Starvation, surveillance and elimination in genocide

Images from Gaza do not paint a picture of humanitarian aid, as the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation (GHF) commenced its operations. The long lines of Palestinians waiting for food evoked recollections of people in concentration camps, and the grouping of Palestinians was more an exercise in surveillance. Of course, chaos ensued. We are talking about a population that is being starved to death, and where aid is weaponised depending on Israel’s parameters, which are always changing and only aimed at elimination, not enabling the Palestinians to survive.

It is therefore no surprise to read reports that Palestinians were killed and injured by Israel while trying to obtain meagre food supplies for themselves and their families. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu described the scene as temporary loss of control. “Happily, we brought it back under control,” he added. Happy to kill a few more starving Palestinians. 

To emphasise Israel’s ethnic cleansing plan, Netanyahu stated, “We go out of our way to create safe zones, to give humanitarian aid, to make sure civilians leave.” What part of ethnic cleansing is humanitarian?

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What the weaponised aid has achieved is grouping Palestinians into easier targets. This is the solution Israel intended, and one that was seen in previous months, when Israeli forces fired on Palestinians scrambling for aid. This time, Israel has better control through the GHF, because aid in the hands of private contractors and security firms can only comply with what such firms were created for in the first place – aiding elimination. 

Humanitarian aid was already lacking when the UN Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees (UNRWA) was operating in Gaza. Palestinians were coerced into the politics of having their freedom stalled for the sake of the humanitarian paradigm. The GHF goes a step further; it can collaborate openly with Israel’s genocide. And while UNRWA and the GHF did not operate on the same objectives, the international community is not blameless in the current weaponising of aid in Gaza. 

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During a recent press conference, Netanyahu said that he is “ready to end the war” on condition of US President Donald Trump’s plan for Gaza being implemented. The international community was swift to denounce the plan, as it did to oppose Israel banning UNRWA from operating in the occupied Palestinian territories. But, as benefits the international community, it refuses to link one violation to another. Hence, Palestinians face pockets of diplomatic condemnations, while Israel seamlessly links one phase of violations to another, creating a web that the international community refuses to untangle.  

Jonathan Whittall, Head of the Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs in the OPT, described the GHF’s hubs as “engineered scarcity”. He adds, “One of these hubs is near the spot where Israeli forces killed and buried in a mass grave 15 first responders.”

Aid is just a component, and Israel knows this. However, while the international community provides no alternative to UNRWA – that is stopping the genocide and embarking on a decolonial process – Israel is merging aid, starvation, surveillance and its killing machine into a smooth process that faces no real opponents. 

Israel found too many collaborators in a world purportedly concerned with human rights. 

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The views expressed in this article belong to the author and do not necessarily reflect the editorial policy of Middle East Monitor.