Starvation as a weapon of war

Dear Editor,

On October 2, 2024, a group of 99 US medical professionals who volunteered in Gaza sent an urgent letter to then President Joe Biden. They witnessed malnutrition in mothers resulting in miscarriages and underweight newborns.  Daily they saw babies starving to death because their mothers were too malnourished to breastfeed and there was no baby formula or clean water.

Moreover, in November 2024 the International Criminal Court asserted that there was reasonable evidence to conclude that Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and former Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant had "intentionally and knowingly" deprived civilians in Gaza of food and water,.  As a result, the ICC found that they bore criminal responsibility for using starvation as a weapon of war

As famine expert Alex de Waal explains: “I’ve been working on this field of famine, food crisis and humanitarian action for more than 40 years, and there is no case, over those four decades, of such minutely engineered, closely monitored, precisely designed mass starvation of a population as is happening in Gaza today.” 

Eight months have passed.  Each day brings new images of emaciated children and desperate masses queuing for food.  

Given the moral urgency and the growing consensus among genocide scholars that Israel is committing genocide in Gaza, why isn't the United States imposing sanctions on Israel, halting arms sales, and ending all military assistance? 

Or even sending naval vessels to escort humanitarian aid and break the siege?  Such action could be considered an act of peace to disrupt the genocide and end the massive loss of civilian life.

Law without universal application and enforcement is a tool of power, not justice.

Terry Hansen

Milwaukee, WI