The IPC describes itself as follows in its website:
The Integrated Food Security Phase Classification (IPC) is an innovative multi-partner initiative for improving food security and nutrition analysis and decision-making. By using the IPC classification and analytical approach, Governments, UN Agencies, NGOs, civil society and other relevant actors, work together to determine the severity and magnitude of acute and chronic food insecurity, and acute malnutrition situations in a country, according to internationally-recognised scientific standards.
The IPC has issued a report on Gaza, based on its scale of crisis assessment, which is as follows:
They say the situation in Gaza in the last month was as follows:
And then they note that they expect things to change as follows over the next few months:
Israel controls food supply into Gaza. No one else can.
Israel is not permitting sufficient food into Gaza. As a result 50 per cent of its population now face famine. Most of the rest face a food crisis.
International law does not permit Israel to do this. Its actions are clearly illegal. But countries like the UK and USA permit it by supplying the arms Israel needs to crush Gaza and impose this famine.
It is my hope that not just those in Israel imposing this famine should be punished, but so too should those in this and other countries that let it happen, knowing it was going on.
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Can there be some kind of legal class action against the UK government, citing whatever international laws there are against aiding and abetting genocide or war crimes ( by supplying weapons, and other material support ) to a country enacting genocide or war crimes?
I have no idea what legal recourse is available in this kind of situation, if any.
So far, several million marching and demonstrating across the UK have had no effect.
I suspect the UN would need to do this.
The Justice For Gaza campaign by the International Centre of Justice for Palestinians (ICJP) is taking action in the UK regarding war crimes in Gaza.
In this interview https://youtu.be/cupEZPjw7Fg?si=N78usIIxImEk6jxq , Tayab Ali (Head of International Law at Bindmans LLP) explains that:
# as a state party to the International Criminal Court, we have a responsibility to investigate war crimes on a domestic level, & help to prosecute them.
# the ICJP is gathering evidence on war crimes including witness statements on Gaza from people now in the UK.
# the ICJP have put together a criminal complaint for Scotland Yard’s War Crimes Team, for SY to investigate further.
# that this includes 4 govt ministers and officials who the ICJP believes are complicit in war crimes, e.g. providing weapons and/or political cover.
He also lays out the history of the legal framework created from WW2 onwards, i.e. an attempt to stop those atrocities from ever happening again.
Details on the Justice for Gaza campaign here (you can also donate):
https://www.icjpalestine.com/legal-cases/justice-for-gaza-campaign/
e.g. they wrote to UK politicians directly, “warning of the risk of prosecution if their statements amounted to encouraging war crimes in Gaza”.
It would be difficult to design a more effective genocide, in full sight, if you tried.
Meanwhile.. in the West Bank… there is the Daniya Doctrine v2.0
It is depressing how often poor foreign policy decisions have brought down politicians who are otherwise doing a good job domestically. Now Biden is under threat for that same reason. A lesson for those aspiring to high office in the future?
More than 800 serving officials in the US and Europe have signed a statement warning that their own governments’ policies on the Israel-Gaza war could amount to “grave violations of international law”.
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-68177357
This goes back to February 2nd. I have seen nothing of this since. Given it is more or less unprecedented, one can only assume discussion is being suppressed by the media -or they have been told to.
These people are well informed and experienced. They back up “Richard We the Peoples’ point that the country may be complicit in war crimes
The politicians won’t be able to use the excuse they didn’t know.
Your anti-Semitic rants are getting worse, and equally poorly informed.
There are multiple entry points for food into Gaza.
That’s not to dispute the humanitarian crisis taking place, but lying about the situation and blaming Israel just shows your prejudices.
So, go on then, list the other entry reports, note whether they are open or not and then relate the flows through them to local requirement. Please also note who is in charge of the receipt at those entry poimts – is it Palestinians or the IDF?
And then please note that there was not a hint of anti-Semitism in what I wrote. To suggest there was is to not undertsnad anti-Semitism, I suggest.
Who controls the Rafah crossing?
Israel, in effect. Their consent is required to anything going through it now
‘Planned famine’ – Israel deliberately starting tens of thousands of people?
You are despicable in your choice of language.
I am quoting a reputable international organisation.
