Al Mayadeen English

  • Ar
  • Es
  • x
Al Mayadeen English

Slogan

  • News
    • Politics
    • Economy
    • Sports
    • Arts&Culture
    • Health
    • Miscellaneous
    • Technology
    • Environment
  • Articles
    • Opinion
    • Analysis
    • Blog
    • Features
  • Videos
    • NewsFeed
    • Video Features
    • Explainers
    • TV
    • Digital Series
  • Infographs
  • In Pictures
  • • LIVE
News
  • Politics
  • Economy
  • Sports
  • Arts&Culture
  • Health
  • Miscellaneous
  • Technology
  • Environment
Articles
  • Opinion
  • Analysis
  • Blog
  • Features
Videos
  • NewsFeed
  • Video Features
  • Explainers
  • TV
  • Digital Series
Infographs
In Pictures
  • Africa
  • Asia
  • Asia-Pacific
  • Europe
  • Latin America
  • MENA
  • Palestine
  • US & Canada
BREAKING
The Israeli occupation authorities release Al Mayadeen Palestine bureau chief Nasser al-Lahham.
Local Syrian sources: An Israeli airstrike targeted a tank and artillery battalion in the city of Izraa in the Daraa countryside
Al Mayadeen's correspondent in eastern Lebanon: 12 martyrs and 5 wounded in Israeli raids targeting the outskirts of Wadi Fa'ra in the northern Bekaa Valley
Local Syrian sources: More than 10 Israeli raids targeted Sweida, with information about more than five casualties from the Internal Security Forces
Local Syrian sources: Initial reports indicate that approximately 15 people were killed or wounded at the al-Radwan family's guest house in Sweida following a direct exchange of gunfire
Israeli media, citing Israeli political sources, reported that the Shas movement is expected to withdraw from the government within less than 24 hours
Qatari Foreign Ministry: Negotiations to reach a ceasefire in the Gaza Strip are still in the first stage. We are continuing our efforts around the clock
Channel 14, citing a senior Israeli political source, reported: The attacks in Syria and Tel Aviv's offensive policy are coordinated with the Americans
Lebanese Ministry of Health's Emergency Operations Center: Six injured as a result of Israeli airstrikes on the Bekaa Valley in eastern Lebanon
Israeli media: The Israeli Air Force has launched a wave of large-scale attacks on southern Syria

HRW exposes the many faces of genocidal belligerence

  • Hannan Hussain Hannan Hussain
  • Source: Al Mayadeen English
  • 27 Dec 2023 01:01
  • 4 Shares
5 Min Read

International law illustrates the gravity of "Israel’s" deliberate starvation tactics and where the world needs to really focus its outrage.

  • x
  • HRW exposes the many faces of genocidal belligerence
    "Israel" guilty of using starvation as a deliberate weapon of war against Palestinians (Illustrated by Hady Dbouk; Al Mayadeen English)

No amount of flagrant denials and occupation propaganda can change facts written in blood. For a Gaza death toll exceeding 21,000, about 70 percent is comprised of women and children. That figure buries the Israeli myth of countering “terrorism". It also makes clear that the principal target of "Israel’s" genocidal campaign is none other than the existence of Palestinians themselves. In fact, "Israel’s" invasion was specifically focused on destroying major sources of agricultural produce, targeting key locations despite the knowledge that critical food and water supplies were practically non-existent. 

After Human Rights Watch (HRW) found "Israel" guilty of using starvation as a deliberate weapon of war against Palestinians, it also unearthed a wider pool of evidence on US-based social media platforms driving blatant Palestinian censorship. This included over “1,050 takedowns and other suppression of content Instagram and Facebook that had been posted by Palestinians and their supporters.” Satellite imagery and aid organization reports further corroborate the extent of "Israel’s" war campaign in Gaza through starvation tactics.

A belligerent occupation that celebrates Palestinian bloodshed tries every bit to bury public accounts of unspeakable oppression, brutality, and starvation. But as the damning revelations show, "Israel’s" documented war crimes, starvation campaign, and attacks against Palestinian liberation voices stand exposed in granular detail.

HRW has simply corroborated what international observers and Palestinian activists have pointed out for so long: that the blocking of critical aid by occupation forces and the obliteration of infrastructure serves the broader purpose of dehumanizing and terrorizing Palestinian masses. The occupation cannot pretend it didn’t fuel immediate risks of famine and early possibilities of mass hunger, despite a series of warnings from international organizations.

A formal confession is not needed to establish criminal intent from the aggressor. It remains amply evident in the consequences of "Israel’s" full-fledged genocide on occupied soil. The United Nations-based “Integrated Food Security Phase Classification (IPC)” report recently confirmed that the total population of Gaza is subject to "crisis levels" of hunger. "Israel’s" use of starvation as a weapon is also central to alarming levels of acute food insecurity faced by households in Gaza. The proportion of households affected, according to the damning report, is the largest ever recorded worldwide.

