Speed of Israel’s starvation of Gaza ‘has not happened anywhere’: Famine expert

By Rabia Ali

ISTANBUL (AA) – For years, Alex de Waal has been researching and writing about famine and starvation across the world, but the current conditions Israel has created in the Gaza Strip are something he has never encountered.

On Monday, the Integrated Food Security Phase Classification Initiative, or IPC, issued a new report warning that famine is now “imminent” in Gaza, with 1.1 million – or half its population – “facing catastrophic levels of hunger and starvation.”

The report shows the situation has significantly deteriorated since the last assessment in December, and that if Israel continues its deadly strategies, the number of people experiencing these conditions will nearly double by July.

“I can’t think of a case that has been as accelerated,” De Waal said in an interview with Anadolu about the situation in Gaza, where Israel has now killed more than 31,600 Palestinians since Oct. 7 and pushed millions to starvation.

Over the past almost six months, the Israeli assault has displaced 85% of Gaza’s population and created acute shortages of food, water, medicine and all other essentials of life.

Latest figures indicate almost 30 Palestinians, including children, have now died of malnutrition and dehydration.

Mass starvation is normally a “slower process” that takes “a lot longer,” especially in areas where there is some sort of agricultural production for subsistence, said De Waal, who serves as the executive director of the World Peace Foundation at Tufts University in the US.

In Gaza, Israel has applied tactics of mass starvation “in a very geographically concentrated (area) … and in a very accelerated way, very much speeded up,” he explained.

Though the food security situation in Gaza before last October was already “not good,” the prevalence of severe acute malnutrition among children was very low, he said.

According to data from end-November or beginning of December, less than 1% of children were suffering from severe acute malnutrition, he said.

In just over two months, more than half of Gaza’s population was reduced to emergency status or worse, and that “hasn’t happened anywhere, in my knowledge, at that speed,” he added.

- No famine ‘doesn’t mean starvation isn’t being used as a weapon’

The actual declaration of famine in any place is a technical process, hindered by access to data and political constraints, according to De Waal.

In countries such as Ethiopia, Nigeria and Yemen, it was seen that authorities did not want a famine declaration and prevented access to data, he said.

“Israel will be, I’m sure, very similar … They (Israel) don’t want a famine declaration,” he asserted.

The argument from Israeli authorities could be that “the methods of analysis are not truly rigorous and they may have a point,” he said.

“But that shouldn’t obscure the fact that even if there isn’t enough data to declare famine, there is certainly massive evidence of the catastrophe that is unfolding,” he argued.

A key point, he emphasized, is that “the act of using starvation doesn’t mean that people have to die.”

“All you need to do to be responsible for that is to deprive them,” he said.

“So, even if there isn’t famine, it doesn’t mean that starvation isn’t being used as a weapon.”

- ‘Israelis doing it on bigger scale, more rapidly’ than Assad in Syria

De Waal said there are several examples of past conflicts where starvation has been used as a weapon, with one being Syria.

“The actions of the Netanyahu government and the actions of the Assad government are quite similar,” he said,

The difference, he added, is that “the Israelis are doing it on a bigger scale and more rapidly.”

For other places such as Yemen and Ethiopia’s Tigray region, De Waal pointed out that “those are very different because the population is much larger and also rural, spread over a much larger area.”

De Waal stressed that the starvation and hunger in Gaza will have generational impacts for Palestinians.

“Once the population, particularly the population of children is in such a desperate state, you can’t just reverse it. So, the killing might stop but the dying will continue,” he said.

He pointed out the reconstruction of Gaza “to make it habitable” is going to take a huge effort and a long time.

“Children in utero or young children who are exposed to this physically will grow up without full physical capabilities. They’ll be shorter, they won’t have their mental faculties, won't be fully developed. So, there will be an impact on the next generation, and maybe on even two generations,” he said.

“For example, there’s research done on the survivors of the Hunger Winter in the Netherlands in 1944 and 1945, which shows how children who were very young at that time are shorter than their elder and younger siblings, they don’t have the same educational qualifications.”

​​​​​​​The psychological trauma will also certainly continue for generations, he added.

“That’s because, obviously the violence is incredibly traumatic, but also the starvation is a very traumatic psychological thing,” said De Waal.