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Israel Is Not ‘Deliberately Starving’ Palestinians
Trucks carrying aid are seen near the Rafah border in Gaza after entering from Egypt, October 10, 2023. Photo: Sinai for Human Rights/Handout via REUTERS/File Photo
Mere days after Israel was falsely accused of killing more than 100 Palestinians in a “strike” on crowds waiting for humanitarian aid in Gaza City, media outlets are once again promoting a vicious and unsubstantiated allegation: Israel is perpetrating a “campaign of starvation” against Palestinians.
According to a statement signed by a group of so-called “UN experts,” “Israel has been intentionally starving the Palestinian people in Gaza since 8 October” and it is now “targeting civilians seeking humanitarian aid and humanitarian convoys.”
As reported by The Guardian:
UN experts have condemned the violence they say was unleashed by Israeli forces last week on Palestinians gathered in Gaza City to collect flour as a ‘massacre’.
In a statement, a group of UN special rapporteurs accused Israel of ‘intentionally starving the Palestinian people in Gaza since 8 October,’ adding: ‘Now it is targeting civilians seeking humanitarian aid and humanitarian convoys.’
‘Israel must end its campaign of starvation and targeting of civilians,’ said the UN experts, who warned there was mounting evidence of famine in the Gaza Strip.”
The piece, by the outlet’s senior US reporter, Nina Lakhani, goes on to claim that “Israel has targeted Palestinian food sources and agriculture — bakeries, orchards and greenhouses — as well as blocked humanitarian supplies” since the start of the war.
“The number of trucks allowed to enter the Gaza Strip has since fallen to 57 a day — compared with an average of 147 a day before the ICJ ruling,” Lakhani adds.
This, however, is a tissue of lies — and nothing more than propaganda masquerading as news.
To set the record straight, despite the implications made by Lakhani or any other journalist, Israel has not imposed restrictions on the entry of humanitarian aid into the Gaza Strip.
Indeed, since Hamas launched its horrific attack on Israel on October 7, thousands of aid trucks have entered the enclave, bringing shelter supplies, medical equipment, and mobile water desalination filters.
Over the last 2 weeks, an average of 102 food trucks entered Gaza daily.
This is 46% more food trucks entering Gaza on a daily basis, compared to before October 7th.
There is no limit to the amount of humanitarian aid that can enter Gaza. pic.twitter.com/e8d16TnV65
— COGAT (@cogatonline) March 6, 2024
Aside from the litany of falsehoods that comprise the bulk of the article, it is also worrying that Lakhani only identifies one of the seven “UN experts” who signed the letter — the UN Special Rapporteur on the Occupied Palestinian Territories, Francesca Albanese.
As per usual, Albanese’s ugly history of antisemitism and support for Palestinian terrorism, which has included her comparing Israel to Nazi Germany, claiming America is being subjugated by a “Jewish lobby,” and insisting that Hamas has a “right to resist,” is completely omitted.
Just who are some of the “UN experts” quoted by the international media claiming Israel is “intentionally starving the Palestinian people?”
They may use the imprimatur of the UN but, in reality, they aren’t the credible, impartial sources you or the media may think. pic.twitter.com/IgeHxmLBeM
— HonestReporting (@HonestReporting) March 6, 2024
Another signatory is Michael Fakhri, the special rapporteur on the “right to food,” who is an outspoken supporter of the Boycott, Divestment, and Sanctions (BDS) movement, which seeks to economically strangle, and eventually dismantle the Jewish state, and signed an academics’ petition that claims, “the Palestinian struggle as an indigenous liberation movement confronting a settler colonial state.”
And then there is Reem Alsalem, who is the special rapporteur on violence against women and girls.
Unfortunately, Alsalem appears to have something of a blindspot when it comes to violence directed at women and girls when the perpetrators are Palestinian terrorists and their victims are Jewish women.
After all, why else would Alsalem pretend she was “unaware” of Hamas and Hezbollah rocket attacks, and claim that she had not seen enough evidence to say Hamas terrorists raped women on October 7?
The Guardian has not been alone in pushing the demonstrably false claim that Israel is deliberately starving Palestinians and maliciously withholding humanitarian aid.
CNN also published a piece that failed to name any of the letter’s signees, while confidently printing the accusations of a “Palestinian Ministry of Health spokesperson” without saying Hamas runs the ministry.
The allegation that Israel has a policy of restricting essential humanitarian aid to Gaza is a lie.
And the repetition of a lie does not make it the truth.
The author is a contributor to HonestReporting, a Jerusalem-based media watchdog with a focus on antisemitism and anti-Israel bias — where a version of this article first appeared.
The post Israel Is Not ‘Deliberately Starving’ Palestinians first appeared on Algemeiner.com.
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Israel’s Supreme Court Orders Improved Food for Security Prisoners
Israel’s Supreme Court. Photo: Wikimedia Commons.
i24 News – Israel’s Supreme Court on Sunday instructed the Prison Service (Shabas) to guarantee adequate food supplies for security prisoners, ruling that current conditions fall short of minimum legal standards. The decision followed an appeal filed by the Association for Civil Rights in Israel.
In a 2–1 ruling, the court found that the food situation posed “a risk of non-compliance with legal standards.” Justice Dafna Barak-Erez stressed that the matter concerned “basic conditions necessary for survival, as required by law,” not comfort or privilege. Justice Ofer Grosskopf agreed, noting the state had not shown the policy was consistently applied to all inmates.
Justice David Mintz dissented, maintaining that the existing policy already met legal requirements.
The court underscored that Israel’s legal obligations remain binding, even in light of the ongoing hostage crisis in Gaza and the fact that many of the prisoners include Hamas members involved in the October 7, 2023 attack.
