Forced starvation is widespread in Gaza and the death toll is rising, caused by Israel withholding food at the border. Still, Canada maintains a free trade agreement with Israel, allows weapons exports, and has not imposed widespread sanctions.
On Sunday, July 20, Palestinian journalist Abubaker Abed posted:
“People are falling in the streets like tree leaves in the autumn. Children are bones and [skulls], weeping for food and water. Journalists report on starvation while tears filling their eyes. What more atrocities does this world have to see to act? This is the darkest time ever.”
Since then, the situation has only gotten worse. One third of the 2.1 million people in Gaza aren’t eating for days at a time, and 90,000 women and children need urgent malnutrition treatment, according to the World Food Program on July 23.
Starting on May 27, the U.S.-backed Gaza Humanitarian Foundation (GHF) displaced other aid agencies to become the main provider of food aid in Gaza. It has delivered inadequate aid and around 900 Palestinians have been killed trying to access food from GHF, many of them shot by GHF security or the Israeli military.
Other aid agencies and media outlets have put out statements this week saying their staff in Gaza are also facing starvation. Agence France-Presse (AFP) says its journalists will soon die if aid is not let in or they are not evacuated.
Canada and 24 other nations put out a statement on Monday, July 21, calling “on the Israeli government to immediately lift restrictions on the flow of aid and to urgently enable the UN and humanitarian NGOs to do their life-saving work safely and effectively.”
Canada issued another similar statement on X (formerly Twitter) on July 23 saying “Israeli military operations against WHO [World Health Organization] staff and facilities, World Food Programme aid convoys, & the ongoing killing of Palestinians seeking urgently needed food and water are unacceptable.”
However, Canada has not imposed any new measures to pressure the Israeli government to stop starving Gaza. (more...)
No New Action from Canada as Israel Starves Gaza
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