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Prime Minister Keir Starmer has described the humanitarian crisis in Gaza as “deplorable” and “indefensible” while dancing around naming what is unfolding by its actual definitions: famine and genocide.
The IPC, a global initiative that classifies food insecurity, has warned that the worst-case scenario of famine is unfolding in the Gaza Strip. Gaza is the only territory in the world where 100% of the population is at risk of famine – and the horror is entirely man made. There are no “two sides”. It is not “complicated”.
Israel has been operating an illegal blockade on life-sustaining supplies since March, preventing the delivery of nearly all shipments of food, fuel, medical equipment, baby formula and any other goods that could aid the civilian population of Gaza.
As the occupying force, Israel is legally responsible for ensuring the basic needs of the population of Gaza are met.
In January of last year, Law for Palestine released a database of over 500 statements from Israeli sources inciting genocide, many of which were from the lips of government ministers. The persecution and collective punishment of the population of Gaza is demonstrably not about Hamas, nor is it a war; this has always been about the eradication of a people and Israel’s dominance over their region.
As part of its grand designs, Israel maintains total control over every morsel of food a Palestinian eats. It has banned fishing, destroyed every inch of land for the cultivation of crops and has dismantled the UN system for aid delivery, replacing it with the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation (GHF) – a dangerous facade wherein civilians on the brink of starvation are lured to militarised aid sites only to be murdered by IDF soldiers, their lives brutally and violently stolen while seeking a bag of flour.
It is grotesque depravity, actioned at the hands of one of the world’s most powerful militaries, backed by the US, and facilitated by US contractors in the pursuit of profit.
The GHF is an opaque for-profit operation set-up last November under private security contractor Safe Reach Solutions. To date, its funding, board and operations remain undisclosed. In just over a month, the UN reports that over 850 Gazans have been killed at, or within close proximity to, GHF sites in Gaza.
The group has been dogged by controversy and condemnation; over 170 aid groups have called for the GHF to be disbanded, and the French foreign minister has said the US-Israeli-backed group has generated a “bloodbath”.
The private security firm was legally registered in Switzerland and the United States before dissolving its Swiss entities following human rights investigations. The GHF’s former CEO Jake Wood resigned the day before operations began, claiming it was “not possible to implement this plan while also strictly adhering to the humanitarian principles of humanity, neutrality, impartiality, and independence”.
Boston Consulting Group, a US-based firm involved in setting up the GHF, has subsequently fired two senior team members and cut all ties.
Meanwhile, the GHF continues to operate ad hoc at limited locations in Gaza, and civilians – weak from critical malnourishment – are forced to walk for miles in search of meagre rations. Many do not return. The GHF has denied reports of shootings at its sites and often parrots Israeli government messaging.
Reports suggest Israel is insisting that the continued operation of the GHF be a condition in now-stalled ceasefire negotiations. The group is not independent; it is a paid-for extension of Israel’s operations with the full backing of the US government which approved $30 million in funding to the GHF in June.
Efforts to privatise aid delivery risk dismantling humanitarian principles.
Similar operations are being actioned in South Sudan by Fogbow, a for-profit US company that, like the GHF, is largely staffed by former American government, military and intelligence personnel. Fogbow has been accused of actioning the political directives of the Sudanese government, luring civilians into government-controlled areas. The group has also operated in Gaza.
Whistle-blowers are emerging, IDF soldiers under anonymity have reported that they are being instructed to fire on civilians seeking aid. Meanwhile, Anthony Aguilar, a retired US army special forces soldier who worked as a security subcontractor for the GHF has said that he has “never witnessed such a level of brutality and use of indiscriminate and unnecessary force against a civilian population”. He has stated that he was told “very explicitly” that the IDF is GHFs client.
The latest actions of the UK Government to intervene in Gaza are welcome. They represent a step change in 21 months of endless impunity for the inhumane, unjustified and immoral actions of Israel’s far-right extremist government. But in practice, the actions of the UK and fellow international leaders are simply not enough.
Following international pressure, Israel has opened just one of four land crossings for aid delivery in Gaza and has approved limited air drops.
Countries have lined up to join efforts to air drop aid, including Jordan, Belgium, France, Germany and the United Kingdom. Media offices such as those operated by the IDF have been pumping out photos of aid falling from the sky. Without full, unimpeded aid-flow across all crossings, these aid drops are pantomime for PR purposes.
On 27 July, Jordan and the UK confirmed 20 tonnes of aid had been dropped into Gaza – this is the equivalent of one truck. The UN says at least 600 trucks are needed every single day to meet the needs of the people of Gaza. Air aid drops are ineffective, dangerous and fail to reach those in need. They are a last resort when all other efforts have failed. Yet the GHF and its Israeli and US government backers claim its operations are a success.
The world is failing the people of Palestine; as with Rwanda, we will look back in disbelief at the inaction, and as with Rwanda, by then it will have been too late.
It feels like the tide is turning, with announcements that the UK, Canada and France will finally follow the 147 other nations in recognising the state of Palestine. But intransigence and impunity remain a threat; the EU is impotent, failing to agree on any actions; the UK is cowed into making the recognition of a Palestinian state conditional; countries continue to supply arms and diplomatic cover for Israel.
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So many options remain at the disposal of global leaders, including the United Kingdom; expel Israeli ambassadors, sever economic ties, sanction Israeli government ministers and military leaders, ban all arms exports, and – importantly – break the humanitarian blockade by launching an international aid convoy.
Over 60,000 people have been killed in Gaza since October; an average of 50 to 100 people are killed by the IDF in Gaza every single day. Inaction costs lives.
The UN General Assembly next month is emerging as a potential catalyst for global action; in the month leading up to the global forum, thousands more Gazan civilians will die by starvation, bombs and bullets at the hands of the IDF.
The media and wider society have a role here too – we need to demand action, and to state unequivocally that what little is being done is not good enough. Our collective humanity depends on it.
Emma DeSouza is a writer, political commentator, and campaigner.