Canadian aid groups call for end to Gaza siege as mass starvation spreads

More than 100 organizations, including many with ties to Canada, have signed an open letter calling for food and medical supplies to be allowed into the occupied Palestinian territory of Gaza, citing the rapid spread of mass starvation.

“With supplies now totally depleted, humanitarian organizations are witnessing their own colleagues and partners waste away before their eyes,” the letter reads, signed by groups such as Amnesty International, Caritas Canada and Mennonite Central Committee

“Aid workers are now joining the same food lines, risking being shot just to feed their families.”

Israel began restricting the flow of goods and people into the walled enclave in the early 1990s. It intensified its blockade in 2007, a move long defined as illegal collective punishment by international humanitarian organizations.

In October 2023, Israel announced a “total blockade” on food, water, medicine, fuel and electricity. It later eased some restrictions, before re-intensifying its siege of the Gaza Strip in recent months.

The American-backed and Israeli-controlled Gaza Humanitarian Foundation (GHF) assumed control of aid operations two months ago, resulting in hundreds of violent deaths at the hands of Israeli forces. 

“As of 13 July, we have recorded 875 people killed in Gaza while trying to get food; 674 of them were killed in the vicinity of GHF sites,” said Thameen Al-Kheetan, a United Nations spokesperson, noting the organization has bypassed regular humanitarian operations.

The remaining 201 victims were killed while seeking food “on the routes of aid convoys or near aid convoys” run by the UN or UN-partners still operating in the war-shattered enclave,” Mr. Al-Kheetan told journalists at an event in Geneva.

Many more Palestinians have been injured seeking food.

Doctors report record rates of acute malnutrition across Gaza, especially among children and older people. Illnesses are also spreading, and videos of adults collapsing from hunger and dehydration on the streets have been widely circulated.

“This is the first time we have witnessed such a severe scale of malnutrition cases in Gaza,” says Mohammed Abu Mughaisib, deputy medical coordinator for Médecins Sans Frontières in Gaza. 

“The starvation of people in Gaza is intentional, it can end tomorrow if the Israeli authorities allow food in at scale.”

In an unprecedented move, the Paris-based news service Agence France-Presse (AFP) issued a statement describing the starvation of its freelance journalists who are now too malnourished to continue their coverage.

“Since AFP was founded in August 1944, we have lost journalists in conflicts, we have had injured and imprisoned colleagues among us, but none of us can recall ever seeing a colleague die of hunger,” the statement said.

A joint statement by AFP, Reuters News Agency, BBC News, and The Associated Press followed, stressing that journalists are “unable to feed themselves and their families.”

While the official death toll in Gaza sits at roughly 60,000, some researchers put the actual number of dead closer to 400,000. As well, 227 journalists and nearly 2,000 healthcare and humanitarian workers have been killed by Israeli forces over the last 22 months.

In 2023, the government of South Africa filed an application with the United Nations’ International Court of Justice, alleging Israel is engaging in genocidal acts within Gaza under the international body’s Genocide Convention. 

Nicaragua, Colombia, Mexico, Libya, Bolivia, Turkey, the Maldives, Chile, Spain, Ireland, Belgium and the State of Palestine have since intervened in the application, which remains before the court.

Wikipedia updated its “Lists of Genocides” page to include Gaza last November.