Starvation as a Lethal Means of Extermination... The Palestinian Priority for Rescue and Prevention of Displacement

Author: جمال زقوت

Starvation is considered a criminal means of genocide and has been classified as such in international law. The use of starvation as a weapon of war against civilian populations is not only a war crime but also amounts to genocide if its intent is to destroy a national, ethnic, religious, or racial group, wholly or partially.

The Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court (1998) stipulates in Article 8 (2)(b)(xxv) that "intentionally starving civilians as a method of warfare" is classified as a war crime. Additionally, Article II of the Genocide Convention (1948) includes acts intended to destroy, in whole or in part, a national, ethnic, racial, or religious group, including deliberately inflicting living conditions calculated to bring about its physical destruction, in whole or in part. This can include comprehensive blockades, preventing access to food and water, or targeting vital infrastructure such as farms, warehouses, and water stations.

Starvation as a Weapon in Gaza: A Continuing Crime

In the Palestinian context, many international human rights reports (including those from the United Nations and independent human rights organizations) indicate that the blockade imposed on Gaza, especially after October 7, 2023, and the use of starvation as a weapon, amounts to genocide, particularly in light of the public statements from some Israeli officials explicitly calling for withholding food and water from the population.

Since March 9 of last year, this crime related to starvation has become the deadliest means against Palestinian civilians, particularly children, women, patients, and the elderly, as Israel has breached the January agreement, with unprecedented support from the Trump administration, in a clear partnership with the fascists in Tel Aviv to continue the genocide.

The “Gaza Humanitarian Foundation”: An Additional Tool for Extermination

Washington has not been able to cover up this most severe crime, despite operating the so-called "Gaza Humanitarian Foundation," which has turned into an additional means for the war of extermination, transforming into death traps in the ugliest forms of exploiting people’s need for food and the starvation they are experiencing.

The Priority of Gaza: Stopping the Killing and Ensuring Dignity

However, despite the dire need for the people of Gaza to raise their voice against starvation and genocide, their priority remains focused on stopping the killings surrounding them from all sides and ensuring access to life-saving food and aid in a manner that preserves their humanity and violated dignity. They realize that this will not be achieved unless this priority becomes everyone's responsibility, without exception, and, more importantly, freeing their lives and sufferings from internal political calculations, so that everyone is held accountable in the face of what the fascist Tel Aviv government is planning, especially regarding its schemes to complete the Nakba of 1948 by displacing people outside of Palestine.

It has been revealed that these plans were discussed between Tel Aviv and the Trump administration during the recent visit of the Mossad chief to Washington. This occurs while the Tel Aviv government continues its annexation and Judaization plans, including its efforts to dismantle the authority within the context of erasing any formula for a Palestinian identity.

What Should Be Done? What is Needed Politically from the Palestinian Side?

Since the early months of the aggression against Gaza, the Palestinian Authority has announced its readiness to assume responsibilities in the sector. However, expressing this readiness does not necessarily imply the capacity to undertake such responsibilities. What has the Authority done to be able to do that? As is known, the key to this capacity and its fundamental basis is empowering the Authority politically to do what is required. This has not been realized and will not be realized without Palestinian reconciliation based on what has been nationally agreed upon by all factions, especially what was agreed upon last year in Beijing. This is politically speaking. As for the ability to practically exercise this role regarding aid, reconstruction, and healing the wounds and pains of the people, it is unclear how the Authority can possess such an ability when the occupation's policies continue to escalate, further weakening it, leading to a sharp decline in its capacity to fulfill its responsibilities even in the West Bank, as expressed by the latest statement from the Authority's government in this regard. How can such an ability be expected when everyone knows the nature of the great challenges stemming from the ongoing extermination in the Gaza Strip?

Is it not time, in light of all of this, to finally abandon the illusion that the "policy of chasing the bullet to the door" will yield any benefit? No, it surely sends our cause towards certain doom. Furthermore, the strategy of the Tel Aviv government is progressing in dismantling the Authority itself while continuing to annex land.

On the other hand, does Hamas believe that time works in its favor? That obtaining American guarantees will prevent Netanyahu from returning to fight if that is what he plans? And it is certain that he is planning for that.
While it is true that Trump, due to the global popular uprising around the world, including within the United States itself, and also because this war carries the signs of an explosion in the region, may now be inclined to generalize a deal that would bring back Israeli prisoners, and perhaps he also wants to stop the war.

However, this does not negate that Trump stands by Israel to eliminate resistance and its weapon, paving the way for further violations of Gaza and its people through displacement.
Does Hamas believe it can face this existential threat to our people and cause alone? This is not a call for surrender to Israeli plans, nor a concession on pivotal issues that affect the future of Palestinian existence and the legitimate national rights of our people, but it is certainly a sincere call for serious examination of political avenues that enable our people to resist and confront the dangers and schemes led by Tel Aviv and Washington, without serious deterrents from regional and international parties.

Towards a Unified Palestinian Response for the Day After

The essential question here is: Is Hamas’s position of merely stating that it is open to unity, be it through what is called the community support committee or a consensus government, sufficient? It prioritizes the former over the latter although it does not enjoy the same consensus, and this comes in a waiting context, as if achieving it is the responsibility of unknown parties? Or does it continue to hang its failure to achieve this on the pretext that the Authority distanced itself from everything that is happening?
This is also not a question of skepticism towards Hamas's position regarding the requirements of national confrontation, but it is certainly a required reiteration of the call we previously made to its political leadership, that the responsibility resting upon it, especially since Hamas has been singled out in the flood, is an exceptional responsibility that should not squander the enormous sacrifices our people have made and continues to make.

Doesn't the political leadership of Hamas believe that the most realistic guarantee to prevent Netanyahu from achieving his plans lies fundamentally in providing a unified Palestinian response for what is called the "Day After"?
And that this response is determined by an insistence on an immediate formation of a consensus government, building on the enormous sacrifices and collective demands to stop the extermination? And that this government should be mandated to complete negotiations on all components of the Gaza dossier, and to close the gaps and ambiguity that Israel seeks to impose?

A National Consensus Government: The Key to Restoring Palestinian Decision-Making

Some may argue that the leadership of the Authority, which has distanced itself thus far, does not want this; however, Hamas’s declaration, in conjunction with what will be reached from a transitional agreement, that the responsibility for completing negotiations according to national consensus rests with a national consensus government, would bring everyone back to their direct responsibilities, and would also extract negotiations and the future of the Palestinian cause from the mazes of the liquidation schemes, including those against resistance and its weapon, to what the Palestinian people agree upon, paving the way for a healthy approach towards comprehensive general elections, not elections conducted in the absence of national consensus, as stated in the Democratic Front's statement. Elections of this nature will lead, in the absence of consensus, to further undermining the position of the PLO, which is supposed to be a united national front to lead the national struggle, not to turn into an internal point of contention, as it has become, instead of being the unifying house for all Palestinians, as it should be.