{"id":34230,"date":"2024-06-05T21:58:21","date_gmt":"2024-06-06T04:58:21","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/?p=34230"},"modified":"2024-06-05T21:58:23","modified_gmt":"2024-06-06T04:58:23","slug":"biden-claims-israel-isnt-starving-gazans-rights-groups-say-it-is-clear-as-day","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/2024\/06\/05\/biden-claims-israel-isnt-starving-gazans-rights-groups-say-it-is-clear-as-day\/","title":{"rendered":"Biden Claims Israel Isn’t Starving Gazans. Rights Groups Say ‘It Is Clear as Day’"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
\"Palestinians<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Palestinians wait in line to receive food distributed by charitable organizations amid Israeli attacks in Deir Al-Balah, Gaza on May 28, 2024. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

(Photo: Hassan Jedi\/Anadolu via Getty Images)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“The fact that Israel is using starvation as a weapon of war in Gaza is not in contention,” said a Human Rights Watch researcher.<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

JAKE JOHNSON<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Jun 05, 2024 (CommonDreams.org)<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

U.S. President Joe Biden said in an interview published Tuesday that he does not believe the Israeli government is using starvation as a weapon of warfare in Gaza<\/a>, contradicting the findings of leading human rights organizations that have documented Israel’s deliberate obstruction of food aid as Palestinians die of malnutrition<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“No, I don’t think that,” Biden said<\/a> in response to TIME<\/em> magazine’s Washington bureau chief Massimo Calabresi and editor-in-chief Sam Jacobs, who noted some have “alleged that Israel<\/a> is intentionally using starvation of civilians as a method of warfare.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The president, who has approved more than 100 arms sales<\/a> to Israel during its eight-month assault on the Gaza Strip, acknowledged that Israel’s military has “engaged in activity that is inappropriate” and that “Palestinians have suffered greatly.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n

But he stopped well short of the conclusions reached by Oxfam International<\/a>, Human Rights Watch (HRW)<\/a>, and the International Criminal Court<\/a>, which recently applied for arrest warrants against Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Defense Minister Yoav Gallant for their role in the “starvation of civilians as a method of warfare” and other war crimes.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The U.S. Agency for International Development has also determined<\/a> that Israel has unlawfully impeded the delivery of humanitarian assistance to Gaza, leading to a “deterioration of food security and nutrition in Gaza [that] is unprecedented in modern history.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“The fact that Israel is using starvation as a weapon of war in Gaza is not in contention. It is clear as day,” Hiba Zayadin, a researcher at HRW, wrote<\/a> in response to Biden’s TIME<\/em> interview, pointing to her group’s December report<\/a> that found the Israeli military was “deliberately blocking the delivery of water, food, and fuel, while willfully impeding humanitarian assistance, apparently razing agricultural areas, and depriving the civilian population of objects indispensable to their survival.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“The evidence is even stronger today,” Zayadin added, citing HRW’s April report<\/a> that focused specifically on the Israeli military’s starvation of Gaza children. Dozens of Palestinian kids<\/a>, some just months old, have died of malnutrition since October, a figure that is almost certain to grow as Israel’s bombing campaign and ground offensive in Rafah continue<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

.@POTUS<\/a>, the fact that Israel is using starvation as a weapon of war in Gaza is not in contention. It is clear as day. We at @hrw<\/a> laid out the evidence in this report back in December, the evidence today is even stronger. https:\/\/t.co\/Arb2BVQvjr<\/a> https:\/\/t.co\/FdVNGZEDCe<\/a> pic.twitter.com\/8LWmnPxJH3<\/a><\/p>— Hiba Zayadin (@ZayadinH) June 4, 2024<\/a><\/blockquote>