( Middle East Monitor ) – Since the early days of the latest and ongoing phase of Israel’s genocide in Gaza, humanitarian aid has become a major weapon. It was on 9 October 2023 that the then Israeli Defence Minister Yoav Gallant ordered a complete siege to be imposed on Gaza. “There will be no electricity, no food, no fuel, everything is closed,” he announced. “We are fighting human animals and we are acting accordingly.”
“Human animals” only exist in the minds of Zionists and their fake security narrative, of course. The reality is that Israel decided to completely deprive Palestinians of life, and there was no better way to complement their aerial bombardment of Gaza than starvation.
The rationale was that Palestinians would die, one way or another, or a combination of both.
A year and a half later, Israeli officials are still debating their warped concepts of humanitarian aid. Defence Minister Israel Katz announced yesterday that no humanitarian aid will enter Gaza until “civilian companies” are established. The announcement that the Palestinians remaining in Gaza might at some point receive humanitarian aid was met with opposition from other Israeli officials in the far-right coalition government.
“As long as our hostages are dying in the tunnels, there is no reason for a gram of food or aid to enter Gaza,” said Israel’s National Security Minister Itamar Ben Gvir. His statement made no recognition of the fact that the Israeli hostages are highly likely to be killed by the genocidal state’s relentless bombing.
Culture Minister Miki Zohar also opposed any transfer of humanitarian aid. “Only hellfire for the perpetrators of terror until the last of our hostage brothers and sisters return home safely,” he said. Genocide does not allow anyone to return home safely, so the premise Zohar speaks of is interminable.
Clarifying his statement, Katz said that, “Israel’s policy is clear and no humanitarian aid is about to enter Gaza. In the current reality, no one is going to bring any humanitarian aid into Gaza, and no one is preparing to bring in any such aid.”
What stands out from these comments is that Israeli officials have a fetish for starving Palestinians in Gaza.
The comments do not envisage an end to starvation, while Katz’s statement on civilian companies and humanitarian aid only imply that bureaucracy will add to the deprivation of humanitarian aid. To put it briefly, Palestinians will either starve, or be killed by bureaucracy that starves, if they are not already killed by bombs.
Katz may define starvation as Israel policy, but it also denotes the fact that the international community is becoming comfortable with starvation being used as a weapon of war. Regardless of the millions pledged for humanitarian assistance, Israel is controlling the humanitarian paradigm and it has been doing so for quite a while. For the international community, humanitarian aid does not necessarily translate to actual aid, but rather the pretence of posturing and routine statements that have taken precedence over coordinated action to halt genocide by starvation.
Civilians are forced to either live in makeshift, overcrowded and unsanitary shelters, or in crumbling buildings, summarised the EU Civil Protection and Humanitarian Aid Operations this month.
Of course, there is no mention of EU countries participating directly in genocide and forcing Palestinians to live in such conditions, because humanitarian aid and politics are entirely separate, or so we are told by the politicians who politicise humanitarian aid. No wonder the world is not screaming “Genocide!” in unison; Israel’s policy of starvation is actually supported by the current humanitarian paradigm.
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