By Howard Bloom
The headline in a CNN story that appeared a little after noon on Wednesday, June 26th, was brutal: “Children are dying of starvation in their parents’ arms as famine spreads through Gaza.”
The details were heartbreaking. One nine year old boy, said CNN, is “clearly wasted from severe malnutrition and suffering from dehydration. His blue jogging bottoms hang off his emaciated legs, as his tiny ribcage protrudes from his billowy orange T-shirt.”
His mother said, “I am losing my son in front of my eyes.”
Explained the article, Gaza is running out of the food and medical supplies it takes to save the lives of children like this. What’s more, the CNN article reported that mothers emaciated by malnutrition often give birth prematurely, and don’t have enough breast milk to feed their at-risk babies.
One preemie, reported CNN, was in an incubator struggling for each breath. CNN filmed her as she died.
According to the CNN writers, who are the villains behind this nightmare? Declared CNN, “Israel continues …preventing aid groups getting enough food into the enclave.”
But is that true? Or is it Hamas propaganda? Five of the CNN reporters may have had an anti-Israel bias: Abdel Qadder Sabbah, Mohammad Al Sawalhi, Tareq El Helou, Kareem Khadder, and Sana Noor Haq. But there’s more. An 18-page United Nations Famine Review Committee study that came out on June 4 said it did not find that the UN’s own prediction of a Gaza famine was “plausible.”
On the same day, an Israeli study from five universities, one medical center, and the Israeli Health Ministry asserted that the real obstacle to feeding Gazans is Hamas. Hamas rains down rockets on border crossings where trucks are lined up with food and supplies.
And there’s the Palestinians’ own “theft, looting, and hoarding of food.” Theft and looting that endangers the lives of truck drivers and aid workers trying to distribute the food.
Writers like those at CNN try to give the impression that very few aid trucks are able to get through. Thanks, of course, to their favorite villain, Israel. But the June 4th Israeli study disagrees. It says,
“Between January and April 2024, 14,916 trucks conveying 227,854 tons, and 95 airdrops weighing 3,694 tons of food entered Gaza. On average, 3,729 food trucks per month entered Gaza, with a continuous increase of 431 trucks per month since January. Between January and April, the overall weight of food shipments increased by 57%, as did the diversity of food items.”
Adds the Israeli study,
“Deliveries of fruit increased 2,851% from the previous quarter. Deliveries of vegetables increased 2,657%, and dairy and eggs increased 934%. Deliveries of nuts and seeds, potatoes and chicken, meat and fish also saw dramatic increases.”
It takes 2,400 calories a day to nourish you, me, or an adult Palestinian. The Israeli study asserts that, ““The crude mean per capita per day energy supplied was 3,374” calories. Nearly fifty percent more than is needed.
So why are Palestinians starving? Says the Israeli report,
“Military attacks by Hamas at humanitarian aid crossing points and corridors interrupt humanitarian efforts.”
What’s more, says the report, Hamas fires rockets at humanitarian zones, at Israeli forces protecting humanitarian corridors, at the Kerem Shalom border crossing, at an offshore pier the United States built to provide food and medicine, and even at a water desalination plant funded by the international community.
Why in the world would Hamas starve its own people? On June 10th, just a wee bit over two weeks ago, the Wall Street Journal dug through the private correspondence of Hamas leader Yahya Sinwar. And what did they find?
The Journal summed up its conclusion in a headline: “Gaza Chief’s Brutal Calculation: Civilian Bloodshed Will Help Hamas.”
For Hamas, every death from starvation is a propaganda victory.
References:
https://www.cnn.com/2024/06/25/middleeast/israel-gaza-children-starvation-malnutrition-intl
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Howard Bloom of the Howard Bloom Institute has been called the Einstein, Newton, Darwin, and Freud of the 21st century by Britain’s Channel 4 TV. One of his eight books–Global Brain—was the subject of a symposium thrown by the Office of the Secretary of Defense including representatives from the State Department, the Energy Department, DARPA, IBM, and MIT. His work has been published in The Washington Post, The Wall Street Journal, Wired, Psychology Today, and the Scientific American. He has appeared on Saudi and Iranian TV over forty times. Bloom does news commentary at 1:06 am Eastern Time every Wednesday night on 545 radio stations on Coast to Coast AM. For more, see http://howardbloom.institute.