It’s day 169 of Israel’s war on Gaza. The Health Ministry in Gaza said at least 32,070 Palestinians have been killed and 74,298 have been wounded since the start of the war
There are reports this morning of a new Flour Massacre in Gaza.
The IDF reportedly carried out another massacre, once again targeting those waiting for aid at the Kuwait Roundabout in Gaza City. Airstrikes in the vicinity of Al-Shifa Hospital have also been renewed.
Gaza is already the most intense starvation catastrophe of recent decades. The death toll from hunger and disease may soon surpass the body count from Israeli bombs and bullets, writes Alex de Waal in the Guardian.
And make no mistake, this famine in Gaza is not due to some natural disaster or the result of war in general, as much of the western media is portraying it. It’s the result of the genocidal intentionality of an Israeli regime that blocks aid shipments and uses mass starvation and control of water as weapons of war, and of a US regime that continues to underwrite it.
de Waal writes:
Israel knows every available calorie. In 2008, the coordinator of government activities in the territories calculated every aspect of Gaza’s food production and consumption, in minute detail, and extracted the “red lines” needed to keep Palestinians on what it called a “diet”, just short of starvation.
Israel has had ample warning of what will happen if it continues its campaign of destroying everything necessary to sustain life.
Israel has not changed course.
Hunger as a weapon in Cuba and Venezuela as well
It should also be noted that, when it comes to using food as a weapon, the US embargo on Cuba is essentially no different from Israel’s blocking aid to Gaza. “El Bloqueo” has cost the Cuban economy well over a trillion dollars over the past 55 years and contributed to malnutrition and deaths.
Venezuela is also facing a severe humanitarian emergency, with millions in need of assistance. Many are unable to access basic health care and adequate nutrition. Since 2005, the US has imposed targeted sanctions on Venezuelan individuals and entities to force regime change and overthrow yet another duly elected government in Latin America. The Trump Administration expanded those sanctions to include financial sanctions, sectoral sanctions, and sanctions on the government. Those sanctions and other international pressures have failed to dislodge President Maduro but only exacerbated an ongoing economic and humanitarian emergency forcing a global immigration crisis.
Murder on 5th Avenue?
"Would Trump shooting someone on 5th Avenue impact your vote for him or against him? (all voters)." Over one-third of Americans who responded, 38 percent, said this would not impact their vote, while the remaining 62 percent said it would.
For me, it was a strange hypothetical posed by these Canadian researchers. Don’t they know that DT doesn’t shoot people on 5th Ave? If it came to it, he’d most likely hire someone to do his dirty work and do it in a less conspicuous location.