'Starving Gaza' -- Documentary On Brutal US & Israel Extermination War Crime Against Starving Children

Israel has cut off food, fuel and water, resulting in a man-made famine that is unprecedented in its scale and pace. Every Palestinian in Gaza is food insecure and facing starvation and disease.

“At the end of the day, it’s the kids that pay the price.”

Fault Lines
Al Jazeera (9/29/24)

A Palestinian doctor tries to save severely malnourished children amid Israel’s US-backed illegal siege on Gaza.

Ahmed Nasser is one of a handful of doctors in north Gaza treating scores of children for malnutrition. The odds of saving lives are against him as he does not have the resources he needs. Israel has cut off food, fuel and water, resulting in a man-made famine that is unprecedented in its scale and pace. Every Palestinian in Gaza is food insecure and dozens have died from dehydration and malnutrition.

Israel and its closest ally, the United States, deny that Israel is blocking humanitarian aid, which is a war crime. But we worked with Palestinian reporters in Gaza and used open-source data to investigate how Israel has killed civilians seeking aid and attacked humanitarian networks.

Link to story and 25-minute video

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How US Is Covering Up Israel's Deliberate Starvation Of Gaza Children

“The people of Gaza feel forgotten and they feel abandoned and it's up to us to make sure they're not forgotten and that they're not abandoned. I'm worried that we're all going to move on after all of this and it's up to us to ensure that the world doesn't move on that we keep these stories alive.”

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[Editor’s Note: For those of you feeling sick and hopeless about the US/Israel genocide in Gaza, please listen to the words of documentary filmmaker Laila Al-Arian in the last four minutes of the video. — M. Taylor]

Electronic Intifada (10/19/24)

This week, the Associated Press reported rather matter of factly that Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu “is examining a plan to seal off humanitarian aid to northern Gaza in an attempt to starve out Hamas militants, a plan that, if implemented, could trap without food or water hundreds of thousands of Palestinians unwilling or unable to leave their homes.”

Any Palestinians remaining in northern Gaza – a large area including Gaza City – “would be considered combatants – meaning military regulations would allow troops to kill them – and denied food, water, medicine and fuel.”

But that intensified genocide-by-starvation plan is already well underway. On Saturday, the United Nations World Food Programme said that no food aid has entered northern Gaza since 1 October.

“People have run out of ways to cope, food systems have collapsed, and the risk of famine is real,” Antoine Renard, WFP country director for Palestine, said.

In reality, Palestinians in northern Gaza, particularly children, have been starving to death for months as the direct result of Israel’s declared policy of cutting off all life-sustaining supplies to the territory.

Yet while Israel is open about its intentions, it could not carry out this mass-murder by starvation without the aid and support of the United States – which still purports to be working towards getting more aid into Gaza.

Following the news brief from Nora Barrows-Friedman, we’ll speak about the situation with Laila Al-Arian.

An Emmy and Peabody award-winning journalist, Laila is executive producer of Al Jazeera’s flagship documentary series Fault Lines.

A recent episode, “Starving Gaza,” documents how the United States government has been knowingly covering up for Israel as it deliberately starves Palestinians to death.

Link to story, 44-minute video and link to documentary ‘Starving Gaza’

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"Starving Gaza": Al Jazeera Film Shows U.S. Keeps Arming Israel As It Uses Hunger As A Weapon Of War

Democracy Now! (10/3/24)

A deliberate, man-made famine is underway in Gaza, according to many human rights experts. Starving Gaza is a new documentary by Al Jazeera English's Fault Lines investigating how Israel has killed civilians seeking aid and attacked humanitarian networks. The harrowing film is based on the work of Palestinian reporters in Gaza who are suffering the same conditions as their subjects.

"They've been displaced, they've been injured, they've watched their own children die in front of them, and yet they somehow conjure the professionalism to pick up a camera and record and tell other people's trauma," says journalist Hind Hassan. "They really will be remembered in history as the titans of journalists."

Link to 21-minute video

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Voices Against Gaza 'Extermination Campaign' Call Out To The World: 'This Has to Stop!'

Thousands turned out at a rally in Trafalgar Square, calling for a ceasefire and an end to arming Israel on the 19th of October 2024, Central London, United Kingdom. More than 42.000 people have been killed in Gaza by Israel, many of them women and children, since Hamas attacked Israel Oct 7th 2023. Many carried toys and flowers as symbols of peace and to commemorate the many thousands of killed children. (Photo by Kristian Buus/In Pictures via Getty Images)

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"Israel is committing unprecedented massacres in northern Gaza, and the international community cannot remain silent!"

By Jon Queally
Common Dreams (10/20/24)

The opponents of a "genocide unfolding in real time" in Gaza are spoke out again this weekend, demanding that the world finally intervene to stop the horror of mass civilian death, starvation, and forced displacement being imposed by Israel.

Tens of thousands of people marched in London on Saturday to demand an end to Israel's genocidal campaign in Gaza and the military and political backing the Israeli government of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu continues to receive from U.K. leaders and U.S. President Joe Biden.

"What is so sickening and disturbing is that Netanyahu, Biden and our government have no red lines," said Chris Nineham, vice chair of the Stop the War Coalition, which spearheaded the London rally that culminated at Trafalgar Square. "Children are being burnt alive, populations buried under rubble, and war with Iran looms, and yet the West continues to support Israel."

Large banners hung above the rally demanded "Stop Arming Israel" as protesters demanded an end to the siege in Gaza, a cease-fire in Lebanon, and warned against further military action against Iran that could ignite a full-scale Middle East war.

