From the NYT: After Hamas led a deadly attack on Israel on Oct. 7, Israeli officials declared a siege of Gaza, and they have severely restricted the entry of humanitarian aid, saying they do not want it to help Hamas. From October to early May, the daily number of aid trucks entering the territory through the two main crossing points in southern Gaza dropped by around 75 percent, according to U.N. data, and reports of hunger and malnourishment have been widespread. I am not sure what the claim is here. If the idea is that Hamas will get political credit if people do not starve, this is a totally unacceptable reason to withhold food. Maybe the worry is that Hamas will gain political leverage by monopolizing the distribution of food aid and
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Eric Kramer considers the following as important: food, Hot Topics, politics, US/Global Economics
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After Hamas led a deadly attack on Israel on Oct. 7, Israeli officials declared a siege of Gaza, and they have severely restricted the entry of humanitarian aid, saying they do not want it to help Hamas. From October to early May, the daily number of aid trucks entering the territory through the two main crossing points in southern Gaza dropped by around 75 percent, according to U.N. data, and reports of hunger and malnourishment have been widespread.
I am not sure what the claim is here. If the idea is that Hamas will get political credit if people do not starve, this is a totally unacceptable reason to withhold food. Maybe the worry is that Hamas will gain political leverage by monopolizing the distribution of food aid and distributing it only to loyalists. In this case why not just flood Gaza with basic foods – enough so that everyone can stock up and the price of food goes to zero. This would eliminate the ability of Hamas to benefit by monopolizing food distribution, no? In fact, why not flood Gaza with food even if this is not the concern, just as a precaution?
It’s hard to know what’s going on, but allowing people to starve should be unacceptable, full stop.