Related News

Zionist infiltration of entertainment industry: The case of United Talent Agency

Concentration camps and the road to exile: Gaza as a laboratory of privatized genocide

It is an occupation that has stuck to a unilateral blockade of the Palestinian enclave and clung to its closure for well over 16 years to force “collective punishment” as the unilateral status quo. Indiscriminate airstrikes and relentless bombing have inflicted a lion’s share of devastation on Palestinian civilians, compounding their catastrophic hunger levels with a flagrant disregard for disease controls, life-saving hospitalization, and assistance from the ground up.

“For over two months, Israel has been depriving Gaza's population of food and water, a policy spurred on or endorsed by high-ranking Israeli officials and reflecting an intent to starve civilians as a method of warfare,” said Omar Shakir, "Israel" and Palestine Director at Human Rights Watch, last week.

International law illustrates the gravity of "Israel’s" deliberate starvation tactics and where the world needs to really focus its outrage. Starving civilian populations is strictly prohibited under the First Additional Protocol to the Geneva Conventions (Protocol I). Important proof points – such as the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court – are also categorical: that denying civilians objects that are central to their survival is a war crime. As an occupying power under the Fourth Geneva Convention, "Israel" is under strict obligation to ensure that food and medical supplies reach Palestinian civilians. And yet, Western silence over "Israel’s" criminal defiance of international humanitarian law is deafening.

The Palestinian Resistance will never cower to oppression. This puts the spotlight on the corporate social media cover of Meta, a company overwhelmingly complicit in the anti-Palestinian information warfare. HRW’s investigative findings confirm that a systemic and barbaric effort has been underway to stamp out and ban pro-Palestinian posts that expose Israeli starvation and deliberate trauma inflicted on “a million more” Palestinians as early as October. As the rights watchdog puts it, this censorship drive comes across as “the biggest wave of suppression of content about Palestine to date,” and "Israel"-leaning Meta has a “well-documented record of overbroad crackdowns on content related to Palestine.”

Despite the UN Security Council’s meager consensus on Resolution 2720 on Gaza aid delivery, the belligerent Zionist regime continues to work to block its impact on the ground. "Israel" has laid siege on every practical aspect of human existence and public life in Gaza, a continuation of its brutal intent to cut off civilian access to food, water, and fuel. The HRW provides a staggering compilation of public statements from occupation ranks, with figures vowing to create circumstances that attack the very survival of Palestinians. From the occupation's Security Minister Yoav Gallant to its "National Security" and Energy ministers, a range of occupation figures have brazenly endorsed or furthered Israeli goals of deliberate starvation in Gaza. 

For all those who were driven by the illusion that Gaza’s starvation was simply a catastrophic consequence, think again. This was a conscious policy adopted by the brutal Zionist regime to mount its genocidal campaign under the garb of fighting so-called “terror.”

The views expressed in this article are solely those of the author and do not necessarily reflect Al Mayadeen’s editorial stance.
  • Gaza Strip
  • Occupied Palestine
  • HRW
  • Operation Al-Aqsa Flood
  • Palestine
  • Starvation
  • Israeli aggression
  • Israel
  • Israeli occupation forces
  • Israeli occupation
  • Human Rights Watch
  • Gaza
Hannan Hussain

Hannan Hussain

Writer and author.

War on Gaza

War on Gaza

Most Read

All
Why Netanyahu is on the ropes

Why Netanyahu is on the ropes

  • Analysis
  • 4 Jul 2025
Ukraine’s Corporate Carve-Up Collapses?

Ukraine’s Corporate Carve-Up Collapses?

  • Analysis
  • 11 Jul 2025
Zionist infiltration of entertainment industry: The case of United Talent Agency

Zionist infiltration of entertainment industry: The case of United Talent Agency

  • Opinion
  • 11 Jul 2025
Africa’s top university’s ‘Gaza Resolutions’ outrages pro-'Israel' lobby

Africa’s top university’s ‘Gaza Resolutions’ outrages pro-'Israel' lobby

  • Analysis
  • 4 Jul 2025

Coverage

All
War on Iran

More from this writer

All
Bethlehem Showdown – Striking Back at Silence

Bethlehem Showdown – Striking Back at Silence

Why Netanyahu is on the ropes

Why Netanyahu is on the ropes

Echoes of dignity: Pakistan backs Iran against Zionist aggression

Echoes of dignity: Pakistan backs Iran against Zionist aggression

Given that "Israel" has used Palestinian oppression to prove its rejection of peace, Tehran’s retaliation on "Israel" give Israeli terrorism the pushback and counter that it truly deserves. (Al Mayadeen English; Illustrated by Ali al-Hadi Shmeiss)

Why Iranian counterattacks will take Israeli terrorism head-on

Al Mayadeen English

Al Mayadeen is an Arab Independent Media Satellite Channel.

All Rights Reserved

  • x
  • Privacy Policy
  • About Us
  • Contact Us
  • Authors
Android
iOS