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‘Operation Al-Aqsa Flood’ Day 150: Israel is ‘engineering famine’ in Gaza

Amnesty International says Israel is “engineering famine” in Gaza. Organization head Agnes Callamard adds, “all states that cut UNRWA funding, sold weapons and supported Israel bear responsibility too.”

Mustafa Abu SneinehMarch 4, 2024

Palestinians inspect the remains of a heavily damaged humanitarian aid vehicle destroyed by Israeli airstrikes. The airstrike also killed nine Palestinians and injured dozens, in Deir al-Balah, Gaza on March 3, 2024. (Photo: Ramadan El-Agha/APA Images)

Casualties

• 30,534+ killed* and at least 71,920 wounded in the Gaza Strip.
• 380+ Palestinians killed in the occupied West Bank and East Jerusalem
• Israel revises its estimated October 7 death toll down from 1,400 to 1,147.
• 586 Israeli soldiers killed since October 7, and at least 3,221 injured.**

*Gaza’s Ministry of Health confirmed this figure on Telegram channel. Some rights groups put the death toll number at more than 38,000 when accounting for those presumed dead.

** This figure is released by the Israeli military, showing the soldiers whose names “were allowed to be published.”

Key Developments

• Palestinians in Gaza feel “humiliated” by the way aid was delivered by U.S. and Jordan, following weeks of Israeli bombs being dropped on their heads from sky.
• Palestinian resident of Jabalia says aid airdropping is “useless”, and he couldn’t get anything of it after chasing aid crates for five kilometers.
• Dr. Ashraf Al-Qudra says Israeli forces have killed 364 health personnel and arrested 269 others since October.
• Dr. Al-Qudra adds “Israeli occupation forces destroyed 155 health institutions and put 32 hospitals and 53 health centers out of service” since October.
• Save the Children reports that Palestinian families in Gaza are “being forced to forage for scraps of food left by rats and eating leaves out of desperation.”
• Pope Francis says “Do you really think you can build a better world in this way? Do you really think you will achieve peace? Enough please! Let us all say enough please! Stop!”
• Israeli warplanes kill 12 Palestinians, bombing two homes belonging to Madi family, north of Rafah, and Al-Gharib family, in city center.
• Al-Jazeera reports that Israeli forces destroyed recently built cemetery in Jabalia refugee camp by repeatedly bombing it.
• Daniel Hagari, spokesperson of the Israeli military, resigns along with other senior military members in his unit.
• Israeli forces kill Mustafa Abu Shalbak, 16, during a raid of Al-Amari camp in Ramallah.

Children die of malnutrition with prices of food skyrocketing

Thousands of families in the Gaza Strip are barely finding enough food to cook a meal for their children as Israel’s military aggression and aid blockade continue for the 150^th day.

At least a quarter of Gaza’s population is just a step away from famine, with already reported deaths of babies and children in homes and hospitals. 

Prices of the little fruits and vegetables available on the market have soared, and non-essential products such as coffee have skyrocketed, with one kilogram sold at $100 (360 shekels).

The most expensive cup of coffee is now to be found, not in Paris or the Maldives, but in Gaza, according to a Palestinian on TikTok who invited two of his friends over coffee to thank them for standing beside him as his injured leg healed.

Coffee was not included in the few tons of aid the U.S. airdropped over north Gaza in a joint operation with the Jordanian air force over the weekend.

Palestinians in Gaza felt “humiliated” by the way aid was delivered, following weeks of Israeli bombs being dropped on their heads from the sky, one of them told Al-Akhbarnewspaper’s correspondent in Gaza.

When Jordan planes airdropped aid last week over north Gaza, thousands of Palestinians in the Jabalia refugee camp anticipated that the parachuted crates would land in their territory. However, the wind blew them west near the coast and above the sea, where some landed in the water.

Palestinians walked for nearly three kilometers to arrive at the coast, only to find people had already unloaded the wooden crates, each had thirty meals with a bag of flour, rice, dates, one water bottle, a can of baby formula, cooking oil, several pasta wrappers, and sanitary pads.