What is your problem with that?
And we are taking millions, not tens of thousands.
‘Poorly informed’? ‘Anti semitic’? ‘rants’?
30,000 deaths, pictures of tiny starving children, 60% of all buildings destroyed, all hospitals and schools destroyed or inoperable and reports from all the NGO’s and international agencies on the ground evidencing starvation and spreading infection .
Is this ‘poor information’?
Is it just that you cannot face up to the fact this is happening?
I also find it difficult to believe that human beings would do this do a whole defenceless civilian population.
But it is happening. And we are implicated – our government and opposition aiding and abetting.
None of the above is disputed, just the other stuff in Richard’s post which is untrue.
But it’s great that you’ve rushed to defend him by moving the goalposts.
I quoted an internationally reputable organisation.
You offered abuse and are clearly a seasoned troll.
Well, Holly Cartwright,
Yoav Gallant, Israeli Defence Minister, advocated a “complete siege of Gaza” and he stated that meant: “No electricity, no food, no water.”
Doing nothing is at best criminally negligent, or at worst, reflecting Gallant’s intent to deliberate starve the population, is equivalent to a genocidal act.
Article 55 of the 4th Geneva convention applies in Gaza and Israel is directly responsible for “ensuring the food and medical supplies of the population” and requires the occupier to “bring in the necessary foodstuffs, medical stores and other articles if the resources of the occupied territory are inadequate”. And they clearly are totally inadequate..
Seeking to cover genoicide in this way is what is truly despicable…
I would suggest that Richard’s post can only be considered antisemitic if one first presupposes that the Jewish community – i.e. Jews as an ethnic/religious group – are responsible for the actions of the Israeli government. That presupposition, if not itself antisemitic, is certainly grist to the mill of antisemites. Indeed I have actually seen it used that way.
If you believe Richard to be mistaken, then, instead of hurling insults, it would be more constructive to calmly point out where you think he has gone wrong and to cite the sources of your information.
Pretty much every agency working in the region supports the case that Israel is quite deliberately limiting supplies to the region. With starvation as one of the consequences. Ministers in the government have boasted about their intentions to cut Gaza off. See also Frances Coppola’s piece on substack today:
https://coppolacomment.substack.com/p/is-gaza-starving/comments
To dismiss such comments as anti-Semitism profoundly undermines efforts to tackle genuine anti-Semitism. It deeply alienates those of moderate, liberal views who deeply object to any form of discrimination or racism against any group. No doubt those brave Israeli NGO’s like +972 and B’tselem are also anti-Semites, along Jewish groups outside Israel who have long recognised the brutalisation of the Palestinian population.
What Israel has shown is that any group given unlimited power over another is capable of dehumanising a minority that has minimal power. Any student of conflict and terrorism will point out that this is a recipe for breeding terrorism, as the only choice available, however desperate and despicable the acts that follow. Be it Ireland, South Africa … or Israel.
Thank you Robin
According to Haaretz this morning (21/3), the execrable Israeli spokesman Eylon Levy has been suspended by the Israeli Government for tweeting , ‘there are NO limits on the entry of food, water, medicine, or shelter equipment into Gaza, and in fact the crossings have EXCESS capacity’ as even they can’t accept such lies.
I have noted…
They have found their limit, but only when it comes to official misinformation
Haaretz are worth keeping an eye on, along with +972 and B’tselem for the alternative perspective from inside Israel.
I no longer believe anything Israeli mouthpieces say and I suspect I am not alone. Time and time again they have been shown to be lying and where supplies to Gaza are concerned, the evidence is overwhelming.
Firstly, re ‘Leo Epstein’s’ comment (Or maybe it’s Melanie Phillips?),
Having been a reader of your blog here for many years, Richard you clearly do not rant and you do not do antisemitism. Of course, there are multiple entry points into the Gaza Occupied Palestinian Territory but essential supplies (Required pre-Oct’23 circa 500 trucks per day) are being so substantially throttled by Israel, the Occupying Power, aided and abetted by illegal settler presence at crossing points that, as Richard’s post points out, catastrophic famine is now in prospect, a situation grossly exacerbated by the massive destruction of Gaza’s desalination infrastructure and, thus, severely restricted potable water supplies.
