Seeking to force Hamas to make concessions in negotiations and give Gazans a choice between destruction or forced migration, the Israeli occupation has doubled its suffering in the stricken Strip. Parallel to the war of extermination and ethnic cleansing it has been waging, with American support, for nearly two years, systematic starvation continues, accompanied by an intensification of the siege and the closure of crossings to prevent the entry of essential supplies since the beginning of last March.
Despite being forced to allow partial and temporary aid deliveries last month, Israel is preventing the entry of flour and fuel trucks, using distribution centers as traps to kill hungry seekers. Of the hundreds of convoys streaming into the crossings, the occupation has allowed only a handful into the Strip, which needs 1,000 aid trucks per day to meet the minimum needs of Gazans, according to the Palestinian Non-Governmental Organizations Network. As the humanitarian situation deteriorates, various UN agencies and specialized international organizations have called for an official declaration of famine in the Strip. The Integrated Food Security Phase Classification (IPC), developed by the United Nations and relief organizations in 2004 as an internationally recognized mechanism for determining the degree of food insecurity based on standardized quantitative and qualitative indicators, has established that widespread hunger and malnutrition are causing a high mortality rate among the 2.2 million Gazans suffering from the worst-case famine scenario. Despite this, the United Nations has refrained from officially declaring famine in Gaza; Citing the lack of sufficient documented data and a desire to investigate scientific methods, the UN claims that declaring a famine only occurs in exceptional cases, with strict criteria that are often difficult to fully meet in armed conflict. This may explain why the UN has not declared famine in the past two decades, except twice globally: the first time was in Somalia in 2011, and the second time was in South Sudan in 2017. Politically, the UN avoids clashing with Israel and its allies, especially since declaring a famine in Gaza would constitute an explicit condemnation of the Netanyahu government's crimes and constitute an international call for accountability under international humanitarian law. Therefore, the organization has so far contented itself with expressing its concern and considering the current conditions to be similar to famine. There is no doubt that the UN's failure to declare a famine in the Gaza Strip is due to the Israeli occupation's insistence on using starvation as a geopolitical weapon. It will undermine the relevance of the UN, the credibility of the international system, the effectiveness of international humanitarian law, and the future of collective protection mechanisms. Conversely, such a declaration would represent an admission of the failure of multilateral diplomacy, especially after UN funding for combating hunger declined from pre-COVID-19 levels. Due to the mismanagement of Israel's excess power, as demonstrated by its war of extermination and starvation on the Gaza Strip, the tables are turning, with Israelis finding themselves internationally ostracized and isolated. Israeli media outlets are reporting dozens of individual incidents in various European cities in which Israeli tourists are being expelled from restaurants, shops, and exhibitions. Israelis report insults from border guards, visa officers, drivers, and hotel receptionists. Israeli universities and research institutes are also complaining of a sharp decline in invitations to Israeli scientists to academic conferences. The Netherlands, for its part, barred National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir and Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich from entering the country, citing their incitement to violence against Palestinians, calls for ethnic cleansing in the Gaza Strip, and encouragement of settlement expansion and the occupation of neighboring countries. The Dutch government also decided to summon the Israeli ambassador for a reprimand. For his part, the Dutch Prime Minister pledged that his country would pressure, during a European Union session, to suspend the European trade agreement with Israel and impose restrictions on arms exports to the country if it does not abide by its humanitarian pledges related to facilitating unhindered and safe access to aid to Gaza. For the first time, the Dutch National Security Agency included Israel on the list of countries that pose a threat to the country, denouncing Israeli efforts to influence public opinion and political decision-making in the Netherlands by spreading lies and misleading information. After recognizing the Palestinian state last June, Slovenia imposed a ban on arms exports, imports, and transit to Israel, two weeks after declaring two Israeli ministers persona non grata. After several European Union countries expressed their dissatisfaction with the Israeli occupation state's failure to fulfill its humanitarian obligations related to not obstructing the entry of aid to the Gaza Strip, the European Commission held a session during which it discussed a recommendation to suspend Partially, Israel's access to the Horizon 2020 scientific research funding program, the largest scientific research cooperation program in the world. The Commission called on the Netanyahu government to present concrete options to address the horrific tragedy. Meanwhile, Israeli concern is growing over the successive initiatives of several international organizations to freeze Tel Aviv's membership in FIFA, various sporting events, and the Eurovision Song Contest. Meanwhile, Nimrod Novick, advisor to the late Israeli Prime Minister Shimon Peres, warned of a diplomatic tsunami sweeping Israel, following the growing number of countries intending to recognize a Palestinian state. At the conclusion of the high-level international conference on a peaceful settlement of the Palestinian issue and the implementation of the two-state solution, hosted by the United Nations last month, France and 14 countries, including Canada and Australia, launched what they called the New York Appeal, calling on all countries of the world to recognize the Palestinian state. Meanwhile, Britain, Malta, Finland, and Portugal expressed serious willingness to do so during the upcoming session of the UN General Assembly in September. The conference called for concrete, irreversible steps, according to a specific timetable, to implement the two-state solution as soon as possible, so that an independent, sovereign, geographically and demographically cohesive, and viable Palestinian state is established. Criticism of Israel is escalating within the United States, particularly within the American Jewish community, due to the unleashing of settler terrorism in the West Bank and the brutal policy of starvation in the Gaza Strip. According to a Gallup poll conducted last month, support for the Israeli aggression on Gaza among American adults fell from 60% to 32%. For the first time in 28 years, 52% of Americans now view the Israeli Prime Minister unfavorably. This is the highest negative rating Netanyahu has received since joining Gallup in 1997. The Reform movement, the largest Jewish denomination in the United States, has held the Israeli government responsible for the horrific famine in Gaza. Today, the occupying state of Israel is unable to exploit the anti-Semitic narrative to refute the widespread criticism it faces. The Committee of Families of Occupation Prisoners held by Hamas announced that Israel will pay the price for the moral destruction it is causing in Gaza for generations to come. While Israeli writer David Grossman acknowledged that his army's aggression on the Gaza Strip was genocide, Israeli writer Orly Azoulay criticized the Trump administration and the Netanyahu government for turning Gaza into a testing ground for new weapons and starving innocents. She considered the atmosphere of isolation and hostility currently besieging Israelis around the world to be reactions to their shameful violations, not anti-Semitism. After nearly two years of neglect, during which official institutions completely identified with the claims of the right to self-defense, and even systematic incitement to slaughter Gazans, some Israeli media outlets have finally begun to criticize the shameful practices in Gaza, especially the genocide and starvation. In an exciting and unprecedented development, a group of prominent Israeli public figures, including academics, artists, and intellectuals, called for... The international community is calling for harsh sanctions on the Netanyahu government for its war crimes and systematic starvation of Palestinians. This call carries extremely dangerous implications. In addition to being an explicit condemnation of Israel's reckless policies, it violates the taboo of supporting international sanctions against a rogue state that has long excelled in enacting strict and unjust laws to prosecute those who stray from the norm.
