” said UN World Health Organization chief, Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus.
Doctors such as Mark Brauner, an emergency physician from the US who spent two weeks in June volunteering at Nassar Hospital in Gaza, said he was deeply shocked at what he saw.
“I was prepared for the trauma, the (wounds from) explosions, gunshots, unstable patients but what I didn’t realize was that this was a mass casualty starvation event,” he told 1A in an interview Friday. “Many children are far beyond the point of recovery – and while we are seeing the numbers of deaths from starvation climb, month by month, I think we are all going to be very shocked at the numbers in September, October and November.”
So far, more than 154 people have died from malnutrition in the past month, including 89 children, while thousands more, like 2-year-old Yazan, pictured here held by his mother, Naeema, are so emaciated that it’s easy to count their ribs and vertebrae.
For these children still alive, say doctors, the damage is already irreversible.
These days, Gaza’s few operating hospitals have grown overwhelmed with the malnourished, whom they are unable to help: Doctors and nurses themselves have grown too weak to minister to the sick – and they have nothing left to give the starving.
Helen, a medical student at Al-Shifa Hospital in Gaza City, told NPR the situation is so dire that she is praying “right now to die.”
“We’ve been through difficult times during the war, but not like this,” she said. “We (are) literally starving. We haven’t eaten for days … I’m so tired. I don’t know what to do.”
It’s the same situation for aid workers and journalists, who have no supplies and are growing too frail to work. Last week, French newswire Agence France-Presse asked the Israeli government to allow its reporters to leave the enclave because they are in danger of starving to death.
“Since AFP was founded in 1944, we have lost journalists in conflicts, some have been injured, others taken prisoner,” the agency’s Society of Journalists said on X. “But none of us can ever remember seeing colleagues die of hunger.”
Israeli officials dispute that anyone in the enclave is starving, calling it Hamas propaganda and saying, “Yeah, it’s very easy to blame Israel for everything.”
“Israel is presented as though we are applying a campaign of starvation in Gaza – what a bald-faced lie,” said Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu this week. “There is no policy of starvation in Gaza, and there is no starvation in Gaza.”
However, aid groups have been warning about mass hunger developing since March, when Israel blocked food and medicine from entering the enclave, saying aid was benefiting Hamas – a claim rejected by most Western officials, aid groups, and the UN.
Recently, a US AID report and also Israeli military officials said there was no evidence that Hamas has routinely stolen aid. Instead, they say armed groups fighting Hamas, and supported by Israel, have been looting food and other supplies as recently as this week.
In late May, Israel allowed the resumption of some aid deliveries, mainly through the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation (GHF), an organization created by former US intelligence and defense officials in conjunction with Israel that has come under heavy criticism from international aid groups and charities for delivering insufficient aid, among other changes.
At the same time, its distribution sites have become death traps, scenes of deadly stampedes as Palestinians fight for food or face violence from the Israeli military – more than 1,000 Palestinians have been killed attempting to obtain food at its sites, many of whom died after Israeli soldiers fired into crowds or airstrikes hit the hungry.
For example, last week, the GHF announced a “woman only” distribution day in the southern Rafah area. Sisters Mary and Khawla arrived to obtain food but found chaos.
“There was a huge crowd of women and the place seemed out of control, they couldn’t offload and distribute the aid,” Khawla told the BBC. “They started spraying the women with pepper spray, then they brought stun grenades and started throwing them on the women to force them backward.”
The sisters became separated soon afterward. When Khawla tried to call Mary, a stranger picked up and told her that her sister had been shot in the head. “I called again, but this time I was told the owner of this phone had been killed,” Khawla recalled.
Israeli military officials say they are reviewing allegations of shootings and acknowledge that their soldiers fire “warning shots” at approaching crowds to prevent “suspects from approaching.”
As international pressure on Israel grows, its officials agreed Sunday to a pause in the airstrikes daily for 10 hours a day around three areas of the enclave to allow aid delivery and to restore electricity to a desalination plant to alleviate a dire shortage of potable water. It also said it was creating secure routes for UN aid trucks to distribute food and medicine across Gaza.
Its military also began airdropping small amounts of food into the Gaza Strip, a move critics called a “grotesque distraction,” as well as insufficient and potentially dangerous, citing past incidents in which food pallets killed civilians.
Meanwhile, US President Donald Trump was visibly shaken this week by the reports of mass starvation, saying that, “Some of those kids are – that’s real starvation stuff … I see it and you can’t fake that…” After meeting with British Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer on Monday, they both agreed to set up food centers in Gaza but haven’t yet offered details.
At the same time, the United Kingdom announced it would recognize the Palestinian state this fall if there was no ceasefire deal, following France’s declaration to do so last week. Canada announced its intentions on Wednesday.
Internal pressure on the Israeli government is growing, too. This week, two prominent Israeli human rights organizations, B’Tselem and Physicians for Human Rights Israel, accused Israel of crimes against humanity in Gaza, calling the situation there “our genocide,” CNN reported.
