Page 42 - Issue 72

V O L .1 E L I T E ISSUE 72

Starvation as a Weapon of war: The case of Gaza

Manar Mahmoud - Political Science - Fourth Year

The deliberate starvation of populations and contaminated water. The urgency of the
has become a systematic weapon of war— crisis is underscored by the Palestinian
used to subjugate societies and impose Ministry of Health’s recent report that eight

political will without the need for direct people, including three children, died from
military engagement. Although famine and malnutrition within just 24 hours,
international humanitarian law bringing the total death toll from starvation
criminalizes this practice, it continues to to 251, among them 108 children. The
be committed against civilians in situation doesn’t stop there; it’s getting worse.
contemporary conflicts, in blatant According to UNICEF, the rate of
violation of moral and legal norms. malnourished children has reached 112
The current situation in the Gaza Stour children per day. UNICEF also confirmed
stands as a stark example of this crime. that the percentage of children in Gaza who
Since October 2023, Gaza has been have entered the severe malnutrition stage has
subjected to organized starvation under increased by 180%. Furthermore,
relentless bombardment, a suffocating malnutrition affects pregnant women, leading
blockade, and the near-total deprivation to the birth of children with critical health
of food, water, and medicine. More than conditions.
two million people endure catastrophic We should not look at these statistics as just a
humanitarian conditions amid a shameful numbers in local or international reports, but
international silence, as human rights rather as evidence of the brutality of the
organizations document the spread of methods used by the occupier, and proof of

famine and severe malnutrition— the contradictions in its statements. On the
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especially among children—forcing one hand, it claimed at the beginning of the
residents to survive on rotting flour, leaves, war that children were not its target,