How much food is getting into Gaza versus how much should be: A rough estimate
Polygraph | Newsletter n°249 | 29 May 2024
*Check out my latest article in Jacobin: “Israel’s priority is killing Gazans, not freeing hostages”
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Situation
Israel responded to the ICJ’s order to halt its invasion of Rafah by bombing Rafah 60 times in 48 hours. Before one widely-reported attack, the Israeli army instructed displaced Palestinians to move to a designated “safe area” before bombing that same area. In the attack, Israel used US-made GBU-39 munitions (Biden has approved the transfer of at least 1,000 of these bombs to Israel since October), which struck tents for displaced Palestinians, burning many of them alive. Women and children make up most of the dead and wounded. I’ve run out of words at this point, but I’ve got no shortage of grief.
The ICJ also ordered Israel to “open the Rafah crossing for unhindered provision at scale of urgently needed basic services and humanitarian assistance.” Israel had closed it (and the Kerem Shalom crossing) earlier this month as part of its invasion of Rafah. Israel continues to block food and other aid from getting into Gaza through this vital access point. Reuters reported that “food and medicine for Palestinians in Gaza are piling up in Egypt because the Rafah crossing remains closed.” Inside Gaza, famine is imminent everywhere it isn’t already happening.
What’s next
Biden is committed to enabling Israel’s genocide in Gaza but wants to appear as a humanitarian while doing it. This is why I think over the coming days and weeks the White House will try to make its “efforts” to reopen the Rafah border crossing the center of the conversation. Otherwise the media’s main focus will be on the increasingly visible and horrific carnage caused by Biden’s “no red lines” policy, which as far as individual US policies go, is the most straightforwardly evil one I’ve ever seen.
Of course, Biden could use his leverage to force Israel to reopen the crossing like that (I just snapped my fingers to indicate the speed at which this could be accomplished) but I suspect the administration will turn it into a multi-week drama to make people think it’s working tirelessly to get food to starving Palestinians. The reason the Palestinians are starving in the first place will be talked about as if it was an act of God, and the reason the border’s closed will be characterized as a logistical issue.1
Context
Israel wasn't letting enough food into Gaza before it closed the Rafah crossing, either.
From January to March of this year, monthly food imports into Gaza are virtually identical to the monthly average in 2022. Graduates of the AIPAC school of genocide denial will say this is proof Israel isn’t blocking food from getting into Gaza, but it proves the exact opposite. Why? Because the food needs of Palestinians are way higher now than they were two years ago. The UN’s coordinated humanitarian response plan for Palestine in 2022 implemented $226 million for food security and nutrition. Required funding for those sectors in 2024 stands at $1.1 billion.2
Based on this increase in needs, below is a rough estimate of how many truckloads of food should be going into Gaza each month compared to what the actual monthly average is this year. If Israel wasn’t intentionally starving Palestinians in Gaza, the number of truckloads of food entering Gaza would be at least five times higher than it is now. The problem isn't logistics or food supply — it’s Biden’s politics.
^Alt text for screen readers: Israel refuses to let enough food into Gaza. Food imports into Gaza expressed in truckloads per month. First column: 2024 average (January through March), 2,900. Second column: What the 2024 average should be (based on needs), 14,200. Data: UN OCHA. Actual and projected figures refer to food imports through the Rafah and Kerem Shalom border crossings.
SPECIAL THANKS TO:
Alan F., Andrew R., Bart B., BeepBoop, Bill S., Byron D., Chris G., David S., David V., Francis M., Irene B., George C., Jerry S., Joseph B., Linda B., Lora L., Marie R., Mark G., Matthew H., Megan., Meghan W., Nick B., Omar D., Peter M., Philip L., Springseep, Theresa A., Tony L., Tony T.
Join them here:
-Stephen (@stephensemler; stephen@securityreform.org). Follow me on Bluesky.
Name something establishment Democrats love more than pretending there’s a technocratic solution to a political problem.
A few reasons why this $1.1 billion should be considered the floor, courtesy of a friend of mine who works in the humanitarian sector: “There’s no slack in the system”; “Food stores are exhausted”; “Fields and means of producing more food have been eradicated”; “Fields are full of [unexploded ordnance]”; “The best farm lands are in Israel’s new buffer zone.”