Children are starving in Gaza, with many being malnourished and some losing their hair and will to live.
The image above were taken by the BBC and the one below by the AP. They show five-month-old Siwar and two-year-old Mayar, both severely malnourished due to the food shortage in Gaza.
Worsening hunger in Gaza has sparked global condemnation and intense diplomatic pressure on Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to allow humanitarian aid to reach the over 2 million people trapped in the territory, after aid had been entirely blocked for more than two months in violation of human rights.
On Sunday evening, Netanyahu said the blockade would be lifted, acknowledging that a growing “starvation crisis” was beginning to harm Israel’s international reputation. He said that he would allow a “minimal” amount of aid due to “diplomatic reasons“. According to the UN, the aid Israel now allows is far from sufficient.
Blocking all emergency aid for over two months so that children starve, become malnourished and are forced to eat garbage is a crime against humanity and never, ever okay. Hamas is a terrible terrorist organization that has committed many other crimes against humanity. But forcing children to starve is a crime against humanity and the unauthorized use of starvation as a weapon of war no matter how terrible Hamas is. It is not something that can be done.
It is always wrong to let children starve, and therefore it was wrong for Netanyahu’s government to deliberately and systematically refuse to let in emergency aid so that children began to starve. That doesn’t excuse the crimes Hamas commits, just as Hamas’ crimes are also no excuse for Netanyahu letting children starve.
Yair Golan, head of the opposition Democratic Party and a former deputy chief of the Israeli military, criticized the government’s conduct. He argued that the military campaign had been excessively violent and that much of the harm was already irreversible.
Speaking to Reshet Bet radio, Golan compared Israel’s growing international isolation to that of apartheid-era South Africa.
“A sane country doesn’t engage in fighting against civilians, doesn’t kill babies as a hobby and doesn’t set the expulsion of a population as a goal,” he said.
Over 15,000 children have now died in Gaza, according to Save the Children.
Still, this past week, Christians who support Israel’s war in Gaza have said and written to me:
- That no children have died in Gaza.
- That there is no famine in Gaza.
- That there is famine in Gaza, but you mustn’t talk about it because that’s exactly what Hamas wants.
- That there is famine in Gaza, but Israel has not blocked food shipments there for over two months.
- That Israel has blocked food shipments to Gaza for over two months, which has led to famine—but it’s still entirely Hamas’ fault.
- That Israel has blocked food shipments to Gaza, and that’s completely justified since Israel has no responsibility to feed Gaza’s civilian population, even after the Israeli army destroyed 70 percent of all agricultural land in Gaza.
- That starving Palestinians are just “reaping what they’ve sown.”
- That God wants the Palestinian people to be wiped out just like certain nations were exterminated in the Old Testament.
This is insane. It’s as if one has to live in a parallell reality in order to defend Israeli war crimes. Or blatantly support war crimes and genocidal rhetoric, calling for Palestinians to be “wiped out” upfront.
What would Jesus do?
Micael Grenholm is a Swedish church historian, author and an editor for PCPJ.
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