Gaza is on the brink of widespread starvation, with Israel refusing international appeals to let aid shipments in.
It allowed only half of the aid missions planned in February, according to UN’s head of emergency relief Martin Griffiths.
Malnourished children are flooding hospitals in Rafah, where 16 babies born prematurely have died at the Emirati Hospital over the last five weeks.
In northern Gaza, where around 300,000 people are still living, the situation is far worse, with growing numbers of people dying of starvation.
Then, when aid trucks did make it through, Israeli soldiers shot and murdered desperate civilians at al-Rashid Street in Gaza City in what has become known as the flour massacre. At least 118 Palestinians died.
Israel responded with its usual lies, denying soldiers had fired into the crowd and claiming people had died as a result of a panic causing crowd crush.
But nearby hospitals treated over 250 people with gunshot wounds.
A witness who survived told Al Jazeera that when people approached the trucks to take aid, “The Israelis just opened random fire on us as if it was a trap.”
A week later it shot another group waiting for aid trucks at the same spot, killing at least two.
Every indication is that this is a deliberate policy, with 400 Palestinians now killed seeking aid since the war began.
The US has resorted to air-drops into Gaza to give the appearance of doing something. But the amount of aid that can be delivered this way is totally insufficient.
One airdrop even hit and killed five Palestinians.
Its plan to construct a temporary pier to deliver aid by sea is another useless stunt. The Pentagon says it could take two months to install—far too late for people who are already starving.
The US and Australian governments are complicit in the starvation of Gaza, refusing to stop arming Israel and freezing aid funding to the UNRWA. The West is complicit in the genocide.
By James Supple
