https://daniellarison.substack.com/p/a-year-of-slaughter-and-starvation

A Year of Slaughter and Starvation

According to a conservative estimate from American health workers that served in Gaza, at least 118,908 people have been killed by direct violence, starvation, and disease.

Daniel Larison

For the last twelve months, the Palestinians of Gaza have endured an exceptionally brutal campaign of collective punishment and deliberate starvation at the hands of the Israeli government. According to a conservative estimate from American health workers that served in Gaza, at least 118,908 people have been killed by direct violence, starvation, and disease. There are estimates that the death toll may be much higher than that staggering number. It has been a year of slaughter and starvation without any reprieve, and that has been made possible by unconditional U.S. backing for the war.

The atrocious war that Israel waged in response to the atrocious October 7 attack has turned Gaza into the world’s largest charnel house and the site of one of the most extensively documented genocides in modern history. Almost every horrific worst-case scenario that opponents of the war feared might happen has come to pass. There have been new massacres practically every week as the Israeli military bombs tent encampments, schools, and other shelters for the refugees whose homes they have previously blown to bits. Gaza’s health care system has been all but destroyed at the same time that the need for medical care has skyrocketed. 

Living conditions have steadily deteriorated. HuffPost reports:

The spread of disease and the exacerbation of existing illnesses in Gaza is a direct result of the combination of a man-made famine, inhumane living conditions caused by displacement, the bombing of so-called safe zones and a collapsed health care system.

Israel’s offensive has destroyed 70% of Gaza’s sewage pumps and all five wastewater treatment plants while blocking external water supplies, reducing the amount of available water in the territory by 94%, according to a July report by Oxfam, a coalition of anti-poverty organizations. Palestinians now get about 1.25 gallons of water a day per person, just under a third of the recommended minimum in emergencies and the equivalent of less than a single toilet flush.

Because of the lack of water and sanitation infrastructure, 28% of Palestinians have fallen severely ill from easily preventable diseases, Oxfam said. Families without basic hygiene are living in close quarters with no running water or toilets, in tents that sit next to large piles of sewage and trash.

Not satisfied with turning Gaza into a heap of rubble, the Netanyahu government has turned its attention to Lebanon, where it has been carrying out some of the most intense bombing of the 21st century in just the last few weeks:

Emily Tripp, director of conflict monitoring group Airwars, said the concentrated ferocity of the campaign was almost unprecedented. “There’s a level of intensity in the strike level and the number of munitions being employed which is certainly only comparable to Gaza,” she said. 

Israel’s air force struck at least 4,600 targets in Lebanon between September 20 and October 2 — sometimes more than 1,000 in a single day — according to posts on its Telegram channel.

Netanyahu now calls on the people of Lebanon to turn against Hezbollah or face a devastating war like the one that destroyed Gaza. The threat of collective punishment against everyone in Lebanon is impossible to miss. Netanyahu tells the people of Lebanon to “take their country back,” but why would anyone in Lebanon listen to the words of the man who ordered the invasion of their country? 

Israeli forces are also once again displacing Palestinian civilians in north Gaza, and then they try to shoot them as they try to evacuate the area that they are being expelled from:

Palestinians fleeing sites of Israel’s renewed military operation in northern Gaza are being shot at as they evacuate, according to residents there and footage shared with CNN documenting their journey.

While all of this has been going on, the Biden administration has reliably sided with the government of genocidaires and war criminals. When Israeli forces began laying waste to Gaza’s infrastructure, Biden was there to support them and ensure that they never lacked for ammunition. When the Israeli government blocked the delivery of humanitarian aid to the starving people of Gaza, our top officials lied for them and claimed that they weren’t doing that. At every turn when the U.S. could have pressured the Israeli government to halt its campaign and stop the killing, our government chose to fuel the conflict instead with an uninterrupted flow of weapons. The war that Biden and his henchmen claimed would be winding down in January shows no sign of ending because the principal arms supplier of the main belligerent refuses to bring it to an end.

The U.S. is deeply complicit in the atrocities of this war. The damage to U.S. interests and America’s reputation is already considerable and will likely increase, but that pales in comparison to the breathtaking loss of life and the suffering of millions of displaced people. If there were any justice, the top officials in the Biden administration would be facing criminal charges for their part in aiding and abetting war crimes and genocide. We know they will never face any real consequences for what they have done, but they should all be haunted for the rest of their lives by what they did in the last year.