The Price Of Survival: Israel Plays And Palestine Pays With Lives

Nowhere to hide for children

The Gaza Strip, where half the population consists of children, has become uninhabitable. Residents lack adequate income, water, food, sanitation, healthcare, and education. The conflict has claimed nearly 40,000 lives, with more children killed in the past four months than in any other conflict in the previous four years. Since October 7th (when Israeli military operations started), over 2% of Gaza’s child population has been killed or injured. According to the UN-backed Global Education Cluster, 85% of school buildings in Gaza have been hit or damaged. Currently, over 50,000 children in Gaza suffer from acute malnutrition. On March 12, 2024, Philippe Lazzarini, head of the UN Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees (UNRWA), stated on X, “This war is a war on children. It is a war on their childhood and their future.” However, by July, UN experts offered a starkly different perspective, describing the situation not as war, but "Israel’s intentional and targeted starvation campaign against the Palestinian people," which was characterised as “a form of genocidal violence”.

When genocide is disguised as conflict or war, its human cost can be profoundly miscalculated, obscuring the true extent of suffering and hindering effective responses. The pattern of Israeli strikes reveals systematic violations of the principles of distinction, proportionality, and precautions in attack, which are fundamental to international humanitarian law on the conduct of hostilities. UN Official Yasmine Guerrda observes, “A direct observation on the ground every day is that there are no safe centimetres left in Gaza.”

A Ravaged Economy

At present, every Gazan lives in poverty. The Gaza Strip faces an astonishing unemployment rate of 79.1%. Real GDP has shrunk by 83.5%, reflecting a severe economic downturn. Nearly all private sector establishments have either halted or drastically reduced production, leading to an 85.8% loss in production value, amounting to USD $810 million. The ongoing military operation has displaced 85% of Gaza's population, bringing economic activities to a standstill, exacerbating poverty and unemployment.

While Gaza endures unimaginable suffering, much of the world indulges in the luxury of overconsumption, marked by an abundance of consumer choices, high-tech gadgets, and gourmet foods. Hyper-local delivery apps provide food within minutes. Whereas Palestinians are facing catastrophic hunger, forming serpentine queues to pay exorbitant prices for basic items. Onions now cost 50 times their pre-war price, and common leafy vegetables like spinach, jute leaves, and chard sell for 25 times their former price.  96% of the population is facing acute food insecurity at “crisis” level and a famine is now imminent and projected by The Integrated Food Security Phase Classification (IPC) index. 

Fashioning a Famine

In early 2006, Dov Weisglass, then a senior advisor to Prime Minister Ehud Olmert, stated that Israeli policy aimed to "put the Palestinians on a diet, but not to make them die of hunger." By early 2008, Israeli authorities calculated the minimum caloric intake necessary to avoid malnutrition, planning to limit food supplies to Gaza without causing outright starvation. The health ministry determined Gazans needed an average of 2,279 calories daily, requiring 170 truckloads of food per day. However, military officials found grounds to reduce this number drastically to only 67 trucks, less than half the minimum required. Additionally, Israel altered the food supply formula, doubling trucks carrying nutrient-poor sugar while significantly reducing those with milk, fruits, and vegetables. Robert Turner, director of operations for the UN agency for Palestine refugees in Gaza, noted that food imports consistently fell below the necessary levels.

This imposed "Weisglass-diet" led to widespread malnutrition, especially among children, as confirmed by a leaked International Committee of the Red Cross report. The Weisglass' diet treads on the heels of the Dahiya Doctrine, an Israeli military strategy advocating massive, disproportionate force and the deliberate targeting of civilians and infrastructure. This approach aims to reshape an entire society through violence, poverty, malnutrition, and a permanent struggle over scarce resources.

Blocking food supplies has worsened the famine, using hunger as a weapon of genocide, and is accompanied by "ecocide"— the destruction of natural environments and farmland. Israel has seized over 75% of Gaza's agricultural land, isolating it for illegal annexation to its military "buffer zone" or bulldozing it, thus destroying Gaza’s supply of fruits, vegetables, and meat. Over 2,000 agricultural sites, including farms and greenhouses, have been deliberately destroyed and replaced with Israeli military structures. Satellite imagery shows the destruction of about 38-48% of Gaza’s tree cover and farmland.

