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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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After False Dawns, Gazans Hope Trump Will Force End to Two-Year-Old War
Palestinians walk past a residential building destroyed in previous Israeli strikes, after Hamas agreed to release hostages and accept some other terms in a US plan to end the war, in Nuseirat, central Gaza Strip October 4, 2025. Photo: REUTERS/Mahmoud Issa
Exhausted Palestinians in Gaza clung to hopes on Saturday that US President Donald Trump would keep up pressure on Israel to end a two-year-old war that has killed tens of thousands and displaced the entire population of more than two million.
Hamas’ declaration that it was ready to hand over hostages and accept some terms of Trump’s plan to end the conflict while calling for more talks on several key issues was greeted with relief in the enclave, where most homes are now in ruins.
“It’s happy news, it saves those who are still alive,” said 32-year-old Saoud Qarneyta, reacting to Hamas’ response and Trump’s intervention. “This is enough. Houses have been damaged, everything has been damaged, what is left? Nothing.”
GAZAN RESIDENT HOPES ‘WE WILL BE DONE WITH WARS’
Ismail Zayda, 40, a father of three, displaced from a suburb in northern Gaza City where Israel launched a full-scale ground operation last month, said: “We want President Trump to keep pushing for an end to the war, if this chance is lost, it means that Gaza City will be destroyed by Israel and we might not survive.
“Enough, two years of bombardment, death and starvation. Enough,” he told Reuters on a social media chat.
“God willing this will be the last war. We will hopefully be done with the wars,” said 59-year-old Ali Ahmad, speaking in one of the tented camps where most Palestinians now live.
“We urge all sides not to backtrack. Every day of delay costs lives in Gaza, it is not just time wasted, lives get wasted too,” said Tamer Al-Burai, a Gaza City businessman displaced with members of his family in central Gaza Strip.
After two previous ceasefires — one near the start of the war and another earlier this year — lasted only a few weeks, he said; “I am very optimistic this time, maybe Trump’s seeking to be remembered as a man of peace, will bring us real peace this time.”
RESIDENT WORRIES THAT NETANYAHU WILL ‘SABOTAGE’ DEAL
Some voiced hopes of returning to their homes, but the Israeli military issued a fresh warning to Gazans on Saturday to stay out of Gaza City, describing it as a “dangerous combat zone.”
Gazans have faced previous false dawns during the past two years, when Trump and others declared at several points during on-off negotiations between Hamas, Israel and Arab and US mediators that a deal was close, only for war to rage on.
“Will it happen? Can we trust Trump? Maybe we trust Trump, but will Netanyahu abide this time? He has always sabotaged everything and continued the war. I hope he ends it now,” said Aya, 31, who was displaced with her family to Deir Al-Balah in the central Gaza Strip.
She added: “Maybe there is a chance the war ends at October 7, two years after it began.”
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Mass Rally in Rome on Fourth Day of Italy’s Pro-Palestinian Protests
A Pro-Palestinian demonstrator waves a Palestinian flag during a national protest for Gaza in Rome, Italy, October 4, 2025. Photo: REUTERS/Claudia Greco
Large crowds assembled in central Rome on Saturday for the fourth straight day of protests in Italy since Israel intercepted an international flotilla trying to deliver aid to Gaza, and detained its activists.
People holding banners and Palestinian flags, chanting “Free Palestine” and other slogans, filed past the Colosseum, taking part in a march that organizers hoped would attract at least 1 million people.
“I’m here with a lot of other friends because I think it is important for us all to mobilize individually,” Francesco Galtieri, a 65-year-old musician from Rome, said. “If we don’t all mobilize, then nothing will change.”
Since Israel started blocking the flotilla late on Wednesday, protests have sprung up across Europe and in other parts of the world, but in Italy they have been a daily occurrence, in multiple cities.
On Friday, unions called a general strike in support of the flotilla, with demonstrations across the country that attracted more than 2 million, according to organizers. The interior ministry estimated attendance at around 400,000.
Italy’s right-wing government has been critical of the protests, with Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni suggesting that people would skip work for Gaza just as an excuse for a longer weekend break.
On Saturday, Meloni blamed protesters for insulting graffiti that appeared on a statue of the late Pope John Paul II outside Rome’s main train station, where Pro-Palestinian groups have been holding a protest picket.
“They say they are taking to the streets for peace, but then they insult the memory of a man who was a true defender and builder of peace. A shameful act committed by people blinded by ideology,” she said in a statement.
Israel launched its Gaza offensive after Hamas terrorists staged a cross border attack on October 7, 2023, killing some 1,200 people and taking 251 people hostage.
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Hamas Says It Agrees to Release All Israeli Hostages Under Trump Gaza Plan
Smoke rises during an Israeli military operation in Gaza City, as seen from the central Gaza Strip, October 2, 2025. Photo: REUTERS/Dawoud Abu Alkas
Hamas said on Friday it had agreed to release all Israeli hostages, alive or dead, under the terms of US President Donald Trump’s Gaza proposal, and signaled readiness to immediately enter mediated negotiations to discuss the details.