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The Israeli government is using starvation of civilians as a method of
warfare in the Gaza Strip, which is a war crime.
Israeli officials have made public statements expressing their aim to
deprive civilians in Gaza of food, water, and fuel – statements
reflected in Israeli forces’ military operations.
The Israeli government should not attack objects necessary for the
survival of the civilian population, lift its blockade of the Gaza
Strip, and restore electricity and water.
(Jerusalem) – The Israeli government is using starvation of civilians
as a method of warfare in the occupied Gaza Strip, which is a war
crime, Human Rights Watch said today. Israeli forces are deliberately
blocking the delivery of water, food, and fuel, while willfully
impeding humanitarian assistance, apparently razing agricultural
areas, and depriving the civilian population of objects indispensable
to their survival.
Since Hamas-led fighters attacked Israel on October 7, 2023,
high-ranking Israeli officials, including Defense Minister Yoav
Gallant, National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir, and Energy
Minister Israel Katz have made public statements expressing their aim
to deprive civilians in Gaza of food, water and fuel – statements
reflecting a policy being carried out by Israeli forces. Other Israeli officials have publicly stated that humanitarian aid to Gaza would be conditioned either on the release of hostages unlawfully held by Hamas
or Hamas’ destruction.
“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. “World leaders should be speaking out against this abhorrent war crime, which has devastating effects on Gaza’s
population.”
Human Rights Watch interviewed 11 displaced Palestinians in Gaza
between November 24 and December 4. They described their profound
hardships in securing basic necessities. “We had no food, no
electricity, no internet, nothing at all,” said one man who had left
northern Gaza. “We don’t know how we survived.”
In southern Gaza, those interviewed described the scarcity of potable
water, the lack of food leading to empty shops and lengthy lines, and exorbitant prices. “You are on a constant search for things needed to
survive,” said a father of two. The United Nations World Food
Programme (WFP) reported on December 6 that 9 out of 10 households in
northern Gaza and 2 out of 3 households in southern Gaza had spent at
least one full day and night without food.
International humanitarian law, or the laws of war, prohibits the
starvation of civilians as a method of warfare. The Rome Statute of
the International Criminal Court provides that intentionally starving
civilians by “depriving them of objects indispensable to their
survival, including willfully impeding relief supplies” is a war
crime. Criminal intent does not require the attacker’s admission but
can also be inferred from the totality of the circumstances of the
military campaign.
In addition, Israel’s continuing blockade of Gaza, as well as its more
than 16-year closure, amounts to collective punishment of the civilian population, a war crime. As the occupying power in Gaza under the
Fourth Geneva Convention, Israel has the duty to ensure that the
civilian population gets food and medical supplies.
On November 17, the WFP warned of the “immediate possibility” of
starvation, highlighting that supplies of food and water were
practically non-existent. On December 3, it reported a “high risk of
famine,” indicating that Gaza’s food system was on the brink of
collapse. And on December 6, it declared that 48 percent of households
in northern Gaza and 38 percent of displaced people in southern Gaza
had experienced “severe levels of hunger.”
On November 3, the Norwegian Refugee Council announced that Gaza was
grappling with “catastrophic water, sanitation, and hygiene needs.”
Wastewater and desalination facilities were shut down in mid-October
due to fuel and electricity shortages and have been largely inoperable
since, according to the Palestinian Water Authority. Even before
October 7, according to the UN, Gaza had virtually no potable water.
Prior to the current hostilities, 1.2 million of Gaza’s 2.2 million
people were estimated to be facing acute food insecurity, and over 80
percent were reliant on humanitarian aid. Israel maintains overarching
control over Gaza, including over the movement of people and goods,
territorial waters, airspace, the infrastructure upon which Gaza
relies, as well as the registry of the population. This leaves Gaza’s population, which Israel has subjected to an unlawful closure for 16
years, almost entirely dependent on Israel for access to fuel,
electricity, medicine, food, and other essential commodities.
