Israel Uses Starvation As An Inhumane Weapon Of War.
"You'll get hell." How Israeli officials justify using starvation as a weapon of war in Gaza.
A photo essay by Humaira Ahad / PressTV
Israeli policy in Gaza is using starvation as a weapon of war, with regime officials openly advocating blockade tactics to displace, kill, and exterminate Palestinians.
The faces of starvation: Huda used to run barefoot across the courtyard. Now, she slumps against a wall, too weak to stand. She is one of over a million children enduring Israel's starvation campaign in Gaza.
Hunger as a weapon: This is not accidental. Israel has weaponized food, water, and medicine - turning hunger into a method of war. Over 100 Palestinians - 80 of them children - have already died from starvation and dehydration.
A policy with deep roots: "We'll deprive Gaza of water, and the Arabs will leave." - Levi Eshkol, Israeli Prime Minister, 1967. This policy didn't begin in 2023. It's decades old, and now more explicit than ever.
The 'Calorie Limit' strategy: In 2007 Israeli officials calculated the minimum calories Palestinians needed to avoid famine - then blocked food just above that line. "The idea is to put Palestinians on a diet, but not to make them die of hunger," said Dov Weissglas, advisor to then Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert.
Starvation goes public: Today, Israeli officials no longer hide it.
"Starve the Gazans and impose a siege to the max." - MK Moshe Saada
"The food and aid depots should be bombed in order to create military and political pressure." - Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir
"Israel has imposed a total blockade on Gaza - no electricity, no water, just damage. You wanted hell, you will get hell." -- Gen. Ghassan Alian
Systematic deprivation: Fuel, food, and water are blocked. UN-cleared trucks are turned back or attacked. Officials brag about cutting off Gaza's lifelines.
"We don't give them food - they will have to leave." - Daniella Weiss
Dehumanization: "They are human animals. No electricity. No water. No gas. We are fighting animals." - Top Israeli Generals and Ministers.
This language is used to justify mass starvation.
Gaza's grim choice: "Stay and starve, or leave." That's the ultimatum. Not for Palestinian resistance fighters, but for over 2 million civilians, half of them children.
This is not war. It is extermination by hunger.