National Security Minister Itamar Ben Gvir condemned the ruling, arguing that while hostages in Gaza lack protection, “terrorist murderers, kidnappers, and rapists in prison” benefit from the Court’s intervention. He added that prisoners would continue receiving only the minimum conditions required by law.
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Ukrainian Government Building Set Ablaze in Record Russian Airstrike
Illustrative. More damage caused by the Russian drone that hit the Perlina school in Kyiv, Ukraine, Oct. 30, 2024. Photo: Jewish community JCC in Kyiv, Kyiv municipality, and Yan Dobronosov
i24 News – The Ukrainian government’s main building in Kyiv was hit overnight Saturday by Russian airstrikes for the first time since the war, igniting a fire in the building, authorities said. Firefighters are working to put out the flames.
“The government building was damaged by an enemy attack — the roof and upper floors,” Ukrainian Prime Minister Yulia Sviridenko said. The blaze is is burning in the area of the office of the prime minister.
Ukraine’s air force said Russia launched a total of 805 drones and 13 missiles overnight on Ukraine — a record number since the start of the war.
Also as a result of the strike, a baby and a young woman were killed after a nine-story residential building was hit in the Svyatoshynsky district, also in Kyiv. Rescuers are still looking for a third body, authorities said. A woman was also reported killed in the strike in Novopavlivka village.
“The world must respond to this destruction not only with words, but also with actions. We need to increase sanctions pressure – primarily against Russian oil and gas. We need new restrictions that will hit the Kremlin’s military machine. And most importantly, Ukraine needs weapons. Something that will stop the terror and prevent Russia from trying to kill Ukrainians every day,” wrote Sviridenko after the attack.
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‘Trump’s Legacy Crumbles’: Israelis Call on US President to End Gaza War
Israeli protestors take part in a rally demanding the immediate release of the hostages kidnapped during the deadly October 7, 2023 attack on Israel by Hamas, and the end of war in Gaza, in Jerusalem September 6, 2025. Photo: REUTERS/Ronen Zvulun
Thousands of Israelis rallied in Tel Aviv on Saturday night, issuing direct appeals to US President Donald Trump to force an end to the Gaza war and secure the release of the hostages.
Protesters packed a public square outside the military headquarters, waving Israeli flags and holding placards with images of the hostages. Some carried signs, including one that read: ‘Trump’s legacy crumbles as the Gaza war persists.’
Another said: “PRESIDENT TRUMP, SAVE THE HOSTAGES NOW!”
“We think that Trump is the only man in the world who has authority over Bibi, that can force Bibi to do this,” said Tel Aviv resident Boaz, 40, referring to the Israeli prime minister.
There is growing despair among many Israelis at Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu who has ordered the military to capture a major urban center where hostages may be held.
Families of the hostages and their supporters fear the assault on Gaza City could endanger their loved ones, a concern the military leadership shares, according to Israeli officials.
Orna Neutra, the mother of an Israeli soldier who was killed on October 7, 2023 and whose body is being held in Gaza by militants, accused the government of abandoning its citizens.
“We truly hope that the United States will push both sides to finally reach a comprehensive deal that will bring them home,” she told the rally. Her son, Omer, is also American.
Tel Aviv has witnessed weekly demonstrations that have grown in size, with protesters demanding that the government secure a ceasefire with Hamas to obtain the release of hostages. Organizers said Saturday night’s rally was attended by tens of thousands. A large demonstration was also held in Jerusalem.
There are 48 hostages held in Gaza. Israeli officials believe that around 20 are still alive. Palestinian terrorists abducted 251 people from Israel on October 7, 2023, when Hamas led its attack. Most of the hostages who have been released were freed after indirect negotiations between Israel and Hamas.
NO PURPOSE
Trump had pledged a swift end to the war in Gaza during his presidential campaign, but nearly eight months into his second term, a resolution has remained elusive. On Friday, he said that Washington was engaged in “very deep” negotiations with Hamas.
Israeli forces have carried out heavy strikes on the suburbs of Gaza City, where, according to a global hunger monitor, hundreds of thousands of Palestinians are facing famine. Israeli officials acknowledge that hunger exists in Gaza but deny that the territory is facing famine. On Saturday, the military warned civilians in Gaza City to leave and move to southern Gaza.
There are hundreds of thousands of Palestinians sheltering in the city that was home to around a million before the war.
A video released by Hamas on Friday featured Israeli hostage Guy Gilboa-Dalal, 24, saying that he was being held in Gaza City and feared being killed by the military’s assault on the city. Rights groups have condemned such videos of hostages as inhumane. Israel says that it is psychological warfare.
The war has become unpopular among some segments of Israeli society, and opinion polls show that most Israelis want Netanyahu’s right-wing government to negotiate a permanent ceasefire with Hamas that secures the release of the hostages.
“The war has no purpose at all, except for violence and death,” said Boaz from Tel Aviv. Adam, 48, said it had become obvious that soldiers were being sent to war for “nothing.”
Tens of thousands of Palestinians have been killed by the Israeli military since it launched its retaliatory war after Hamas fighters attacked Israel from Gaza in October 2023. Around 1,200 people were killed in that attack on southern Israel.
The terrorist group, which has ruled Gaza for nearly two decades but today controls only parts of the enclave, on Saturday once again said that it would release all hostages if Israel agreed to end the war and withdraw its forces from Gaza.
Netanyahu is pushing for an all-or-nothing deal that would see all of the hostages released at once and Hamas surrendering.
The prime minister has said Gaza City is a Hamas stronghold and capturing it is necessary to defeat the Palestinian militant group, whose October 2023 attack on Israel led to the war.
Hamas has acknowledged it would no longer govern Gaza once the war ends but has refused to discuss laying down its weapons.