After the imposition of a “total blockade” on Gaza on October 9,
Israeli authorities resumed piping water to some parts of southern
Gaza on October 15 and, as of October 21, allowed limited humanitarian
aid to arrive through the Rafah crossing with Egypt. Israeli Prime
Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said on October 18 that Israel would not
allow humanitarian assistance “in the form of food and medicines” into
Gaza through its crossings “as long as our hostages are not returned.”
The government continued to block the entry of fuel until November 15,
despite warnings about the serious consequences of doing so, leading
to the shutdown of bakeries, hospitals, sewage pumping stations, water desalination plants, and wells. These facilities, which have been left unusable, are indispensable to the civilian population’s survival.
Although limited amounts of fuel were subsequently allowed in, on
December 4, the UN Humanitarian Coordinator for the Occupied
Palestinian Territory, Lynn Hastings, called it “utterly
insufficient.” On December 6, Israel’s war cabinet approved a
“minimal” increase in fuel supplies to southern Gaza.
On December 1, immediately after the seven-day ceasefire, the Israeli
military resumed bombing Gaza and expanded its ground offensive,
stating that its military operations in the south would carry “no less strength” than in the north. While United States officials said that
they urged Israel to allow fuel and humanitarian aid to enter Gaza at
the same levels observed during the ceasefire, the Defense Ministry’s coordinator of government activities in the territories said on
December 1 that it halted all aid entry. Limited aid deliveries
resumed on December 2, but still at grossly insufficient levels,
according to the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian
Affairs (OCHA).
Alongside the crushing blockade, the Israeli military’s extensive
airstrikes in the strip have resulted in widespread damage or
destruction to objects necessary for the survival of the civilian
population.
UN experts said on November 16 that the significant damage “threatens
to make the continuation of Palestinian life in Gaza impossible.”
Notably, Israeli forces’ bombing of Gaza’s last operational wheat mill
on November 15 ensures that locally produced flour will be unavailable
in Gaza for the foreseeable future, as highlighted by OCHA.
Additionally, the UN Office for Project Services (UNOPS) said that the decimation of road networks had made it more difficult for
humanitarian organizations to deliver aid to those who need it.
“Bakeries and grain mills have been destroyed, agriculture, water and sanitation facilities,” Scott Paul, a senior humanitarian policy
adviser for Oxfam America, told the Associated Press on November 23.
Israel’s military actions in Gaza have also had a devastating impact
on Gaza’s agricultural sector. The sustained bombardment, coupled with
fuel and water shortages, alongside the displacement of more than 1.6
million people to southern Gaza, has made farming nearly impossible,
according to Oxfam. In a report from November 28, OCHA said that
livestock in the north are facing starvation due to the shortage of
fodder and water, and that crops are increasingly abandoned and
damaged due to lack of fuel to pump irrigation water. Existing
problems, such as water scarcity and restricted access to farming land
near the border fence, have compounded the difficulties faced by local
farmers, many of whom are displaced. On November 28, the Palestinian
Central Bureau of Statistics said that Gaza is suffering from at least
a US$1.6 million daily loss in farm production.
On November 28, the Palestine Food Security Sector, led by the WFP and
the Food and Agriculture Organization, reported that over a third of agricultural land in the north had been damaged in the hostilities.
Satellite imagery reviewed by Human Rights Watch indicates that since
the start of the Israeli military's ground offensive on October 27, agricultural land, including orchards, greenhouses, and farmland in
northern Gaza, has been razed, apparently by Israeli forces.
The Israeli government should immediately cease using starvation of
civilians as a method of warfare, Human Rights Watch said. It should
abide by the prohibition on attacks on objects necessary for the
survival of the civilian population and lift its blockade of the Gaza
Strip. The government should restore water and electricity access, and
allow desperately needed food, medical aid, and fuel into Gaza,
including via its crossing at Kerem Shalom.