“Nothing prepares you for the realization that you are part of a society committing genocide,” said Yuli Novak, head of B’Tselem, which released a report on the situation in the enclave. “This is a deeply painful moment for us. But… we have a duty to speak the truth as clearly as possible: Israel is committing genocide against the Palestinians.”
Also, this week, the presidents of five of Israel’s leading universities published an open letter to Netanyahu, telling the prime minister to “solve the terrible problem of hunger in Gaza,” adding that as victims of the Holocaust, Jews have “a special obligation” to prevent indiscriminate harm.
Amid the furor and the stalled peace talks between Israel and Hamas, some far-right Israeli officials are doubling down on their plans to annex Gaza, possibly with the approval of Netanyahu for the first time, ABC News reported.
Earlier this week, Israeli Minister Gila Gamliel showcased her vision of a future Gaza, which would replace a landscape of near-complete destruction with one featuring gleaming high-rises and luxury yachts, an enclave emptied of Palestinians because they, as she said, would become part of a program of “voluntary emigration.”
Her colleague, Israeli Heritage Minister Amichai Eliyahu, elaborated: “All Gaza will be Jewish,” he said, explaining that the Israeli government “is racing ahead for Gaza to be wiped out.”
“There’s no hunger in Gaza,” he added. “But we don’t need to be concerned with hunger in the Strip. Let the world worry about it.”
THE WORLD, BRIEFLY
Trump Tariffs Spark Backlash Over US Interference in Domestic Affairs
WORLD
With US tariffs set to take effect on Aug. 1, Brazil and other countries expressed concern this week that Washington’s trade policies are increasingly being weaponized to interfere in their domestic affairs, raising fears of global economic retaliation and diplomatic rifts, Reuters reported.
On Wednesday, US President Donald Trump announced 50 percent tariffs on a broad range of Brazilian goods, though key sectors such as aircraft, fertilizer, and energy were spared.
US officials framed the tariffs as retaliation for the so-called “witch hunt” against ex-President Jair Bolsonaro. The tariff announcement came as Washington also unveiled sanctions against Brazilian Supreme Court Justice Alexandre de Moraes over his prosecution of Bolsonaro for allegedly plotting a coup.
In response, Brazil condemned the measures as politically motivated, “unjustifiable” and “unacceptable.”
Brazilian President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva defended de Moraes and warned of possible retaliation. Even so, he signaled an openness to negotiate with the US.
The Brazil tariffs came amid new tensions between Canada and the United States over Palestinian statehood, Euronews noted.
On Wednesday, Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney said Ottawa would recognize the state of Palestine at the United Nations in September, following similar announcements from France and the United Kingdom earlier this week.
While Israel condemned the move, Trump warned that Ottawa’s decision would make a future US-Canada trade deal “very hard.”
On Thursday, the US president raised tariffs on imports from Canada that are not covered by the US-Mexico-Canada trade agreement by 35 percent, the Guardian added.
The Trump administration said the decision came after Ottawa had failed to stop the flow of fentanyl and other drugs across the US border. Carney called the move “disappointing” and insisted that Canada accounted for just one percent of US fentanyl imports.
Economists warned that the tariffs would have far-reaching economic consequences in Canada.
Observers said the tariffs placed on Canada and the European Union could generate pushback from the US’s long-standing allies, prompting them to search for alternatives to American leadership on the world stage as well as new trading relationships to bypass the US.
The furor follows a deal made earlier this week between the US and the EU that will impose a 15 percent tariff on most imports from the EU – one of the US’s top trading partners. The rate is half of what Trump had previously threatened but drew grumbles from European leaders.
Meanwhile, Trump imposed a 25 percent tariff on goods from India along with a separate penalty tied to New Delhi’s purchases of Russian oil, the Associated Press wrote.
Though Trump called India “our friend,” he said its tariffs on US products were too high and criticized its defense ties with Moscow. India’s trade ministry claimed it was reviewing the announcement but reiterated its commitment to reaching a “fair and balanced” bilateral trade deal.
Analysts warned that the tariffs could hurt India’s competitive position in the US market and complicate its aim of doubling bilateral trade to $500 billion by 2030.
Ukraine Backtracks on Anti-Graft Agency Crackdown
UKRAINE
The Ukrainian parliament on Thursday backed a bill to restore the independence of two major anti-graft agencies, marking a major reversal in policy following protests and pressure from the European Union over a law passed last week that would have sharply cut the power of the agencies to tackle state corruption, long an issue in the country, Reuters reported.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy submitted the bill almost immediately after mass protests erupted over the controversial law to curtail the power of the graft agencies to ease a political crisis and restore trust in his wartime leadership. Even so, the demonstrations this week, in defiance of a protest ban, marked a rare display of dissent.
Protesters also gathered near parliament before Thursday’s vote to pressure lawmakers into passing the new bill, bursting into applause afterwards.
The controversial law would have essentially eliminated the independence of two anti-corruption law enforcement bodies in conducting investigations – the National Anti-Corruption Bureau of Ukraine (NABU) and the Specialized Anti-Corruption Prosecutor’s Office (SAPO).