“[Airdropping aid] is useless,” Ibrahim, a resident from Jabalia told Al-Akhbar, “I ran five kilometers [to Gaza’s coast], but I couldn’t get anything. People fought each other to get a bag of dates or a kilogram of rice.”

He added with pride that Palestinians in Gaza “have never been hungry or beggars, for you to insult our dignity in this way.”

Starvation in Gaza is man-made by Israeli authorities

In the past 24 hours, Israeli forces committed 13 “massacres” in various areas of the Gaza Strip, according to the Gaza Ministry of Health on Telegram, killing at least 124 people and injuring 210.

Dr. Ashraf Al-Qudra said Israeli forces killed 364 health personnel and arrested 269 others since October.

“The Israeli occupation forces destroyed 155 health institutions and put 32 hospitals and 53 health centers out of service; targeted 126 ambulances [and] put them out of service,” Al-Qudra, the ministry spokesperson, said. 

He that doctors documented “about one million cases of infectious diseases, and the necessary medical capabilities are not available for them,” while food and drinking water in north Gaza are acutely scarce.

Save the Children reported that Palestinian families in Gaza are “being forced to forage for scraps of food left by rats and eating leaves out of desperation” due to Israel’s ongoing blockade of aid into Gaza.

Over the weekend, the deaths of 16 children due to malnutrition and dehydration in the Kamal Adwan Hospital in northern Gaza have alarmed several international organizations, including UNICEF.

“Now, the child deaths we feared are here and are likely to rapidly increase unless the war ends and obstacles to humanitarian relief are immediately resolved,” Adele Khodr, the UNICEF director in the Middle East, said.

Agnes Callamard, the secretary general of Amnesty International, accused Israeli authorities of “engineering famine” in the Gaza Strip.

“They knew the likely outcome of their actions but persisted, over weeks and months,” she said of Israeli actions. “And all States that cut UNRWA funding, sold weapons, and supported Israel bear responsibility too.”

UNRWA also described the death of Palestinian infants and children of malnutrition as “man-made, predictable and entirely preventable.

“Gaza has become hell on earth. When will the world say “enough”?” it wrote on X platform.

UNRWA is operating under terrible conditions and a tight budget after the U.S. and its Western allies suspended funding for the agency in late January when Israel accused 12 UNRWA staff of taking part in the October 7 attack. UNRWA sacked the staff and opened an investigation into the allegations, but funding is still to resume.

“Significant progress” made in ceasefire talks in Cairo 

Pope Francis had urged the world to say, “Enough please! Stop,” and to bring an end to the conflict in Palestine.

“Each day, I carry in my heart with pain the suffering of the populations in Palestine and Israel due to the ongoing hostilities, thousands of dead, injured, displaced,” Francis said during a speech on Sunday in St Peter’s Square in Vatican City.

He added, “Do you really think you can build a better world in this way? Do you really think you will achieve peace? Enough please! Let us all say enough please! Stop!”

Hamas, the CIA, Qatar, Egyptian and Israeli officials are currently in Cairo for indirect talks to reach a ceasefire deal of six weeks truce in the Gaza Strip. This is the second day of talks in Cairo.

Egypt, Qatar and the U.S. are pushing the efforts for a ceasefire before the start of Ramadan on Sunday. Al-Qahera News, with close links to Egypt’s secret service, reported that “Egypt continues its intense efforts to reach a truce before Ramadan.”

“There has been significant progress in the negotiations,” Al-Qahera News reported, quoting unnamed official.

Israel bombs Jabalia cemetery

In the past 24 hours, Israeli forces bombed several areas of the Gaza Strip, including four homes in the Al-Zaytoun, Al-Sabra, Al-Rimal, and Al-Janobi neighborhoods in Gaza City.

Israeli forces also bombed two houses in Beit Lahia, a house in the Nuseirat refugee camp, and in Al-Bureij, and a third house in Deir Al-Balah, Wafa news reported.