Concerned governments should call on Israel to end these abuses. The
United States, the United Kingdom, Canada, Germany, and other
countries should also suspend military assistance and arms sales to
Israel as long as its forces continue to commit widespread and serious
abuses amounting to war crimes against civilians with impunity.
“The Israeli government is compounding its collective punishment of
Palestinian civilians and the blocking of humanitarian aid by its
cruel use of starvation as a weapon of war,” Shakir said. “The
deepening humanitarian catastrophe in Gaza calls for an urgent and
effective response from the international community.”
Background
The Hamas-led attacks in southern Israel on October 7 killed at least
1,200 Israelis and foreign nationals, with more than 200 people taken
hostage, acts amounting to war crimes. The resulting Israeli
bombardment and ground offensive resulted in more than 18,700
Palestinians killed, including more than 7,700 children, according to
Gaza authorities.
OCHA reported that by December 10, the Israeli military’s bombardment
of the Gaza strip had destroyed more than half of the civilian
infrastructure in Gaza, including more than 50,000 housing units, as
provided by the Ministry of Public Works and Housing in Gaza, as well
as hospitals, schools, mosques, bakeries, water pipes, sewage, and
electricity networks. On November 4 and 5 alone, according to OCHA,
seven water facilities across the Gaza Strip were directly hit and
sustained major damage, including water reservoirs in Gaza City, the
Jabalia refugee camp, and Rafah.
The Israeli military’s repeated, apparently unlawful attacks on
medical facilities, personnel, and transport are further destroying
Gaza’s healthcare sector, thereby affecting the population’s ability
to access life-saving treatment, including to prevent diseases,
wasting, and deaths linked to malnutrition, exacerbating the dire
ramifications of starvation. “We will see more people dying from
disease than from bombardment if we are not able to put back together
this health system,” the World Health Organization's Margaret Harris
said on November 28.
Humanitarian Consequences
On October 13, Israeli authorities issued an order for more than a
million people to evacuate northern Gaza within 24 hours – an order
that was impossible to comply with. Since then, and as conditions in
the north worsened, hundreds of thousands have been displaced to Rafah
and Khan Younis governorates in the south, where it has become
increasingly difficult to secure the means to survive. Under
international humanitarian law, evacuations must be carried out under conditions that ensure those displaced have access to unimpeded
humanitarian aid, including sufficient food and work, otherwise they
may amount to forcible displacement. Evacuations that would increase
the likelihood of starvation are prohibited.
The humanitarian consequences of Israel’s military actions in Gaza
have been severe. During the first eight weeks of hostilities,
northern Gaza was the focus of the Israeli military’s intense air and,
later, ground offensive. Except for the seven-day ceasefire that began
on November 24, during which UN convoys brought in limited quantities
of flour and high-energy biscuits, aid access to the north had been
largely severed. Between November 7 and at least November 15, none of
the bakeries in the north were operational due to the lack of fuel,
water, wheat flour, and structural damage, according to OCHA.
According to the WFP, there is a serious risk of starvation and famine
in Gaza. UN officials have said that 1.9 million people, over 85
percent of Gaza's population, are internally displaced, adding that
the conditions in an ever-shrinking southern area of the Gaza strip
could become “even more hellish.”
UN aid chief Martin Griffiths stated on December 5 that the Israeli
military campaign in southern Gaza had led to “apocalyptic”
conditions, making meaningful humanitarian operations impossible.
As of December 6, the only water desalination plant in northern Gaza
was nonfunctional and the pipeline supplying water to the north from
Israel remained closed, increasing the risk of dehydration and
waterborne diseases arising from the consumption of water from unsafe
sources. Hospitals have been particularly hard hit, with only 1 of 24
hospitals in northern Gaza functional and able to admit new patients,
although services are limited, as of December 14.
