Palestinians Starving to Death as Israel Continues to Obstruct Aid | Palestine Policy Roundup | Palestine Policy Roundup 05.27.25
Welcome to the Palestine Policy Roundup, a weekly publication of the IMEU Policy Project.
👀 ICYMI: MEMBERS OF CONGRESS SPEAK OUT
Rep. Rashida Tlaib: “Israeli forces have begun a full-scale invasion to ethnically cleanse all Palestinians from Gaza. War Criminal Netanyahu announced plans to forcibly expel the entire population and permanently occupy the land. This is the final stage of their genocide. World leaders must impose sanctions and a full arms embargo.”
Sen. Peter Welch speaking about his resolution calling on Israel to end its blockade on aid entering Gaza: “It’s not right for aid to be withheld as an instrument of war. And, regrettably, that appears to have been a decision that has been made by the Israeli government…That food that innocent Palestinians in Gaza need is right on the other side of the border. It’s there. All it needs is to be transported from where it is into Gaza and then distributed.”
Rep. Ayanna Pressley: “Over 2 million people are being intentionally deprived of food, water, medicine, and baby formula. Israel must allow aid into Gaza immediately. This genocide must end and the U.S. must stop being complicit.”
Rep. Summer Lee: “Israel is deliberately starving millions in Gaza, blocking food, baby formula, and aid. They are putting civilians and children at the brink of death. This man-made famine and genocide must end.”
Sen. Chris Van Hollen: “Two million Palestinians are starving. This is collective punishment that is clearly illegal under international law. And this other [aid distribution] idea that's been cooked up, either by the Israelis or by the Trump administration, is clearly not fit for purpose when it comes to trying to address this burgeoning famine. And all it will do is further allow food to be used as a weapon of the war.”
DC DEVELOPMENTS
❌ REPUBLICANS BLOCK PASSAGE OF SENATE RESOLUTION CALLING FOR END TO ISRAEL’S STARVATION OF GAZA
Last week, Senator Peter Welch requested unanimous consent to pass his resolution calling for the delivery of humanitarian aid to Gaza, but was blocked by Senate Republicans. The resolution is supported by every Democratic and independent senator except John Fetterman. It calls on the Trump administration to use every diplomatic tool available to end Israel’s blockade of humanitarian aid entering Gaza.
IN THE NEWS
🌐 INTERNATIONAL LEADERS DENOUNCE ISRAEL’S INVASION OF GAZA, WEAPONIZATION OF STARVATION
The leaders of the United Kingdom, France, and Canada issued a joint statement last week denouncing Israel’s invasion of Gaza and its continued virtual blockade of humanitarian aid into the area. The statement called for Israel to cease its operations in Gaza, to allow aid into Gaza, and for a ceasefire. If Israel does not take these actions, the leaders promised to take more “concrete actions” in response.
The statement also correctly points out that the permanent forced displacement of Palestinians in Gaza and Israel’s denial of aid to Palestinians in Gaza are violations of international law. It also called on Israel to stop the expansion of its settlements in the West Bank, which are illegal under international law.
The United Kingdom took further action last week in response to Israel’s denial of aid to Palestinians in Gaza, suspending negotiations over a free trade deal with Israel and imposing sanctions on Israeli settlers and entities that support the expansion of Israel’s illegal settlements. Like the Biden administration’s sanctions, which were overturned by President Trump, the UK’s sanctions did not extend to Israeli Ministers Bezalel Smotrich and Itamar Ben-Gvir, two prominent promoters of Israeli colonization of Palestinian land.
Additionally, 17 of the European Union’s member states supported a measure to review the bloc’s economic agreement with Israel in response to its apparent violations of international law. In response to this proposal, Spanish Foreign Minister Jose Manuel Albares said: “We must consider sanctions, we must do everything, consider everything to stop this war.”
Several other nations, including Australia, Iceland, New Zealand, Spain, Norway, and more, joined statements urging Israel to end its use of starvation as a weapon of war. Several of these countries also criticized the US-backed plan to weaponize aid in Gaza as being inadequate to meet the dire needs of Palestinians.
This growing chorus of international condemnation of Israel’s invasion and blockade of Gaza highlights the apparent violations of international law being committed. However, while these statements and actions are steps in the right direction, Israel will continue its genocide of Palestinians in Gaza without significant pressure–especially from the United States. Members of Congress can put a stop to US complicity in Israel’s apparent war crimes by exercising their oversight authority over weapons transfers and ending shipments of weapons to Israel.
🌱 MAHMOUD KHALIL HOLDS SON FOR THE FIRST TIME AFTER ICE ATTEMPTED TO PREVENT CONTACT, TAKES STAND IN ASYLUM HEARING
Mahmoud Khalil, the former Columbia University student who is being detained by Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) over his speech and activism in support of Palestinian rights, held his son for the first time last week following an intervention by a federal judge. Mahmoud’s son Deen was born a little more than one month ago; Mahmoud could not attend the birth of his son due to ICE’s denial of his request for a temporary release from his detention.
Last Wednesday, ICE officials and the private prison contractor GEO Group refused to allow Khalil a contact visit with his wife, Noor Abdalla, and his son, in contravention of ICE’s own directives and federal policies which encourage contact between detained parents and their children. Khalil’s attorneys wrote in filings challenging this refusal to grant the visit that it was “further evidence of the retaliatory motive behind Mr. Khalil’s arrest and faraway detention.”
This visit happened on the same day that Khalil took the stand in an immigration hearing regarding his possible deportation and avenues to prevent it. Khalil’s testimony focused on his application for asylum and outlined the danger he would face if he were to be deported to Syria or Algeria, where he has citizenship, in part due to his activism in support of Palestinian rights. Judge Jamee Comans did not issue a decision last week and gave both the federal government and Khalil’s legal team until June 2 to submit closing statements.
