As food security collapses in Gaza a damning report by Amnesty International has found sufficient basis to conclude that Israeli authorities committed, and continue to commit prohibited acts under the Genocide Convention.

Last week, we published ‘Killing Long After They Fall’ #Gaza, and the report from the Danish Refugee Council. People are being killed in Gaza not only through the bombardment of civilian places of shelter and medical facilities, but also through starvation and disease. Israel’s disruption and delaying of humanitarian aid, the targeting of aid workers, are deliberate actions which result in thousands of more civilian deaths.

The IPC (The Integrated Food Security Phase Classification, the world’s foremost expert group assessing the risks of famine) reported in September 2024 that ” there are growing concerns that this worst-case scenario may materialize.”

And that “About 60,000 cases of acute malnutrition among children aged 6 to 59 months, including 12,000 severe cases, are expected to occur between September 2024 and August 2025.”

The risk of Famine between November 2024 and April 2025 persists as long as conflict continues, and humanitarian access is restricted. The extreme concentration of population in an ever-shrinking area, living in improvised shelters with intermittent access to humanitarian supplies and services, elevates the risk of epidemic outbreaks and deterioration into a catastrophe of unprecedented magnitude. Attacks on camps, shelters and infrastructure across the Gaza strip, as well as renewed evacuation orders in North Gaza in the past two weeks, are already increasing the likelihood of this worst-case scenario occurring. IPC Report

In November  90 per cent of aid trucks – 98 of 109 – were looted at Kerem Shalom/Karem Abu Salem. When food aid gets through large crowds of desperate and starving people results in further tragedies. On 29 November, two young girls and one woman suffocated to death while queuing among large crowds to get bread at a bakery supported by the World Food Programme (WFP) in Deir al Balah. 

Gaza has the highest number of child amputees in the world for its population size, but as reported by OCHA, “at the current rate of medical evacuations, it would take seven years to rescue 2,500 children in urgent need of medical evacuation,” and some children have died while waiting for approvals.  Amputations have taken place without anaesthetics being administered because there were none.

“In addition to the damage or destruction to Gaza’s health facilities, other deliberate actions by Israeli forces contributed to the effective collapse of Gaza’s healthcare system. “Amnesty International

The actions taken by the Israeli government against the civilian population are deliberate and will knowingly lead to thousands of additional deaths. As winter sets in inadequate shelter has left 945,000 people at risk of exposure to the cold and wet conditions.

Conditions in North Gaza are described as a “total catastrophe” with many people trapped under rubble for days until they die of their injuries or due to the lack of food and water.

In Orkney, across Scotland, the UK, and throughout the world , people have been demonstrating and calling for an immediate ceasefire in Gaza. These demonstrations, many of which are tens of thousands strong, have been ongoing now for over a year and largely go unreported.

Today, Saturday 7th December islanders in Orkney will again meet on the Kirk Green, Broad Street, between 1 and 2pm in a vigil they have been holding for the people of Gaza since October 2023. It is unprecedented in the history of Orkney for there to be such a sustained public demonstration on the streets of the town. That in itself is testament to the strength of feeling the islanders have in their calls for an immediate ceasefire, the return of all hostages, and the unhindered delivery of humanitarian aid. In a month when songs of peace and goodwill ring out in shops and all around us those standing in vigil in Orkney welcome all those who wish to join them in calling for an end to the slaughter in Gaza,

“My body survived but my spirit died with my children, it was crushed under the rubble with them.” Ahmad Nasman, whose parents, sister, wife and three children were killed in an Israeli air strike on 14 December 2023

Fiona Grahame