Across Gaza, the humanitarian crisis deepened with a persistent
electricity blackout since October 11 as well as several
communications shutdowns that denied people access to reliable safety information, emergency medical services, and severely hindered
humanitarian operations, with OCHA saying on November 18 that the telecommunications blackout between November 16 and 18, the fourth
such blackout since October 7, “brought the already challenging
delivery of humanitarian assistance to an almost complete halt,
including life-saving assistance to people injured or trapped under
the rubble as a result of airstrikes and clashes.” Another
telecommunications blackout took place on December 14.
Since the beginning of the Israeli military’s ground offensive on
October 27, satellite imagery reviewed by Human Rights Watch indicates
that orchards, greenhouses, and farmland in northern Gaza have been
razed, apparently by Israeli forces, compounding concerns of dire food insecurity and loss of livelihood. Satellite imagery indicates that
the razing of agricultural land continued in northern Gaza during the
seven-day ceasefire, which began on November 24 and ended on December
1, when the Israeli military was in direct control of the area.
While the Israeli government allowed a steady and slightly increased
stream of humanitarian aid, including cooking gas for the first time
since October 7, to enter the Gaza Strip during the seven-day
ceasefire that ended on December 1, it deliberately hindered the entry
of relief supplies at the scale needed for over a month prior, while
it imposed a siege affecting the entire civilian population. This
contributed to a catastrophic humanitarian situation of far-reaching consequences with over 80 percent of the population internally
displaced, many of whom have been sheltering in overcrowded, unhealthy
and unsanitary conditions at UN shelters in the south. The aid that
entered during the ceasefire “barely registers against the huge needs
of 1.7 million displaced people,” said UN spokesperson Stephane
Dujarric on November 27.
Some 200 trucks, including four tankers carrying up to 130,000 liters
of fuel and four tankers of cooking gas, entered Gaza each day of the ceasefire. In comparison, an average of 500 trucks of food and goods
entered Gaza each day before the conflict and 600,000 liters of fuel
are needed in Gaza per day just to operate water and desalinization
plants. As the bombardment resumed and Israeli forces advanced south,
aid access was again severely hindered. On December 5, for the third consecutive day, OCHA reported that only Rafah governorate in Gaza
received limited aid distributions. In the adjacent Khan Younis
governorate, it said aid distribution largely stopped due to the
intensity of hostilities.
Accounts from Civilians in Gaza
Human Rights Watch spoke to 11 civilians who evacuated northern Gaza
to the perceived safety of the south due to heavy bombardment, fear of
imminent airstrikes, or because Israel ordered them to evacuate.
Several said they were displaced a number of times before reaching the
south, as they struggled to find suitable shelters and safety along
their journey. In the south, they found overcrowded shelters, empty
markets and soaring prices, and long lines for limited supplies of
bread and drinking water. To protect their identities, Human Rights
Watch is using pseudonyms for all those interviewed.
“I have to walk three kilometers to get one gallon [of water],” said 30-year-old Marwan, who fled to the south with his pregnant wife and
two children on November 9. “And there is no food. If we are able to
find food, it is canned food. Not all of us are eating well.”
“We don’t have enough of anything,” said 36-year-old Hana, who fled
her home in the north to Khan Younis in the south with her father, his
wife and her brother on October 11. She said that in the south they
don’t always have access to clean water, forcing them to drink
nonpotable, salty, water.
Bathing has become a luxury, she said, due to the lack of means to
heat water, requiring them to scavenge for wood. In desperate
situations, she said, they even resort to burning old clothes for
cooking. The process of making bread poses its own challenges, given
the scarcity of ingredients that they cannot afford. “We make bad
bread because we don’t have all the ingredients and we cannot afford
it,” she said.
Majed, 34, who fled with his wife and four surviving children to the
south on or around November 10 said that while the situation in the
south was dire, it was incomparable to what he and his family had to
endure while staying in the north. They had been in an area near
al-Shifa hospital in Gaza City for just over a month after their house
was bombed on October 13, killing Majed’s 6-year-old son:
“In those 33 days we didn’t have bread because there was no flour,” he
said. “There was no water – we were buying water, sometimes for
[US]$10 a cup. It wasn’t always drinkable. Sometimes, [the water we
drank] was from the bathroom and sometimes from the sea. The markets
around the area were empty. There wasn’t even canned food.”