Analysts said the government backtracked out of fear it would jeopardize funding from allies for its fight against Russia.
Also, the EU had warned Ukraine that such a law was jeopardizing its bid for EU membership, as tackling corruption and strengthening the rule of law are key conditions to joining the bloc, which many Ukrainians view as fundamental to securing their future amid the ongoing Russian invasion.
The same lawmakers who had approved the previous bill 263 to 26 reversed course, unanimously passing the new legislation 331 to 0. On Thursday, Zelenskyy signed it into law.
Critics alleged that the previous law, moved through the legislative process by Zelenskyy’s ruling party in just one day, had been signed to protect Zelenskyy’s allies from prosecution – several current and also former lawmakers are subjects of NABU investigations, Politico noted.
Myanmar’s Junta Ends State of Emergency, Enacts Tough Election Law
MYANMAR
Myanmar’s junta on Thursday ended the state of emergency it imposed more than four years ago, following a move to introduce a harsh electoral law that threatens the death penalty for anyone who opposes or disrupts the December election it has promised to hold, France 24 reported.
The military declared a state of emergency in February 2021 after overthrowing the civilian government led by democracy icon Aung San Suu Kyi, triggering a multi-sided civil war that has killed thousands of people.
The junta tried to justify seizing power by claiming that massive fraud had occurred in the 2020 election. However, independent observers did not find evidence to support the claim, the Associated Press added.
Afterward, military chief Min Aung Hlaing gained supreme power over the legislature, executive, and judiciary. The junta said that holding an election was a primary goal but pushed back the date multiple times.
Now, the junta announced the formation of an 11-member commission led by Min Aung Hlaing to oversee the election, which has already been criticized by international monitors and is expected to be boycotted by opposition groups.
The new electoral law, which took effect Wednesday, imposes severe penalties for disrupting the election process, including prison sentences ranging from three years to life, depending on the offense.
The more severe sentences are reserved for those who threaten or harm election officials or damage materials related to the elections, from ballots to buildings.
Moreover, if there are disruptive acts such as protests resulting in the death of an individual person, every person involved will be sentenced to death.
Critics argue that the military-organized election will neither be free nor fair, as there is no free media and most leaders of Suu Kyi’s National League for Democracy party have been arrested.
Analysts say the plan to hold a general election is an attempt by Myanmar’s junta to normalize the military’s seizure of power through a vote and obtain a result that grants the generals control.
Meanwhile, the country’s security situation won’t easily allow for an election – the military is believed to control less than half the country. Analysts also expect that rebels may launch attacks around the election to signal their opposition.
This month, however, the junta began offering cash incentives to armed groups willing to lay down their arms and “return to the legal fold” ahead of the vote.”
DISCOVERIES
Fat Factories
Packed with calories, fat is crucial in times of food scarcity.
Neanderthals understood that.
Previous studies have already shown that humans’ ancestors in Africa knew how to crack open bones to obtain the fatty marrow from their cavities.
This fat-harvesting method was thought to be unique to Upper Paleolithic populations, who lived around 50,000 years ago, but a new study has found that Neanderthals also knew the importance of fatty food and had their own extraction techniques, according to News Atlas.
At the Neumark-Nord 2 site in central Germany, dating back 125,000 years, researchers found that Neanderthals brought fat extraction to the next level.
Instead of only breaking bones to get to the marrow, they also knew how to shatter large mammal bones into thousands of small fragments to extract calorie-rich bone grease by heating them in water.
“This was intensive, organized, and strategic,” study author Lutz Kindler said in a statement. “Neanderthals were clearly managing resources with precision – planning hunts, transporting carcasses and rendering fat in a task-specific area.”
The archeologist said that Neanderthals operated a sort of prehistoric “fat factory.”
At this lakeside location, they processed bones of at least 172 large mammals, like deer, horses, and aurochs.
“What makes Neumark-Nord so exceptional is the preservation of an entire landscape, not just a single site,” said study author Wil Roebroeks. “We see Neanderthals hunting and minimally butchering deer in one area, processing elephants intensively in another, and – as this study shows – rendering fat from hundreds of mammal skeletons in a centralized location.”
Producing bone grease is labor-intensive and only becomes worthwhile when there is a large enough quantity of bones, making the process more efficient.
Neanderthals didn’t just occasionally hunt: They were masters of meat management. According to the research, during a warm phase of the Last Interglacial period, this population routinely “harvested” massive numbers of herbivores.
This hunting pattern is not limited to the Neumark-Nord site, as large-scale hunting has been observed at nearby sites.
The findings show that Neanderthals were not just getting by but thriving as skilled, large-scale foragers who knew how to exploit the land and its megafauna to their full advantage.
“The sheer size and extraordinary preservation of the Neumark-Nord site complex gives us a unique chance to study how Neanderthals impacted their environment, both animal and plant life,” said study author Fulco Scherjon. “That’s incredibly rare for a site this old – and it opens exciting new possibilities for future research.”