The head of the United Nations said on Friday that it was “a moral crisis that challenges the global conscience.” The president of the International Committee for the Red Cross said it had “long exceeded every acceptable standard — both legal and moral.” The leaders of 28 countries jointly declared that it “deprives Gazans of human dignity.”
The growing spread of starvation in Gaza, following months of Israeli restrictions on food, has shocked the world and heightened calls for Israel and Hamas to end their war in Gaza, which began with Hamas’s attack on Israel in October 2023.
Though there have been food shortages in Gaza since Israel restricted aid supplies soon after the war began, the situation has never been as dire as it is now. The current crisis began in early March, when Israel cut off all food supplies to the enclave, saying without evidence that Hamas was systematically stealing it.
While Israel partly lifted the blockade in late May, it has changed how most food is distributed. The new method, which largely relies on private contractors instead of the United Nations, requires Palestinians to walk for miles through extremely dangerous areas to reach the distribution sites, making it almost impossible for Palestinians to find food safely or cheaply.
Israel publicly says the new system is needed to prevent Hamas from stealing the aid. Privately, its officials acknowledge they have no proof that Hamas is systematically stealing it from the United Nations, which was, until March, the main supplier of food in Gaza.
Here is what to know about the situation:
What is causing starvation in Gaza?
The U.N. World Food Program said this week that nearly a third of Gaza’s population was not eating for multiple days in a row. The hunger and malnutrition is largely linked to Israel’s decision to block aid between March and May, and to the way it chose to end that blockade.
Before March, food handouts were mainly distributed from hundreds of points close to where people lived, in a system overseen by the United Nations. Since late May, handouts have mainly been supplied from a few sites run by private contractors that, for most Palestinians in Gaza, can only be reached by walking for miles through Israeli military lines. To contain crowds walking along these routes, Israeli soldiers have shot and killed hundreds of people, according to the United Nations, often turning the daily search for food into a deadly trap.
Some food is still available from shops in Palestinian-run areas, but only at astronomical prices that are unaffordable to the largely unemployed civilian population. A kilogram, or 2.2 pounds, of flour costs up to $30, and a kilogram of tomatoes costs roughly $30; meat and rice are mostly unavailable on the open market.
That has forced Palestinians to routinely choose between two deadly options: risking death by starvation, or risking death by gunfire to reach food aid sites that often run out of supplies by the time most people arrive there.
What is happening at the aid distribution sites?
The sites are in areas under Israeli military control in the central and southern parts of Gaza. To reach them, Palestinians must often walk for miles. To arrive before the food runs out, they often set off at night.
That has led to large crowds moving chaotically across the devastated landscape of Gaza, usually at night, when visibility is poor. Sometimes scuffles break out or people veer off the designated route, witnesses have said in interviews. Responding to that unrest, Israeli soldiers have repeatedly fired at the crowds, killing hundreds of people over the last two months on the paths that lead to the sites.
The Israeli military has acknowledged firing “warning shots” when people approached military lines. But international doctors who have treated the wounded say that the location of their injuries indicated that soldiers systematically targeted their torsos.
What is the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation?
The Gaza Humanitarian Foundation, which oversees the new aid sites, was conceived mainly by Israeli officials and businessmen who wanted to create a new aid system that circumvented the United Nations. It is now run by Americans who say they want to work in tandem with the United Nations. Its director, Johnnie Moore, is an American public relations professional and evangelical Christian with ties to the Trump administration.
The foundation’s previous chief, Jake Wood, resigned after news outlets, including The New York Times, raised questions about the group’s independence and its connections with Israel. The United States says it has provided the foundation with $30 million, but it is not clear who else funds the group.
On the ground in Gaza, the foundation has outsourced security and logistics to contractors led by Philip F. Reilly, a former senior C.I.A. operative.
Israeli officials have said that the foundation’s methods are necessary to prevent Hamas and civilian looters from stealing the aid. The group said it aims to “deliver a practical, immediate, and secure approach to delivering essential aid — one that ensures the dignity of Gazans.”
Human rights organizations say the new foundation’s approach contravenes internationally established methods to protect people in need. Its “militarized model, coupled with its close collaboration with Israeli authorities, undermines the core humanitarian principles of humanity, neutrality, impartiality and independence,” 15 rights groups from several countries said in a statement last month.
Is any other aid getting into Gaza?
Separately, Israel now allows the United Nations and other international organizations to send its own convoys into areas controlled by Hamas. Israel has even criticized the U.N. for failing to scale up its deliveries fast enough.
U.N. officials say that while Israel does allow its trucks to cross the border, Israeli restrictions make it difficult to coordinate the trucks’ onward passage. Access to warehouses and bakeries inside Gaza has been hampered by the lack of secure routes, meaning that negligible quantities of food are reaching those who need it.
The Israeli military has also opened fire on desperate crowds trying to ransack U.N. convoys carrying flour and other goods minutes after they enter the enclave, according to witnesses.
Reporting was contributed by Isabel Kershner, Natan Odenheimer, Lara Jakes and Patrick Kingsley.
The post What to Know About Starvation in Gaza and Deadly Violence Near Aid Sites appeared first on New York Times.
