Israel faces international anger as Gazans starve

What happened

As evidence mounted of widespread famine conditions in Gaza, President Trump this week demanded that Israel allow "every ounce of food" into the enclave, blaming Israel's blockade for triggering "real starvation." Israel blocked all supplies to Gaza for nearly three months starting in March, when it ended a cease-fire. It then took over the task of food distribution from the U.N. in May, but it set up just four distribution sites for 2.2 million people. "The worst-case scenario of famine is currently playing out in the Gaza Strip," the U.N.-backed hunger authority Integrated Food Security Phase Classification said this week, with one-third of Gaza's population going without food for days and health-care workers fainting from hunger on the job. More than 20,000 children have been hospitalized for acute malnutrition, and 85 have died, said the Hamas-run Gaza Health Ministry. One baby, 5-month-old Zainab Abu Halib, died weighing 4.4 pounds, less than her birth weight. Without immediate aid, said Gaza pediatrician Ahmed al-Farah, "we will witness unprecedented numbers of deaths."

Israel faced growing international condemnation at home and abroad. France pledged to recognize Palestinian statehood at the U.N. summit in September, Canada followed suit, and the U.K. said it would also do so if Israel hadn't stopped the war by then. The Arab League and the EU jointly called on Israel to end the war and agree to statehood, and on Hamas to cede Gaza rule and disarm. And two major Israeli rights groups, B'Tselem and Physicians for Human Rights–Israel, accused the Israeli government of committing genocide. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu flatly rejected the accusations. "There is no policy of starvation in Gaza," he said, "and there is no starvation in Gaza."

What the editorials said

Netanyahu is defiant, but he's definitely feeling the pressure, said The Washington Post. Now that "the images of Palestinians starving to death and children showing the telltale signs of malnutrition" have become unbearable, he's begun letting more than 100 food trucks a day enter Gaza. Still, U.N. officials say at least 500 to 600 trucks are needed. And while Netanyahu has claimed Israel had to take over aid because Hamas was stealing U.N. rations, his own military officials now concede there's little evidence of that.

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The terrorist group "has shown no interest in disarmament," said The Wall Street Journal. So why are more and more countries "handing Hamas a symbolic victory" by recognizing Palestinian statehood? The U.K. is the worst offender: In tying its recognition to the lack of a truce, it has actually given Hamas an excuse to "keep rejecting cease-fires."

What the columnists said

"The agony of Gazans" is awful to witness, said Rich Lowry in National Review. "Clearly, Israel needs to find better ways to get aid into Gaza." But Israel didn't start this war; Hamas did with its October 2023 massacre. And Hamas could end it immediately by disarming and releasing the few Israeli hostages that remain alive. Instead, it "would rather see the population starve than give up on the war, or its grip on power."

Yet it's Israel, not Hamas, that is in charge of food distribution, said Thomas L. Friedman in The New York Times. How is it that a state capable of precisely executed assassinations in Beirut and Tehran can't manage to "safely deliver boxes of food" to a spot 40 miles from Tel Aviv? The answer is that Netanyahu has "engaged in a policy of starvation" to appease racist, extremist members of his government, because he needs their support to stay in power and out of jail on corruption charges. Hamas is selfish and reprehensible, yes, but so is Netanyahu. Both "have consistently prioritized their own political survival and ideological obsessions over the basic well-being of their own people."

Israel should take note that its behavior has cost it American support, said Abdullah Hayek in The Hill. Only 32% of all Americans now approve of Israel's actions in Gaza, and even Republican support is "eroding at a stunning pace." Georgia Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene actually used the word "genocide" this week to characterize the situation in Gaza, the first Republican lawmaker to do so. If Israel hopes to maintain the backing of the U.S., it will have to end the war and show more "respect for civilian life."