A New York Times op-ed by the heads of six top international humanitarian organizations issued a dire warning about Gaza and demanded that President Joe Biden alter his unfettered support of Israel to help stop the horrific crisis unfolding. A senior UN official recently alerted that half of the people in Gaza are starving.
“As the leaders of some of the world’s largest global humanitarian organizations, we have seen nothing like the siege of Gaza.” The humanitarian groups warned. “About 18,000 Gazans — including more than 7,500 children — have been killed, according to the Gazan health ministry. More children have been reported killed in this conflict than in all major global conflicts combined last year.”
Written by Michelle Nunn of CARE USA, Tjada D’Oyen McKenna of Mercy Corps, Jan Egeland of the Norwegian Refugee Council, Abby Maxman of Oxfam America, Jeremy Konyndyk of Refugees International, and Janti Soeripto of Save the Children US, the article says that a lack of basic goods has increased suffering on an enormous scale. “Most of our organizations have been operating in Gaza for decades,” the authors write. “But we can do nothing remotely adequate to address the level of suffering there without an immediate and complete ceasefire and an end to the siege.”
The op-ed continues, “The aerial bombardments have rendered our jobs impossible. The withholding of water, fuel, food, and other basic goods has created an enormous scale of need that aid alone cannot offset.”
On Saturday, The World Food Program (WFP) reported that 36% of households in Gaza experience severe hunger, with moderate hunger occurring in 52%. Palestinians in 91% of households go to bed hungry, and 63% of respondents reported enduring entire days without food.
Carl Skau, deputy executive director of the WFP, posted on X that half of the people in Gaza are now starving. “There’s not enough food. People are starving.” He continues, “WFP has reached over one million people, but the situation is untenable. We need to get our supplies in [and we need] a humanitarian ceasefire.”
Skau, who recently traveled to Gaza, said he estimates that nine in 10 Gaza residents are not eating every day. In addition to food shortages, a lack of cooking fuel or wood to burn is adding to the hunger.
The widespread destruction in Gaza by a historic bombing campaign waged by Israel has caused mass displacement. The UN believes 1.9 million of the 2.3 million people living in Gaza have been internally displaced. Gazans report some have begun dying of hunger and exposure. One Palestinian told Reuters he had not eaten in three days.
The leaders of the humanitarian groups said that the US must act to stop the onslaught. “Global leaders — and especially the United States government — must understand we cannot save lives under these conditions,” the article says. “A significant change in approach from the US government is needed today to pull Gaza back from this abyss.”
On top of starvation, illness is being spread as a result of Israeli military operations. WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said there are “signals of epidemic diseases including bloody diarrhea and jaundice.” He added that Gaza’s health system “is on its knees and collapsing.”
Hind Khoudary, a WFP staff member in Gaza, said the outlook for residents of Gaza is dismal. “If death doesn’t come from airstrikes, it will come from starvation,” he said.