Taher, 32, who fled south with his family on November 11, described
similar conditions in Gaza city in the first weeks of November. “The
city was out of everything, of food and water,” he said. “If you find
canned food, the prices were so high. We decided to eat just once a
day to survive. We were running out of money. We decided to just have
the necessities, to have less of everything.”
International Standards and Evidence of Deliberate Action
Starvation of civilians as a method of warfare is prohibited under
article 54(1) of the First Additional Protocol to the Geneva
Conventions (Protocol I) and article 14 of the Second Additional
Protocol (Protocol II). Although Israel is not a party to Protocols I
or II, the prohibition is recognized as reflective of customary
international humanitarian law in both international and
noninternational armed conflicts. Parties to a conflict may not
“provoke [starvation] deliberately” or deliberately cause “the
population to suffer hunger, particularly by depriving it of its
sources of food or of supplies.”
Warring parties are also prohibited from attacking objects
indispensable to the survival of the civilian population, such as food
and medical supplies, agricultural areas, and drinking water
installations. They are obligated to facilitate rapid and unimpeded humanitarian assistance to all civilians in need, and to not
deliberately block humanitarian aid or restrict the freedom of
movement of humanitarian relief personnel. In each of its four
previous wars in Gaza since 2008, Israel maintained the flow of
drinking water and electricity into Gaza and opened the Israeli
crossings for humanitarian delivery.
Evidence of intent to deliberately use starvation as a method of
warfare can be demonstrated by public statements of officials involved
in military operations. The following high-ranking Israeli officials
could be expected to play a significant role in determining policy
with respect to allowing or blocking food and other necessities to the
civilian population.
On October 9, Defense Minister Yoav Gallant said: “We are imposing a
complete siege on [Gaza]. No electricity, no food, no water, no fuel – everything is closed. We are fighting human animals and we must act accordingly.”
National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir said in a tweet on October
17, “So long as Hamas does not release the hostages – the only thing
that should enter Gaza is hundreds of tons of air force explosives –
not an ounce of humanitarian aid.”
Energy Minister Israel Katz, who reported that he ordered the cuts to electricity and water, said on October 11:
“For years, we have given Gaza electricity, water, and fuel. Instead
of a thank you, they sent thousands of human animals to butcher,
murder, rape and kidnap babies, women and elderly people. This is why
we have decided to cut off the supply of water, electricity and fuel,
and now, the local power plant has collapsed, and there is no
electricity in Gaza. We will keep holding a tight siege until the
Hamas threat is lifted from Israel and the world. What has been will
be no more.”
Katz said on October 12:
“Humanitarian aid to Gaza? Not a switch will be flicked on, not a
valve will be opened, not a fuel truck will enter until the Israeli
hostages come home. Humanitarian for humanitarian. Let no one lecture
us about morality.”
He said on October 16:
“I supported the agreement between PM [Prime Minister] Netanyahu and
President Biden to supply water to the southern Gaza Strip because it
aligned with Israeli interests too. I am vehemently opposed to lifting
the blockade and letting goods into Gaza for humanitarian reasons. Our commitment is to the families of the murdered and to the kidnapped
hostages – not Hamas murderers and the people who helped them.”
On November 4, Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich declared that no fuel
must enter Gaza “under any circumstances.” He later called Israel’s
war cabinet’s decision to permit small amounts to enter the strip “a
grave mistake” and said that it “stop this scandal immediately and
prevent fuel from coming into the Strip,” as reported by the Jerusalem
Post.
In a video posted online on November 4, Col. Yogev Bar-Shesht, deputy
head of the Civil Administration, said in an interview from inside
Gaza, “Whoever returns here, if they return here after, will find
scorched earth. No houses, no agriculture, no nothing. They have no
future.”
