Aiko Nishikida: The Humanitarian Crisis in the Israel-Gaza War

2024/04/09

Image: People enjoying a swim at a beach in Gaza (2004, Photo by Rika Fujiya)

Famine is beginning to become a problem in the Gaza Strip. Five months have passed since the start of the fighting, and in Gaza, where logistics are more strictly restricted than ever before, there is a shortage of the minimum food necessary for survival, safe drinking water, medicine, and fuel required for power generation. Reports show children gathering with empty pots for meager food rations, taking home soup with sparse potatoes floating in it. In Gaza, where many families are large, these amounts are far from sufficient. In fact, people have already begun to lose their lives to malnutrition and dehydration in the Gaza Strip, and according to the AP, the number has risen to over 20 as of March 9.

The shortage of supplies is particularly severe in the northern Gaza Strip. Although evacuation orders were issued, more than 300,000 people remain in the north, including those who were unable to move on their own. When trucks carrying aid supplies arrive, crowds reportedly swarm the trucks before they even stop, looting the cargo. On February 20, the WFP (World Food Programme) announced a temporary suspension of food deliveries to the northern Gaza Strip, stating that staff could no longer endure the "complete chaos and violence due to the collapse of civil order."

Two weeks later, WFP trucks that had resumed aid were blocked by the Israeli military, held at a checkpoint for three hours, and ultimately forced to turn back. Accidents have also begun to occur where parachutes for air-dropped aid supplies failed to open properly, striking and killing civilians on the ground. In the first place, air drops cannot deliver sufficient quantities with proper distribution. In response to this emergency where aid is not reaching the people, the United States and the EU are moving forward with concrete plans to install a pier at Gaza port and bring in aid supplies by ship from Cyprus.

Since the outbreak of war on October 7, attacks involving civilians have continued in the Gaza Strip. The death toll has already exceeded 30,000, with more than 70,000 injured—a situation that can only be described as a humanitarian crisis. It was pointed out from the beginning that if urban warfare began in Gaza, known as one of the world's most densely populated areas, many civilian casualties would occur. This was already evident in the four previous conflicts that have repeated since the 2000s. This current conflict can also be described as a military offensive carried out with full knowledge that it would involve civilians.

In the surprise attack on October 7 that triggered the war, Palestinian armed groups, including Hamas, took the lives of over a thousand Israeli civilians. The kibbutzim around the Gaza Strip that were attacked were communities with many liberal and secular citizens compared to the current radical Netanyahu administration. The attacks robbed even these Israelis of hope for dialogue and instead hardened Israeli public opinion. However, this must not serve as a free pass for killing civilians in Gaza. International law stipulates that there is an order to be maintained even during combat, and each crime must be judged and punished in its respective context. The cycle of retaliation must be stopped.

A characteristic of this conflict is that the people in the targeted areas are given almost no place to escape. When wars broke out in Afghanistan, Iraq, and Syria, many refugees fled across borders to neighboring countries. However, in this attack on Gaza, very few people have been able to flee to neighboring countries. This is because neighboring Egypt has refused to accept Palestinian refugees and has closed its border. This stems from a wariness toward a situation where, once accepted, they would be forced to allow the stay of refugees for whom return becomes difficult. In fact, since the founding of Israel, refugees who cannot return have continued to live in Jordan and Lebanon for nearly 80 years. Egypt fears following the same path, and as of March 10, a new refugee crisis has not yet occurred.

However, amid the daily repeated bombings, people who have evacuated multiple times are exhausted and reaching their limits. Many people, such as the elderly with chronic illnesses and those injured in attacks, wish to evacuate from the Gaza Strip, even if only temporarily. What blocks them is the wall of strict border procedures. To leave the Gaza Strip, one must cross the Rafah crossing, but since the start of the war, those allowed to cross have been almost limited to severely ill patients requiring emergency treatment or those with dual citizenship holding foreign passports. In a sense, a state of de facto discrimination based on nationality is occurring.

It is extremely difficult for those who only hold Palestinian Authority passports to cross, and brokers who take advantage of their vulnerability by demanding high travel fees to assist in smuggling are rampant. Many people remain trapped in the Gaza Strip where fighting continues. It is said that in some cases, the foreign ministries of countries where people wish to travel intervene to place names on the list of those wishing to cross into Egypt. Some have family in Japan and wish to travel there, but passing through Rafah is difficult. With no prospect of a ceasefire and the Gaza Strip in a humanitarily dire situation, all countries are called upon to exhaust all possible means to save as many lives as possible.