"Children are being shredded like meat in a butcher shop. I don't understand how any of us—whether we're journalists or not, this isn't about objectivity—how any of us can watch this genocide unfold in real time and watch the pontificating of the politicians running for president and not just cry out, 'This has to stop!'"

Many of the protesters in London brought flowers and toys to the rally in order to commemorate the massive number of innocent people—civilian men, women, and thousands upon thousands of children—killed by Israel during its year long assault on Gaza.

Pulling no punches

In an appearance on MSNBC with anchor Ayman Moyheldin on Saturday evening, progressive journalist Jeremy Scahill described the terrifying conditions in Gaza as he joined those calling for end of the carnage and war crimes being carried out by the Israeli military, backed and funded by the U.S. government.

Asked to speak about the recent killing of Hamas leader Yahya Sinwar, Scahill started by calling attention to how "as we speak, the Israelis are waging an extermination campaign in the north of Gaza," with an intensified siege and increased bombings, including a series of airstrikes Saturday on the town of Beit Lahia that officials on the ground say killed over 80 people—including children "carved to pieces" by shrapnel explosives [warning: graphic images].

"For the past two weeks," Scahill explained, Israeli forces "have surrounded the area and intensified it after the killing of Sinwar; no food or medicine of any kind has reached both parts of the north."

Citing his contacts on the ground, including medical personnel and fellow journalists reporting from those areas, Scahill said:

"I understand at least 80 people have been killed tonight in a horrifying set of attacks on half a dozen residential buildings. I've just gotten done seeing images, on the ground, where children are being shredded like meat in a butcher shop. I don't understand how any of us—whether we're journalists or not, this isn't about objectivity—how any of us can watch this genocide unfold in real time and watch the pontificating of the politicians running for president and not just cry out, 'This has to stop!'"

"I mean, this has to stop," Scahill continued, fighting back emotion [Follow link at end to watch his moving comments. MT]. "We're watching a genocide in real time, and I'm sorry, but on this network there are people who've promoted propaganda from Israel. There are people cheer-leading for people running for office lying to the American people about concern for the Palestinians."

While the killing of Sinwar by Israel resulted in Biden pushing anew for a possible cease-fire deal, Scahill said the reality is that Israel Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has only doubled-down since and "gone full-force final solution on the people of northern Gaza," flouting any tepid warnings from U.S. officials.

"Yes, let's talk about Yahya Sinwar," said Scahill, "But my god we cannot watch more children being shredded and say that this is okay—or that this is just a political issue."

Tweets like the following, prohibited by the social media platform X from being embedded on third-party sites, are being shared widely in an effort to break through the media blackout that dominates the western press in terms of what U.S.- and U.K.-supplied weapons are helping to achieve in Gaza.

"Israel is committing unprecedented massacres in northern Gaza, and the international community cannot remain silent!" declared Euro-Med Human Rights Monitor, based in Switzerland, on Sunday alongside a video containing footage from the latest deadly bombings.

"The situation reached a horrific peak last night, as Israeli forces bombed dozens of homes in Beit Lahia, killing at least 80 Palestinians and injuring hundreds others," the group continued. "The international community’s failure to act makes it complicit in this brutality. The Israeli army is carrying out systematic and large-scale killings, deliberate starvation, forced displacement, and the total destruction of life’s basic necessities. The United Nations must declare northern Gaza a disaster zone and intervene immediately to stop Israel’s genocide."

Now you know the answer to the question

In a Sunday op-ed for Common Dreams, Caleb Crowder with the Institute for Policy Studies, asked readers to consider that if they've ever wondered what they would do in the face of a genocide, they can answer that question by recognizing what they are doing right now.

"As I watched Palestinians, some of whom were still attached to IVs, scream out in agony as they were burned alive due to a recent Israeli strike on a tent hospital, I wondered, what is the "red line" for people in this genocide?" Crowder writes.

"We're well over a year into Israel's deadly assault on Gaza, which has killed approximately 43,000 Palestinians and rendered the area largely uninhabitable," he continued. "This scale of mass murder is the result of relentless airstrikes, ground invasions, starvation tactics, and a blank check for violence and war crimes signed by the United States." [It is maddening that even lefty sites use the ridiculous fatality figure o 43,000. The Lancet Medical Journal estimated 186,000 almost three months ago, before the mass extermination campaign being waged by US/Israel fascist troops began in Northern Gaza. — MT]

Warning against further complacency, Crowder points out that polls have shown a majority in the U.S. oppose the carnage in Gaza and want to see a cease-fire deal reached, hostages returned, and the threat of wider war come to an end.

"If you're reading this and you’re in that majority," he urged, "then let's turn our despair into action."

On Friday, the nation's largest healthcare workers union, 1199SEIU United Healthcare Workers East, was the latest to call for an immediate cease-fire in Gaza and an arms embargo against Israel.

Representing 450,000 members in the U.S., 1199SEIU said, "As a union of healthcare workers, many of whom have family in the region, [we are] appalled by the incredible loss of life in this conflict. We are deeply concerned by the U.S. and other Western governments' ongoing support of the Netanyahu administration as it continues to flout humanitarian principles and kill civilians, including by bombing hospitals."

"There cannot be any more delay. We call on the Biden administration to enforce the Foreign Assistance Act and suspend military assistance to Israel for its continued blockage of aid necessary to avert catastrophic famine. It is unacceptable for Israel to use U.S. military aid for aims well beyond its self-defense," the union continued.

"All people impacted by this conflict—Palestinian, Israeli, and Lebanese alike—deserve a future free from war and suffering," it concluded. "The only way to seek justice for the innocent lives lost is to build a lasting peace that ensures safety, self-determination, and a respect for international law and norms on all sides."

Link to story and important embedded social media links