When it appears the unimaginable horror in war-torn Gaza cannot get any worse for the Palestinian people, it does. Gaza has been called an open-air prison, a killing field of women and children, and a theater of desperation and starvation. Human rights organizations point out that the besieged enclave is a “crime scene,” evidenced by 20 months of a genocidal war conducted by the State of Israel with American-made bombs and deliberate obstruction of humanitarian aid as a tactic.
Since the collapse of a ceasefire earlier this year, conditions worsened as Israel severely restricted food, medicine, water and fuel into Gaza. Central to the crisis is Israel’s campaign to remove United Nations logistical control of aid distribution and replace it with a private American company backed by the U.S. and Israel. However, the situation in Gaza has reached unprecedented levels of devastation, with widespread displacement, starvation and destruction, said aid experts.
“Today marks 600 days of horror in Gaza,” said Jonathan Whittall, head of the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA), speaking to reporters on May 28. “Yesterday, we saw tens of thousands of desperate people—under fire—storming a militarized distribution point established on the rubble of their homes,” he said.
Israeli forces reportedly shot and injured nearly 50 people where the privately-run Gaza Humanitarian Foundation is based. Media outlets broadcast scenes of chaos and panic as crowds of people rushed frantically in different directions, while others carried boxes of supplies.
“These events illustrate how the collective punishment of Palestinians continues and the assault on their human dignity is accelerating,” said Mr. Whittall.
The new scheme is “surveillance-based rationing” that “legitimizes a policy of deprivation by design,” he argues. “It comes at a time when people in Gaza, half of whom are children, are facing a crisis of survival,” he added. The U.S.-Israeli distribution scheme is more than just controlling aid. “It is engineered scarcity,” he said.
The UN has refused to participate in this scheme, warning that it is logistically unworkable and violates humanitarian principles by using aid as a tool in Israel’s broader efforts to depopulate areas of Gaza.
OCHA insists that its staff has “everything needed to get aid to civilians safely: the people, the networks and the trust” of Gazans. OCHA says nearly 180,000 pallets of food and other life-saving aid stand ready to enter Gaza, the hungriest place on earth, reported UN News.
“The supplies have already been paid for by the world’s donors. It is cleared for customs, approved and ready to move. We can get the aid in—immediately, at scale and for as long as necessary,” OCHA’s Jens Laerke told UN News.
Meanwhile, Israel’s blockade and destruction of Gaza’s food and health systems lend to an untenable quality of life for Palestinians. According to the UN-backed Integrated Food Security Phase Classification (IPC), Gaza suffers from phase 5 famine, and nearly 71,000 children under the age of five are at risk of acute malnutrition.
IPC defines phase 5 famine as when at least one in five households experience an extreme lack of food and face starvation, resulting in destitution, extremely critical levels of acute malnutrition, and death.
With the announced expansion of Israeli military operations throughout the Gaza Strip, the inability of humanitarian agencies to access populations in need, plus the expected escalation of tension, and continued mass displacement of people, “the risk of famine in the Gaza Strip is not just possible- it is increasingly likely,” said the IPC on its website.
In addition to the misery, months of Israeli onslaught has gravely compromised Gaza’s agricultural infrastructure. The UN Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) states that less than 5% of Gaza’s cropland area remains available for cultivation.
Before the start of the war in October 2023, agriculture accounted for approximately 10 percent of Gaza’s economy, with more than 560,000 people relying entirely or partially on crop production, herding, or fishing for their livelihoods.
“This level of destruction is not just a loss of infrastructure—it is a collapse of Gaza’s agrifood system and of lifelines,” said Beth Bechdol, AO deputy director-general in a statement on May 26. “What once provided food, income, and stability for hundreds of thousands is now in ruins. With cropland, greenhouses, and wells destroyed, local food production has ground to a halt. Rebuilding will require massive investment—and a sustained commitment to restore both livelihoods and hope,” she said.
Just as frustrated are Palestinian diplomats lamenting worsening carnage while Israel acts with impunity, and the U.S. runs interference against nations doing something to reverse the course of atrocities.
“Flames and hunger are devouring Palestinian children,” said Riyad Mansour, Permanent Observer of the State of Palestine, during an emotional appeal to the United Nations Security Council on May 28.
Mr. Mansour described images of mothers embracing the motionless bodies of children. He said that 1,300 children have been killed by Israel since it broke a ceasefire in March.
After seeing starvation used as a weapon of war, “now we see aid being used as a weapon of war,” he added. “If Israel wanted aid in, it would open the crossings and allow humanitarian aid to enter fully. But its true concern is how to get rid of the Palestinians by killing them, starving them and destroying Gaza,” he said.
Although the ultra-right-wing regime in Tel Aviv led by Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has enjoyed latitude despite its bloodletting, in recent weeks, there was a significant shift in Europe’s stance toward Israel, driven by concerns over humanitarian issues and adherence to international law. In mid-May, the United Kingdom, France, and Canada sent a joint warning to Israel about its “disproportionate” and “egregious” offensive. “The Israeli Government’s denial of essential humanitarian assistance to the civilian population is unacceptable and risks breaching International Humanitarian Law,” read the statement.
“We condemn the abhorrent language used recently by members of the Israeli Government, threatening that, in their despair at the destruction of Gaza, civilians will start to relocate. Permanent forced displacement is a breach of international humanitarian law,” the statement continued.
Individually, nations are imposing pressure: The UK suspended free trade negotiations with Israel and imposed new sanctions targeting West Bank settlers. Chancellor Friedrich Merz stated that Israel’s attacks “can no longer be justified as a fight against Hamas terrorism,” signaling a shift in Germany’s traditionally strong support for Israel.
According to Al Jazeera, even a group of Israeli academics has added their voices to the outcry on behalf of Palestinian lives. “More than 1,200 Israeli academics have issued an open letter calling on the heads of Israeli academic institutions to ‘speak out’ and act to stop the war on Gaza,” Aljazeera.com reported on May 28.
“The academics’ letter is the latest in a growing number of open letters protesting the war from within Israel. However, while many other letters have objected to the political reasons for Israel’s latest offensive, or claimed that it puts Israel’s remaining captives held in Gaza at risk, the academics’ letter is unique in that it places Palestinian suffering at the heart of its objections to the war,” the outlet reported.
In quoting excerpts from the letter from the academics, which Al Jazeera stated identify themselves as the Black Flag Action Group, it states in part: “This is a horrifying litany of war crimes and even crimes against humanity, all of our own doing.”
“We cannot claim that we did not know,” the letter adds. “We have been silent for too long. For the sake of the lives of innocents and the safety of all the people of this land … if we do not call to halt the war immediately, history will not forgive us.”
Man’s inhumanity to man can sum up the atrocities Israel continues to heap on Palestinian life. The scale of repression cannot be overlooked, warned the Honorable Minister Louis Farrakhan, National Representative of the Most Honorable Elijah Muhammad and the Nation of Islam. He stressed that what is happening to the Palestinians should be of concern to humanity.
“Who could do to another human being what is being done to our Palestinian family, and let it happen and not think of a humanitarian crisis?” said Minister Farrakhan, during his Saviours’ Day 2024 message, “What Does Allah The Great Mahdi And The Great Messiah Have To Say About The War In The Middle East?”
“The crisis is not just what is happening to the Palestinians. The crisis involves what is happening to you, what is happening to me; what is happening to human beings who are more concerned with what they will lose by standing up, rather than standing up and facing the consequence of their stand, knowing that God will bring them out victorious,” he said.