Meanwhile, the UK has yet to restore funding to UNRWA.
Secondly, re Andrew’s point – a couple of things at least.
Civil society activism in the UK has seriously cramped the Israeli armaments company, Elbit Systems operations in the UK, which supply lethal drone systems, and which the UK government allows exports to Israel.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5Y6FFaLmFqc
The UK may also be complicit in war crimes and ‘plausible genocide’ from servicing aspects of the Israeli F-35 bombing campaign by affording access to Britain’s military air base in Cyprus.
https://www.declassifieduk.org/uk-refuses-to-say-if-israeli-bomber-planes-are-using-its-cyprus-base/
With the ICJ’s ruling, Israel is now on track for being tried for genocide, it’s possible some form of civil class action within the UK could help to shock our rulers into grasping their exposure for being held account for complicity in genocide.
Third & last point. For Richard, there is an excellent comment piece from the veteran US intelligence analyst, Ray McGovern, about the prospect of famine in Gaza from the Irish perspective of famine given Biden’s ancestry, and usefully more. I found it poignant.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9bz37gyDQ9g&list=UUkF-6h_Zgf9zXNUmUB-MzTw&index=4
I’m obliged for your post Richard, it & the graphics will be shared.
Interesting that Richard We the People should mention Melanie Phillips. I watched in horror as that ghastly woman spouted Israeli propaganda on behalf of her country of residence on Question Time. Melanie Phillips tried to convince the audience that no food shortages exist in Gaza and the markets are full of produce! This disgraceful lie stands in stark contradiction to the appalling facts on the ground, as reported by the UN and multiple agencies with direct knowledge of the situation. Melanie Phillips’s truly sickening fabrication was rarely challenged by Fiona Bruce. She let Melanie Phillips dominate the panel discussion, with minimal audience input, which gave the false impression that this warped perspective represents the majority of UK public opinion.
Fiona Bruce’s pro Israel biased lack of intervention became even more distressing when Tory MP Lee Rowley weighed in with comprehensive disproven accusations that included ‘beheadings’ committed by Hamas on their 7th October raid. Remember the shock news of those ‘forty beheaded babies’? According to official Israeli death records, ‘one baby was caught in the crossfire’, but not beheaded. When the public consistently hear blatent lies from our polititians and public figures, unchallenged by a BBC moderator, the most shocking aspects of fake news will help justify our Government’s vile support for this ongoing genocide. Watch this Question Time episode for yourself and consider contacting the BBC to lodge a complaint regarding Bruce’s disgraceful lack of intervention to clarify the facts: that is her job.
If (when) the ICJ finds Israel guilty of genocide then I believe anyone can bring a prosecution against London ministers. That is because the Genocide Convention was adopted into English Law as the Genocide Act. So complicity is an English offence and subject to English courts. That makes it much simpler and cheaper.
The air drops are pathetic, and just for show, but maybe every little helps if you are on the receiving end.
With Ashkelon, a fully functioning container port, just up the coast, the attempts to float small quantities of aid to pontoons with all the difficulties of delivery safely onto land, is also pretty well a charade.
It highlights just how little influence the US has over Israel, and how little room for manouvre Biden has left himself. How disgraceful that ‘our’ government continues to send arms to Israel, a nuclear power, and then refers to the pro Palestinian gatherings as “hate marches”.
What else can the UK public do? Well, write to your local MP for starters – and then, if necessary, again and again.
Yet again the UK on the wrong side of history, and how tragic for everyone in Israel and occupied Palestine, that not enough has been done since ’48 or ’67 to create a sustainable future for both countries. Lulled into torpor.
Too much of what I see in Gaza is redolent of what I’ve seen in the black and white films of the Jews in ghettos under the Nazis.
It makes me really, really uncomfortable.
And sometimes the attitude from some members of the Jewish community – along the lines of ‘No one could have possibly suffered more than us’ is just unbelievable and in fact unacceptable.
This has not changed my attitude to the Jewish community nor made me sceptical of their own suffering.
I just find it all horrible in equal measure.
If you are in Berlin, the Jewish Museum is well worth a visit – very powerful. A section that struck us was a long series of banners which show all the laws and regulations that steadily discriminated against Jews, excluded them from society and led to their being dehumanised.
