“Looming Starvation in Gaza Shows Resurgence of Civilian Sieges in Warfare” reads a recent New York Times piece detailing the food catastrophe that has befallen Gazan refugees. Unsurprisingly, the Times and its U.N.-affiliated panel find that these famine conditions are Israel’s fault rather than the responsibility of Hamas, the terrorist organization that hides behind Gazans, poaches the food and medical aid when it arrives, and continues to fight rather than surrender to the Israel Defense Forces (IDF).
The piece reads:
After Hamas’s surprise attack on Israel on Oct. 7, Israel responded with air and ground assaults and a sealing of the territory, which have left the 2.2 million people who live there deprived of sufficient food, water and supplies. The U.N. has concluded that without significant intervention, Gaza could reach the level of famine as soon as early February.
Limited amounts of food and other aid are entering Gaza from Israel and Egypt at border points with rigorous inspections; the ongoing bombardment and ground fighting make distribution of that aid extremely difficult.
Scholars of famine say it has been generations since the world has seen this degree of food deprivation in warfare.
“The rigor, scale and speed of the destruction of the structures necessary for survival, and enforcement of the siege, surpasses any other case of man-made famine in the last 75 years,” said Alex de Waal, an expert on humanitarian crises and international law at Tufts University who wrote “Mass Starvation: The History and Future of Famine.”
Incredibly, it’s not until the 25th paragraph that the Times thinks to mention that there may be internal reasons for aid failing to reach Gazans. Rhoda E. Howard Hassmann, scholar of human rights, is quoted as saying, “I’m prepared to accept that possibly there are other factors involved [in the lack of food], such as Hamas corruption, Hamas diverting food and so on.” Nothing like a dismissive wave of the hand while offering, “Yeah, that could be a reason. Who’s to say?”
Later, as Mike Coté observes on X, a sleight of hand manipulates truck figures to make Israel out to be delaying aid:
The World Food Program said that before the war, about 500 trucks a day carried supplies including food to Gaza, which has been under a partial blockade by Israel and Egypt since Hamas took control there in 2007. Last week, the organization said an average of 127 trucks were permitted to cross the main Israeli checkpoint each day. Distributing that limited aid is nearly impossible because of the destruction of communications, shortages in fuel and ongoing Israeli bombardment, the World Food Program and other agencies say.
But the 500 trucks a day is for the whole of Gaza, while the author uses the average of a single checkpoint (127 trucks) to suggest that Israel is effectively cutting the rations of Gazans to a quarter of what is required. Having done my share of vehicle inspections, there’s a reason to take one’s time with them. Weapons, explosives, and other items cannot be allowed into or out of Gaza. Israel is right to protect its people and ensure that only aid is aboard each truck. It’s not by Israel’s desire that they’re policing aid trucks and chasing Hamas deeper into its nest while having the whole of the world come down on it for defending itself from a genocidal death cult that has no issue with dead civilians — after all, for Hamas, starving civilians are just more numbers to add to the Gaza Health Ministry’s tally.
The Editors said it best:
The current crisis, let us not forget, was caused squarely by the decision of Hamas to send an army of terrorists into Gaza to rape women, slaughter babies, and kill 1,400 people. And it could be alleviated were Hamas to hand over the hostages it still holds — more than 200 — and unconditionally surrender. Hamas is also denying the ability of Palestinians to leave Gaza, even as its own senior leadership lives in luxury in Qatar and declares, “No nation is liberated without sacrifices.”
Israel has a responsibility, in carrying out its operations, to take steps to minimize civilian casualties without compromising its military objectives. But the humanitarian issues in Gaza that are the direct result of years of Hamas governance and wanton disregard for human life should not be addressed at the expense of the security of Israeli civilians, who will never rest safely as long as Hamas still exists.
The New York Times is ideologically incapable of reporting objectively on the Israel–Hamas war, but it should at least be able to provide the public with something more accurate than this insane construction that Gazans are the last of Byzantium starving behind Theodosian walls of Israel’s making.