‘Hunger can be an extremely powerful political-military pressure tool’

Hunger takes over your life. As soon as you stop eating, or eat far too little, your body starts to eat itself. First your fat stores. And then afterwards, very slowly, your muscles and other organs. In theory, an adult can go without food for almost three months, but little by little your body consumes itself. You get cold, you become weaker. Slowly it becomes more and more difficult to move and breathe.

In early January, a mother in Gaza described to the… New York Times how she found her children huddled around a phone watching videos about French fries. They hadn’t eaten enough in ages. And they are not the only ones. While the Gaza war has been going on for more than a hundred days, there has been a dire shortage of food in the area. People queue for hours for a can of beans or eat rotting vegetables.

Before the war broke out, an estimated 1.2 million of the Gaza Strip’s 2.2 million residents were already experiencing food insecurity and more than 80 percent were dependent on humanitarian aid. Human rights organizations are now calling it an unprecedented emergency. Of the 700,000 people suffering from acute famine worldwide, 570,000 live in Gaza.

Starving babies

Young children and the elderly are among the most vulnerable groups, says Tessa Roseboom, professor of Early Development and Health at Amsterdam UMC. But the most vulnerable are the children who have not yet been born. In November, the United Nations estimated that about fifty thousand women were pregnant in Gaza. This means that approximately 160 children are born every day in the Gaza Strip. Roseboom: “That is the group that will suffer the most consequences of malnutrition.”

Also read
The first 100 days of the Gaza war in pictures

Roseboom has been researching the health of people born around the time of the Hunger Winter of 1944-’45 for 25 years and sees the lasting consequences of malnutrition when you are in the womb. Roseboom: “The Hunger Winter babies were not necessarily born too small, but decades later you can see that their organs were developed in times of scarcity. For example, their brains are smaller. They are more sensitive to addiction, anxiety and depression. The women even die at a younger age.”

According to Roseboom, the situation in Gaza could have major consequences for an entire generation of children. “Their opportunities are reduced in all areas and this has an impact on society as a whole,” says the researcher. “When you think about that, it becomes clear what an enormously destructive and long-lasting weapon hunger can be.”

Hunger as a weapon

Hunger is not an accidental byproduct of warfare, says Ingrid de Zwarte. She is an assistant professor of Economic and Environmental History in Wageningen and conducts research into the role of food and famine in wartime. “Hunger is not collateral damage. If you look closer you will see that food and hunger play a central role in almost all conflicts. You also see that now in Gaza.”

‘Hunger is not collateral damage. If you look closer you will see that food and hunger play a central role in almost all conflicts’

De Zwarte therefore emphasizes that hunger should not only be seen as a humanitarian problem but also as a political problem. “It starts with how we talk about hunger. Are we talking about famine as a natural phenomenon, or about ‘starvation’, which implies a perpetrator?”

Since the mid-twentieth century, there have been no practical obstacles to famine prevention, only political ones. De Zwarte: “All famines today are created by people. And so you have to ask yourself: what political interests does hunger serve? It can be an enormously powerful political-military instrument of power.”

War crime

In Gaza, according to Human Rights Watch, Israel deliberately uses hunger as a means of pressure. In December, the human rights organization published a rapport accusing Israel of using hunger as a weapon of war. The deliberate starvation of civilians is a war crime under international humanitarian law, just like the collective punishment of a population.

Also read
“All proportion and balance in this conflict is lost,” said Adam Bouloukos, UN director for Palestinian refugees

A displaced Palestinian family who fled Khan Yunis, a town in southern Gaza, camps on the street in Rafah, near the Gaza Strip’s border with Egypt, on December 6.” class=”dmt-article-suggestion__image” src=”https://images.nrc.nl/AdfNR68S388QPqD-qRMCWAciBeI=/160×96/smart/filters:no_upscale()/s3/static.nrc.nl/bvhw/files/2023/12/data108888899-eeabc1.jpg”/>

Human Rights Watch’s main argument is that Israel is deliberately withholding aid as a means of exerting pressure. Two days after the Hamas attack on October 7, the Israeli government announced a total blockade of the Gaza Strip. The supply of medicine, fuel, drinking water and food was completely cut off and on October 18, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said that no humanitarian aid would arrive “until the hostages are returned.”

Other politicians have also spoken out explicitly about using hunger. For example, MP Tally Gotliv of ruling party Likud called on the government not to break the blockade: “Without hunger and thirst among the people of Gaza, we will not be able to get cooperation, and we will not be able to bribe people with food, drink and medicine to obtain information.”

Israel is now allowing aid trucks again, but… according to the United Nations it is far from enough. Ongoing fighting also makes it difficult to reach large parts of Gaza. For example, only a quarter of humanitarian missions to North Gaza are successful. For many Gazans, the search for food dominates their lives. There is no flour to make bread, no vegetables, no fruit. Entire families have to get through the day with a single can of chickpeas.

Psychological warfare

Food not only plays a role in physically weakening a population, but also in psychological warfare, says hunger researcher De Zwarte. “Hunger is a powerful form of psychological warfare that can be used to gain the support of the civilian population. Or just to sow division. Who gets food, who doesn’t?” The promise of food is just as strong a means of pressure as the threat of hunger.

Passing aid to Gaza is also a way for Israel not to lose international support

According to De Zwarte, the role of hunger in wars has changed. The growing role of media attention means that warring parties must account for military strategies in a different way. “It is no longer just about winning the support of a civilian population, you also have to get the international community behind you to a large extent.” Passing aid to Gaza is also a way for Israel not to lose international support.

Scorched earth

But immediate humanitarian aid is not the only thing needed in the Gaza Strip. Since the start of the war, the vast majority of bakeries, water treatment plants and agricultural land have been damaged. De Zwarte: “The moment such a conflict is politically settled, in whatever direction, it does not mean that the problems with the food supply are immediately solved. Particularly in areas that are already very import-dependent and vulnerable, such as Gaza, such a period of warfare can have a major impact in the long term.”

Destroying infrastructure that is essential for the food supply, like deliberate starvation of civilians, is prohibited under international law, although there has never been an international court case to punish starvation as a war crime. Human rights organizations such as Human Rights Watch are conducting research based on satellite images that show, for example, that Israel is systematically destroying fields, but the question is whether there will ever be a case.

“More attention is slowly coming to this form of warfare,” says De Zwarte, “but such research can take years.”

To share





Email the editor