And afterwards we thought that it reflected just what Israelis have done to Palestinians over the last 70+ years.
Then there was the visit to Dachau and realising that it was just outside Munich. People knew. But had been conditioned not to care any more. Just as most Israelis have ignored what has been happening right under their eyes. And Israeli media chooses to show them nothing of the slaughter in Gaza. Just their ‘brave’ soldiers.
If Israelis and their supporters in the wider Jewish community find that uncomfortable, then so they should. Jonathan Glazer was right in what he said in his speech.
I have nit been to the Berlin museum but I have to Dachau
And I agree with you
I also thought Jonathan Glazer was right
When in Berlin, we went to the Wannsee house, where the ‘final solution’ was agreed.
It is a deceptively lovely area next to a lake – rather lovely to walk through and around – a bit posh and well to do, lots of yachting.
There is an excellent holocaust display at the house with contributions we’d never seen before that added a bit more depth to our knowledge.
We went to an excellent coffee shop after our visit and mulled it all over.
Berlin is a fascinating and vigorous place, but I cannot help but feel that a pall of evil still hangs over the city.
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2024/mar/20/world-bank-report-finds-imminent-risk-of-catastrophic-famine-in-gaza-strip?CMP=Share_iOSApp_Other
Perhaps the World Bank are full of anti-semites too… When it’s only the Israeli government claiming otherwise, even their most ardent supporters ought to be asking themselves some tough questions.
Interestingly the Gaza maritime route (yet another way to delay/prevent aid getting through and when it’s built, all the “security” inspections of cargo will take place in Cyprus – so many opportunities for further delays – with the IDF controlling the port in Gaza) was actually Bibi’s idea. Biden is just following instructions: https://www.jpost.com/international/article-791239
A good and rather forensic analysis how western media built and supports the case for Israel’s actions in Gaza (note: a long read, with many examples:
https://www.jonathan-cook.net/2024-03-20/media-genocide-gaza/
A thorough debunking of the NY Times “Screams without Words” story which had such an emotional impact at the time when support for Israel was starting to wane:
https://theintercept.com/2024/02/28/new-york-times-anat-schwartz-october-7/
A long but fascinating piece by Pankaj Mishra, who incidentally finds links between Hindu Nationalism and Zionism, and which contains this interesting gem about Biden:
“A strenuously willed affiliation with the Shoah has also marked and diminished much American journalism about Israel. More consequentially, the secular-political religion of the Shoah and the over-identification with Israel since the 1970s has fatally distorted the foreign policy of Israel’s main sponsor, the US. In 1982, shortly before Reagan bluntly ordered Begin to cease his ‘holocaust’ in Lebanon, a young US senator who revered Elie Wiesel as his great teacher met the Israeli prime minister. In Begin’s own stunned account of the meeting, the senator commended the Israeli war effort and boasted that he would have gone further, even if it meant killing women and children. Begin himself was taken aback by the words of the future US president, Joe Biden. ‘No, sir,’ he insisted. ‘According to our values, it is forbidden to hurt women and children, even in war … This is a yardstick of human civilisation, not to hurt civilians.’”
Note: not paywalled: https://www.lrb.co.uk/the-paper/v46/n06/pankaj-mishra/the-shoah-after-gaza
See also Al Jazeera’s just released documentary on October 7 (requires sign in):
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_0atzea-mPY
This is the first article which mentions the subject of punishment. When this genocide comes to an end surely the perpetrators will not be allowed to carry on with their lives as before. Just as the Nuremberg Tribunals were created to try senior members of the Nazi Party there should a court set up to try those responsible for the terrible massacres of Palestinians. Those criminals must be punished severely .
As for a solution it is almost impossible to imagine the Palestinians living in peace with those who murdered whole families including babies, toddlers and young children in cold blood.
Israel’s actions are just what you would do if you want to guarantee another generation or more of people determined to find ways of getting revenge. A terror state breeds terrorism as any study of conflict and terror will tell you.
Unless of course you set out to eliminate that minority as a society. Which is just what Netanyahu’s ultra nationalist allies are openly arguing for.
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