How to prevent more hunger deaths in Gaza

In July, sixty -three people, including more than twenty children, died due to hunger in the Gaza Strip, according to the Ministry of Health in Gaza. More dies this week. Israel is now facing an increase in international pressure to end the war, and immediately, to ensure that larger quantities of aid are allowed to the region. American negotiators suggested the deal “Everything or nothing” that would end hostile actions if Hamas agreed to disarm and release the remaining Israeli hostages that took it during the attack on October 7, 2023. It is believed that there are about twenty years still alive, and one of them was shown and hungry on a recent video clip. But it seems that the disarmament of Hamas is unlikely, and the group said it will not even think about doing this without establishing a Palestinian state, which Netanyahu opposes. Meanwhile, Netanyahu did not show any real preparation to end the Israeli campaign.

Even before October 7 and the following war, Ghazan was largely dependent on international aid; Many of them have difficulty reaching enough food and clean water. The war worsened on the ground and led to an estimated sixty thousand deaths. In March, Israel decided to end the temporary ceasefire with Hamas, and then cut aid for more than two months. When it resumed the distribution of aid, it was first supervised by the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation, a non -profit organization in a dangerous manner in which American contractors operate, and he held a large degree of Israeli influence. The United Nations, until then, was deported to a largely controlled aid, to a secondary role. Within weeks, hundreds of gas were killed in or near GHF sites, and desperate civilians surrounded United Nations trucks in the hope of getting food. The situation is dark enough, even if aid rapidly increases in the coming weeks, the deaths caused by hunger are almost sure of the height.

I recently spoken on the phone with Alex De Waal, one of the world’s most prominent experts in starvation, and the director of the Peace Corporation at the Tatst College in Fletcher for Law and Diplomacy. De Waal has written many books on Africa, including many Sudan, which is currently suffering from war and hunger. During our conversation, which was liberated for length and clarity, we discussed the urgent steps necessary to prevent more hunger in Gaza, and why the return to the old regime of providing aid is not sufficient now, which makes Gaza unique among the disasters that D. Wall studied, and what the Trump administration attack on the foreign aid of Sudan.

What do people need in Gaza now? Is the fact that the situation has become very bad recently, changing how to answer this question?

I put your finger on it. If you asked this question at the beginning of June, I would say that the United Nations has a plan of action, resources, skills, networks, distribution plans, etc. It is in preparation. All you have to do is give them green light. All problems will not be solved because there are many basic problems related to basic services: water, sanitation, and health care system. But you will be able to install the diet. Thus, I would like to say if you do so, you are very clear in terms of hunger on a large scale.

Today, you have a position that is impossible to know the real numbers, but there are an increasing number of children – perhaps in thousands – that should be in the hospital because they cannot eat. They have reached this stage of severe malnutrition as their bodies cannot digest food. Thus these children need intensive care. I was just trying to know the number of hospital family in Gaza. There seem to be about eighteen hundred total alive, but the number fluctuates daily for all types of reasons. So, in addition to the floods of Gaza with food, which is still necessary, there should be an enormous emergency pumping of intensive care capacity.

So, people who pass the starvation reach a point where food is not enough?

The hunger process passes through several stages. When you consume all your body fat, which in the case of children is not much, you reach the stage in which the body begins to consume itself for energy. It mainly begins to boost the brain – it is eating basic organs: heart, kidneys, liver, brain, stomach lining. When you reach that stage, you will die or have intensive care to prevent you from death.

I want to back down. I referred to the system that the United Nations had in its place before we reached this point – how did this work achieved and why it might be enough now?

As of February, during the ceasefire, the United Nations and its partner had about four hundred places where they were directly assisting to people. This will include hot food. There was sometimes about eight hundred and fifty thousand hot meals that were served every day, then a large group of nutritional supplements and specialized foods for children.

So it was working on the minimum level, but there was not enough. One of the big problems he faced was the unpredictable permission system in Israel. The supplies were unreliable due to the arbitrary and unexpected circumstances and the checks imposed by Israel on the border. Some trucks were fully banned, some were broken, some were able to move. For those who were able to move there there should be some security, and some had a lot of troubles either from armed gangs or from Israel, which, even during the period of the ceasefire, was somehow. Then, in early March, you had a complete siege imposed and did not move. Israel has started military action again. Then, in May, it was allowed to arrive again in two models. One of them was the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation. The other was the activities of the United Nations limited.

It is important to note that there are United Nations efforts to obtain the local population – sometimes clans, and sometimes community groups – to protect aid because the biggest threat was from armed gangs. In fact, the largest armed gang is a group called the Abu Shabab gang, which is supported by Israel. [Yasser Abu Shabab, the group’s leader, has denied that it receives support from Israel.] But there were reasons that were difficult to do this work. There was one case on the twenty -sixth of June, when a community group organized its youth, who were armed to protect some aid trucks. A video of this was taken and distributed by members of the Israeli government who said, this is that Hamas is stealing aid. So this system, which was tried for one day, did not last. That shipment was already traced, and I went to the World Food Program warehouse and was safely distributed. [The I.D.F. did not respond to a request for comment.]

In late May, GHF became the main provider of assistance in Gaza. Hundreds of people have been killed in these sites. There are only four of them, unlike the four hundred you were talking about. When I said in your first answer that you cannot restart the old United Nations system again – is this because some children now need more than food, or because of logistical services? My feeling is that even getting trucks to these sites is four hundred will be messy now, because people are very desperate.

I first meant medical things, but what you say about despair and collapse in the social system is also correct. I really don’t know how one can address this problem. But the only thing I say is that if people have confidence that more aid is coming, this is much better. One of the reasons why you have problems in distributing the United Nations is that no one knows when the next comes. If you do it in Somalia, for example, you are the recruitment of society and you say, well, this is what we will do. This is the next amount. This will go to put a; This will go to the place of B. Everyone knows what is happening. Then you can recruit communities to provide protection.