Human rights group accuses Israel of trying to starve Palestinians in Gaza

The Human Rights Watch (HRW) accused Israel of trying to starve Palestinians in Gaza, arguing Monday that the Israeli government is using the starvation of civilians as a method of warfare in the Gaza Strip.

The HRW report pointed to comments from high-ranking Israeli officials who discuss what the group claims to be their “aim to deprive civilians” of water, food, and fuel. The referenced comments were made in October by Israeli officials shortly after Palestinian militant group Hamas’s surprise incursion into Israel on Oct. 7.

That assault prompted Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant to impose a siege on basic necessities like food, water and fuel into Gaza, which is controlled by Hamas.

The HRW points to his comments surrounding the siege, along with those from National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir and Energy Minister Israel Katz, both of whom appeared to defend the blockade on humanitarian aid in the wake of Hamas’s kidnapping of individuals Oct. 7.

“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, the Israel and Palestine director at HRW.

The HRW said it interviewed 11 displaced Palestinians in Gaza, with one man telling the human rights group they “don’t know how we survived.” Those in southern Gaza described the shortage of potable water, food, long lines and rising prices.

The HRW referenced a series of reports from humanitarian organizations detailing the scarcity of supplies in Gaza. It specifically pointed to reports from the United Nations World Food Programme (WFP), one of which warned Gaza’s food system is “on the brink of collapsing. In a Dec. 6 report, the WFP said it found 9 out of 10 households in northern Gaza and 2 out of 3 households in southern Gaza have spent at least one full day and night without food.

“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,” the HRW wrote.

Israel railed against the report, calling the HRW “an antisemitic and anti-Israel organization,” The Times of Israel reported.

“Human Rights Watch … did not condemn the attack on Israeli citizens and the massacre of October 7 and has no moral basis to talk about what’s going on in Gaza if they turn a blind eye to the suffering and the human rights of Israelis,” Foreign Ministry spokesman Lior Haiat told the Agence France-Presse.

Israel’s military campaign has killed more than 18,700 people in Gaza since Oct. 7, according to the Hamas-run Health Ministry in Gaza. About 90 percent of Gaza’s population have been forced to flee their homes amid the violence and dwindling supplies, The Associated Press reported.

Humanitarian leaders, including U.N. Secretary-General António Guterres, have reiterated calls for a cease-fire in Gaza, citing a “severe risk of collapse of the humanitarian system in Gaza.”