Several members of the Radwan family were injured when an Israeli air strike bombed their house in Jabalia refugee camp, Wafa said, while in southern Gaza, Israeli warplanes killed 12 Palestinians, bombing two homes belonging to the Madi family, north of Rafah, and the Al-Gharib family, in the city center.

Al Jazeera’s correspondent Anas al-Sharif reported that Israeli forces had destroyed a recently built cemetery in Jabalia refugee camp by repeatedly bombing it over the weekend.

Palestinians rushed to re-bury their relatives after their bodies were exposed and came out of the soil following the earth quaking and intense bombing, which left a large crater in the cemetery. 

Wafa reported that Israeli forces shot at Palestinians waiting for aid trucks to arrive at Kuwait Roundabout in Gaza City on Sunday.

Israel’s spin doctor of Gaza aggression resigns 

Daniel Hagari, the spokesperson of the Israeli military, has resigned along with other senior military members in his unit, according to Israel’s Channel 14.

Hagari has been one of the spin doctors of Israel’s genocide in the Gaza Strip since October, pushing lines to foreign media to explain Israel’s bombing of hospitals and civilians. In November, he showed a calendar of days of the week in Arabic in Al-Rantisi Hospital, claiming it was a “Khamas list” used for military purposes.

Hagari served in the Israeli navy force. His resignation manifests a further crack in Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s war cabinet.

Alongside Hagari, Richard Hecht, the international spokesperson for the Israeli military, has also resigned from Hagari’s unit.

He is close to Benny Gantz, the head of the National Unity alliance, and served under him as the army’s chief of staff. Hagari also served as assistant to Gadi Eisenkot, the former army’s chief of staff, whose son and nephew were killed by Palestinian fighters in Gaza.

Gantz is currently on an unauthorized visit to the U.S., which angered Netanyahu. He will be meeting U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken, Vice President Kamala Harris, and National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan, as well as Republican and Democratic members of the U.S. Congress.

Washington’s goal from Gantz’s visit is to “strengthen the moderate axis” in Israel as Netanyahu’s government appears adamant to continue bombing Gaza and to allow settlers to build outposts inside Gaza’s fence.

According to a poll by Channel 13, Gantz’s party would win 39 seats in the Knesset if a general election were called this month, while Netanyahu’s Likud would only secure 17.

Gantz could form a government with Yair Lapid, the leader of Yesh Atid party, bringing him a total seat of 51 seats, while the rest nine seats could be filled by other small parties.

Israeli forces kill 16-year-old Palestinian; blow up house in Nablus

In the occupied West Bank, Israeli forces killed Mustafa Abu Shalbak, 16, on Monday morning during a raid of the Al-Amari camp in Ramallah. Wafa reported that Abu Shalbak was shot in the chest and neck with live bullets, and he is from Qalandiya refugee camp.

Israeli settlers stormed Nablus city overnight, beating a man and attacking him with pepper spray while singing and dancing in the street on their way to Yousef Tomb, a mosque considered by Jewish settlers as the resting place for the biblical figure Joseph.

Wafa also reported that Israeli forces blew up a house in Nablus in the early hours on Monday in the Al-Makhfiya neighborhood.

The house belongs to Moaz Al-Masry, who was killed by Israel inside the Old City of Nablus in May 2023. Al-Masry carried out a shooting attack the month before, killing three Israeli settlers in the Jordan Valley.

Wafa reported that Israeli soldiers forced several families in the area to evacuate before planting explosives and blew up Al-Masry’s house.

Tensions are expected to escalate in the West Bank as Israeli forces continue to arrest, shoot, and attack Palestinians in the cities of Hebron, Jericho, Bethlehem, Nablus, Jerusalem, Ramallah, and Jenin.

There is no day that passes without a Palestinian being arrested in the West Bank and Jerusalem. Israel has scrambled all its heads of internal intelligence and police to hold “an assessment meeting” on Sunday before the month of Ramadan, due to start on Sunday. Palestinians are expected to confront Israeli settlers and forces in Ramadan if they attempt to block them from reaching or accessing Jerusalem and Al-Aqsa Mosque.