🔑 KEY TAKEAWAY: Mahmoud Khalil told the court: “I spent a good time of my life fleeing from harm, advocating for the marginalized to have rights. That's what put me in danger. Israel is committing genocide. America is funding that genocide. Columbia is investing in it. That is what I was protesting. This is what I will continue to protest. This is what everyone should protest. This is where our efforts should go.”
PALESTINE/ISRAEL DEVELOPMENTS
🏠 ISRAEL KILLS NINE CHILDREN OF PEDIATRICIAN IN STRIKE ON THEIR HOME AS PALESTINIANS ARE DISPLACED BY INVASION, BOMBING CAMPAIGN
An Israeli strike on the home of Dr. Alaa al-Najjar, a pediatrician who was treating victims of other Israeli attacks at the Nasser Medical Complex in southern Gaza, killed nine of her ten children. Her husband, Dr. Hamdi al-Najjar, had just arrived at their home when it was reportedly struck by two Israeli missiles, which caused the building to collapse. He remains in critical condition.
Dr. Alaa rushed home and watched as Palestinian rescue workers pulled the charred and dismembered remains of her children from the rubble of her home. In total, rescue workers recovered the bodies of seven of the children–Rakan, Ruslan, Jubran, Eve, Rivan, Luqman, and Sidra–with two other children, Yahya and Sayden, still missing and presumed dead. The sole surviving child, Adam, was critically wounded.
The strike on the al-Najjar home was one of a series of Israeli attacks on Khan Younis after the Israeli military issued forced displacement orders for the area last week. This order, which reportedly warned that the area would become dangerous due to Israeli attacks, has forced thousands of Palestinians to flee to the so-called humanitarian zone in al Mawasi. This displacement order covered at least 80% of the area of Khan Younis, including shelters for Palestinians already displaced by Israel’s assault on Gaza.
🔑 KEY TAKEAWAY: Journalist Donya Abu Sitta described the scene in Khan Younis in an article published by Drop Site News: “The scenes of mass displacement on Monday resembled a flock of birds moving together without any distance between them and with a persistent hunger gnawing at their insides. The roar of warplanes blended with the buzzing of drones. Families carried whatever belongings they could: torn mattresses, dusty blankets, ripped bags, and children. So many children. Some walked barefoot, while others dragged their school bags filled with clothes. Some carried empty water bottles. People filled the streets.”
As the Israeli military carried out its attacks on Khan Younis last week, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu reaffirmed his commitment to the violent military control of Gaza by Israel after this invasion. In a press conference, he said that the implementation of President Donald Trump’s ethnic cleansing proposal is a condition to end its assault on Palestinians in Gaza–once again making clear that the purpose of this invasion is the forcible transfer and displacement of Palestinians from Gaza.
🍎 PALESTINIANS ARE DYING FROM STARVATION AS ISRAEL LARGELY MAINTAINS BLOCKADE OF AID ENTERING GAZA
29 Palestinian children and elderly people died of starvation over two days last week as Israel allowed only a trickle of aid in the first deliveries of aid to the territory in nearly three months. More than 300 Palestinians have starved to death or been killed by lack of medicine since Israel began its blockade on March 2.
While Israel has allowed very limited amounts of aid into Gaza, as of last week, much of it has not been distributed due to Israeli restrictions on distribution and Israel’s displacement of Palestinians. Israel also continues to allow very little aid into Gaza–as of last Thursday, only 300 total trucks had made it into Gaza since the announcement was made the previous Monday. By comparison, 500 trucks of aid were allowed into Gaza every day before Israel began its genocide there and more than 600 trucks were allowed in during the ceasefire before Israel broke it.
Aid organizations and agencies have criticized Israel’s continued obstruction of aid. World Food Programme Director Cindy McCain called the amount of aid Israel is allowing into Gaza “a drop in the bucket”, while UN aid official Tom Fletcher characterized the amount as “a drop in the ocean of what is urgently needed”, calling for more aid to be allowed in.
In a video announcing the trickle of aid into Gaza, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu explained that his decision is focused on shoring up US support as Israel pursues its long-standing plan for the ethnic cleansing of Palestinians from Gaza. Israeli Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich also used the same logic in announcing his support of the decision. In separate remarks to the press, Netanyahu also confirmed that the US-backed weaponization of food will be used to trap Palestinians in a part of southern Gaza. They would then not be allowed to leave and would be vulnerable to being ethnically cleansed outside of Gaza.
Over the weekend, Jake Wood resigned from his position as the executive director of the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation–the organization charged with carrying out the US and Israel-backed weaponization of food that would concentrate Palestinians into ghettos in southern Gaza. Wood wrote in a statement: “it is clear that it is not possible to implement this plan while also strictly adhering to the humanitarian principles of humanity, neutrality, impartiality, and independence, which I will not abandon.”
Wood’s statement aligns with the critiques provided by many other humanitarian organizations, which have warned that the plan would allow Israel to further weaponize aid. UN officials have warned that this plan is geared toward luring Palestinians into southern Gaza–by distributing food at limited distribution centers there–presumably with the intention of pushing them into Egypt.
Israel is still clearly using starvation as a method of warfare–a war crime. Israel’s trickle of aid does not absolve it of its apparent violations of international law or violations of US laws such as Section 620I of the Foreign Assistance Act. Members of Congress should continue to call for the unrestricted delivery of aid to Palestinians in Gaza while also holding Israel accountable for its apparent violations of law.
Photo: RomanDeckert, Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 4.0 International