Olive trees are vital to the Palestinian economy, contributing 14% of its value and supporting about 800,000 families through agriculture. These trees, resistant to harsh conditions, symbolise Palestinian resilience and attachment to their land. Since 1967, Israel has illegally uprooted over 800,000 olive trees, stripping Palestinians of their cultural heritage and economic stability while violating their human rights. This destruction serves as a tool for economic control.

A constant state of fear

Israel's aerial strikes, rocket attacks, and bombings of the densely populated Gaza Strip do not discriminate between civilians and combatants. This relentless violence has sparked an amputee crisis, deeply affecting children whose lives are irreversibly changed. Surgeons, overwhelmed by the sheer number of casualties and lacking essential supplies, are forced to amputate limbs that might have been saved elsewhere. According to UNRWA, every day in Gaza, ten children lose their legs. Dr. Hani Bseso, a Palestinian physician, reported being forced to perform a leg amputation on his niece, Ahed Bseso, without anesthesia after a shell exploded in their home.

The trauma of such intense violence and loss leaves deep psychological scars, contributing to widespread mental health issues. Constant bombardment, displacement, and the loss of family members are driving many children toward anxiety, depression, and PTSD. A World Bank study from November 2022 revealed that over half of the adult Palestinian population shows signs of depression, with 71% in Gaza and 58% in the West Bank. Workers in this field are struggling to find words strong enough to convey the immense scale of this suffering.

Crumbling public health infrastructure

Recent droughts have exacerbated water shortages in the West Bank, but the issue is not due to natural scarcity. The region has ample water resources, including productive aquifers and the Jordan River. The real problem is Israel’s deliberate actions and neglect. According to the WASH Cluster, about 13,000 Palestinians in 99 Area C communities face severe water shortages, lacking connections to water networks and relying on unreliable trucked supplies. Another 300,000 in 234 communities face moderate risk. Many receive less than 30 litres per person per day, far below the World Health Organization's minimum of 100 litres. Amnesty International reports 180,000 to 200,000 rural Palestinians have no water network access. The ample water available to Israeli settlers highlights that the shortage for Palestinians is due to political will and discrimination, not a lack of resources.

Gaza's health ministry declared a polio epidemic after detecting poliovirus in wastewater samples. Polio can spread easily and cause paralysis, though no paralytic cases have been confirmed yet due to hindered surveillance amid Israel's assault. Additionally, the UNRWA reported a surge in Hepatitis A cases, with nearly 40,000 recorded in the past 10 months, compared to 85 previously. UNRWA head Lazzarini attributed this outbreak to poor sanitation, including trash accumulation and sewage leaks. Gaza's health ministry warned that the epidemic poses a significant risk to Gaza and neighbouring countries, exacerbating an already dire humanitarian crisis.

Dehumanisation, Loss of Dignity and the Mounting Death Toll

The Israeli Defence Forces recently claimed on their website the use of an AI system called Habsora, or "The Gospel," to rapidly produce targets in its war against Hamas. However, AI and conflict experts are sceptical that such systems reduce civilian harm. Critics argue that the Gospel facilitates a "mass assassination factory" focused on quantity over quality, with minimal human oversight. Dr. Marta Bo, a researcher, highlights concerns about "automation bias" and the loss of meaningful human judgement in targeting decisions, potentially increasing the risk of civilian casualties. This dehumanisation in warfare reduces people to mere data points and the moral obligation to prevent the relentless erosion of human life grows increasingly distant.

Israeli military strip searches are horrifying and degrading. Detainees endure physical abuse and torture, including beatings and forced removal of hijabs and clothing. They are often compelled to kiss the Israeli flag during interrogations. Women face mistreatment and assault, while children are separated from their families. These practices not only violate basic human rights but also strip individuals of their dignity and humanity.

The official death toll is likely underreported, as it excludes thousands of bodies buried under rubble. Even if the war ended now, diseases and other indirect effects will continue to cause additional deaths long after the conflict concludes. It would take Gaza until 2092 to recover its GDP to the levels seen in 2022. In fact, a fleet of over a hundred trucks would need 15 years and approximately $500 million to remove nearly 40 million tonnes of rubble from Gaza.

As the world averts its gaze, Gazans have almost no chance of living with any semblance of normalcy. Juxtaposed with the global context of growing trends of opulence and indulgence, this genocide is a manifestation of unacceptable suffering. A cycle of violence, deprivation, and despair. This glaring disparity demands a reevaluation of international priorities and a united effort to address Gaza's humanitarian crisis, ensuring the 21st century is not defined by preventable and severe injustice.