Alex de Waal sounds the alarm again about the famine in Gaza:
If the catastrophe in Gaza continues on its current trajectory, the prediction of mass death from disease, hunger and exposure will come to pass. If humanitarian assistance is provided promptly and at scale, deaths from hunger and disease will stabilise and decline, but they will still take time to return to pre-crisis levels. Even with an immediate cessation of hostilities and delivery of emergency aid, along with efforts to restore water, sanitation and health services, mortality would remain elevated for weeks or months. Even this would constitute a ‘major’ famine, according to the definition of 10,000 or more deaths. A ‘great’ famine, with 100,000 or more excess deaths, may be in prospect if the current level of hostilities and destruction continues.
As I wrote in my column last week, this is one of the worst man-made famines in recent history. The people of Gaza are being deliberately starved by Israel’s siege as part of a policy of collective punishment. We are watching an atrocity famine unfold in front of us. Our government isn’t just failing to do anything about it, but it is also actively helping the perpetrator wage its war and it is providing diplomatic cover for the crime.
The reality of mass starvation in Gaza is already here, and if nothing else changes it will only get much worse over time. The UN emergency relief coordinator, Martin Griffiths, had this to say:
The “great majority” of 400,000 Gazans characterized by UN agencies as at risk of starving “are actually in famine, not just at risk of famine,” Martin Griffiths, the UN Under-Secretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs and Emergency Relief Coordinator told CNN’s Christiane Amanpour.
There must be a ceasefire, but a ceasefire alone won’t be enough to halt the humanitarian catastrophe. The catastrophe involves not only severe hunger, but the rapid spread of disease as well. As we all know, a starving population is more susceptible to disease and it is at much greater risk of perishing. Maya Rosen wrote at the start of the year about the epidemiological war being waged on the people of Gaza, and she explained that a ceasefire is only the beginning of what will be needed to stop people from dying from preventable causes:
But, as Asi noted, a ceasefire would only address the most explicit forms of violence, and the indirect toll of the war is likely to keep growing even if the bombs stop falling. “We have now reached the point where a ceasefire in one minute would not end the suffering of many for weeks, if not months,” Asi said. Fighting infectious disease, public health experts agree, requires allowing in food, medicine, and vaccines; building houses to shelter Gaza’s nearly two million displaced people; and investing in infrastructure—water treatment, sewage systems, and power grids.
Stopping the ongoing devastation and killing is necessary, but there will still have to be a major relief effort to avoid further massive loss of life. The world doesn’t lack for the resources necessary to save the people of Gaza from a terrible fate, but the governments that have the most influence to prevent a disaster won’t even acknowledge the problem. The administration hasn’t been assessing whether the Israeli government is violating international law, so it goes without saying that they have had nothing to say about the massive crime being committed against the entire population of Gaza.
De Waal, a scholar who has written the book on the history of modern famine, goes on to say this:
In the historical catalogue of famines and incidents of mass starvation, it is hard to find a close parallel with the situation in Gaza. Few cases combine such a comprehensive siege with such comprehensive destruction of OIS [objects indispensable to survival]. The absolute numbers of people who die in Gaza will not match those of the calamitous 20th-century famines, because the afflicted population is smaller, yet the proportionate death toll may be comparable [bold mine-DL].
The U.S. is in a unique position to stop the worst from happening. Our government has considerable leverage with Israel, if it would only use it. The failure to use that leverage over the last three months is one important reason why the situation is so dire. The president and members of Congress have a choice: they can be accomplices to the crime of starving innocent people to death in huge numbers, or they can act to stop the crime before more lives are needlessly lost.