On November 24, in a televised interview with CNN, Mark Regev, senior
adviser to Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, said that Israel
was depriving Gaza of fuel since October 7 to strengthen Israel’s
position when it came to negotiating with Hamas on release of
hostages. “Had we done so [allowed the fuel in] … we would never have
gotten our hostages out,” he said.
On December 1, the Defense Ministry’s coordinator of government
activities in the territories, Maj. Gen. Ghassan Alian, said that the
entry of fuel and aid to Gaza was halted after Hamas violated the
conditions of the ceasefire agreement. His office confirmed his
statement in response to a Times of Israel query, stating: “After the
Hamas terror organization violated the agreement and in addition fired
at Israel, the entry of humanitarian aid was stopped in the manner
stipulated in the agreement.”
Other officials have since October 7 called for the limited entry of humanitarian aid to Gaza, saying that doing so serves Israel’s
military aims.
Prime Minister Netanyahu on December 5 answered a question about
Israel potentially losing leverage against Hamas if it allowed more humanitarian aid into Gaza, saying: “The war efforts are supported by
the humanitarian effort … this is because we follow laws of war
because we know that if there would be a collapse – diseases,
pandemics, and groundwater infections – it will stop the fighting.”
Defense Minister Gallant said: “We’re required to allow the
humanitarian minimum to allow for the military pressure to continue.”
Tzachi Hanegbi, Israel's national security adviser, said at a news
conference on November 17: “If there is an epidemic, the fighting will
be stopped. If there is a humanitarian crisis and an international
outcry, we will not be able to continue the fighting under those
conditions.”
On October 18, the Office of the Prime Minister announced that Israel
would not prevent humanitarian aid from entering Gaza from Egypt
following pressure from the US and other international allies:
“In light of President Biden’s demand, Israel will not thwart
humanitarian supplies from Egypt as long as it is only food, water and
medicine for the civilian population in the southern Gaza Strip.”
Destruction of Agricultural Products and Impacts on Food Production
During ground operations in northern Gaza, Israeli forces have
apparently destroyed agricultural products, exacerbating shortages of
food with long-term effects. This has included razing orchards,
fields, and greenhouses.
Israel's military said it conducted military operations in the Beit
Hanoun area, including in an undisclosed agricultural area in Beit
Hanoun, to clear tunnels and other military objectives.
Fields and orchards north of Beit Hanoun, for example, were first
damaged during hostilities following Israel’s ground operations in
late October. Bulldozers carved new roads, clearing the way for
Israeli military vehicles.
Since mid-November, after Israeli forces took control of the same area
in northeastern Gaza, satellite imagery shows that orchards, fields,
and greenhouses have been systematically razed, leaving sand and dirt.
Human Rights Watch contacted the Israel Defense Forces for comment on
December 8 but has not received a response.
Farmers in this area planted crops such as citrus fruit, potatoes,
dragon fruit, and prickly pear, contributing to the livelihoods of
Palestinians in Gaza. Other crops include tomatoes, cabbage, and
strawberries. Some plots were razed in a day. Trees that yield citrus
fruit, as well as the cacti that yield dragon fruit, take years of
care to mature before they can yield fruit.
High resolution satellite imagery shows bulldozers were used to
destroy fields and orchards. Tracks are visible, as well as mounds of
earth on the edges of the former plots.
Whether by deliberate razing, damage due to hostilities or the
inability to irrigate or work the land, farmland across northern Gaza
has been drastically reduced since the beginning of the Israeli ground operations.
Farms and farmers in southern Gaza have also been affected. Action
Against Hunger found that of 113 farmers from southern Gaza surveyed
between October 19 and 31, 60 percent reported that their assets
and/or crops have been damaged, 42 percent reported that they had no
access to water to irrigate their farms, and 43 percent reported that
they were unable to harvest their crops.
https://www.hrw.org/news/2023/12/18/israel-starvation-used-weapon-war-gaza
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