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Gaza: This Isn’t Complicated: Starving People Is a War Crime

Gaza: This Isn’t Complicated: Starving People Is a War Crime

Last updated on: May 19, 2025 at 12:09 am by Rob Dalrymple

Gaza: This Isn’t Complicated: Starving People Is a War Crime 2025-05-18T21:42:33-08:00 Rob Dalrymple

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Hunger

Using hunger against civilians as a weapon of war is a war crime. Image by Pete Linforth from Pixabay

Suppose a report surfaced showing that a local penitentiary refused to feed the prisoners on death row. Would we be outraged? Well, I hope we would be.

Of course, some would attempt to say they don’t deserve food because of what they did. Others might say that giving them food is a waste. After all, they are going to die soon anyway.

Our outrage at the starvation of prisoners on death row should not be diminished just because they have been convicted of serious crimes.

Let me ask, “What if one of the inmates who was being starved to death was your child?

Now, let’s suppose that we learned that the Ukrainians were not feeding any of the Russian prisoners of war. Would we be outraged?

Again, I would hope so.

I can imagine that some would incredulously defend the Ukrainians for doing so on the pretense that the Russians started the war by invading Ukraine, and so the Russian soldiers deserved it.

NB: My great uncle was a POW in Nazi Germany during WWII. Oh, the stories he would tell me. He once remarked that there are rules of warfare relating to how POWs are to be treated. He told of a time that he and everyone in his prison camp were handcuffed to their beds for days because the Germans learned that the Allies handcuffed German POW’s.

Would it make a difference if the above scenario were reversed? If it were the Russians who were not feeding Ukrainian soldiers?

Well, it shouldn’t.

How then can we allow Israel, with the US’s support, to starve 2 million people in Gaza?

Oh, I forgot, Hamas started the war. Silly me. This whole post is a waste of everyone’s time.

Of course, the people of Gaza deserve to starve to death. Of course, Israel and the US are justified in depriving them of food, water, and medicines. They deserve to die this way.

How asinine!

I will not even waste my time giving a response to the assertion that it is okay because Hamas started the war. It doesn’t matter who started the war. You cannot starve civilians. You cannot starve men and women on death row. You cannot starve POW’s.

You cannot starve them, Sam I am!

This isn’t hard. This doesn’t take a law degree. It doesn’t require 20 years of experience in international relations.

Israel’s Ambassador to the UN of Starving Gaza

This is a transcript of a Sky News report. It begins with a report from Tom Fletcher, a UN Emergency Relief Coordinator, “We have briefed this council in great detail on the extensive civilian harm that we witness daily, death, injury, destruction, hunger, disease, torture, other cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment. We have described the deliberate obstruction of aid operations and the systematic dismantling of Palestinian life. This degradation of international law is corrosive and infectious. It is undermining decades of progress on rules to protect civilians from inhumanity and the violent and lawless among us.”

A Sky News reporter then cuts in and addresses Israeli UN Ambassador Danny Dannon, “He goes on to say, ‘Stop the 21st century atrocity in Gaza. Will you act now decisively to prevent genocide in Gaza and to ensure respect for international humanitarian law?’ I just want to get your reaction to what Tom Fletcher was saying.”

Dannon responds, “We are in this war because of Hamas, period. If you want to blame somebody, blame Hamas.”

The reporter then replies, “Ambassador Dalton. I am not talking about Hamas, a terrorist organization. I am talking about you, the State of Israel, as a responsible actor. For the last 19 months, the world has been watching the way that you have prosecuted this conflict, the way that aid has been prevented from reaching the most needy. In the last two months, 73 days, we have seen that there have been no there has been no aid that has entered Gaza. So while you can deflect and say that this is Hamas’ responsibility, at the end of the day, you are the governing power in Gaza, you have a responsibility to ensure that there is no famine and starvation in Gaza, which is what the world, including your allies and partners, are now accusing you of. And it’s gone beyond accusation. They are saying that they are seeing it in real time take place.”

To which Ambassador Dannon incredulously remarks, “The only starvation in Gaza is starvation of the hostages.”

What? Excuse me? You can’t be that crazy?

My response to Ambassador Dannon is quite simple: “You do realize that Israel is the one who is starving them?

I’ve made a couple of Facebook posts over the last few days to the effect that nothing justifies starving the people of Gaza. And I have received similar responses. All I can say in response is, “Please, think about it.”

I know you might support Israel in all this. But there is no humane answer except to condemn the starvation of civilians.

Of course, there is one way to justify starving the people of Gaza. It is the way of the empire. Empires begin with propaganda. They consistently portray their enemy as the other, as less than human, as those not worthy of life.

The US did that with the Native Americans. We slaughtered them because they were “savages”–this is encoded in the Declaration of Independence.

And now, Israel, with the US’s backing, is doing the same to the people of Gaza.

“But,” you might say, “Israel is at war with Gaza.” Folks, Israel is not at war with civilians.

NB: A word about the title. My colleague Danny Hall likes to say, “That’s complicated.” And he is correct in doing so. Most issues are far more complicated than we care to admit. Of course, I sometimes recoil at this expression because I hear it from people who have just lost an argument and don’t want to admit it. So, they resort to, “Well, it’s complicated.” I’d love to respond by reminding them, “Sure, it may be complicated, but you are still wrong.”

When it comes to starving civilians, I’m sure Danny would agree, “This is not complicated.”

What can we do?

I highly recommend subscribing to the CMEP newsletter and action alerts at CMEP.org/action-alerts/. CMEP does a fantastic job of sending user-friendly alerts that enable you to contact your representative in a matter of a few clicks when important measures arise.

Also, follow this link to [email protected] (US Campaign for Palestinian Rights). They have a user-friendly system set up so that once you give them your address, they will call you, and you push a few buttons on your phone, and it calls your Congresspersons for you. It took me 3 minutes to call both my Senators and my Congressperson.

TELL OTHERS! And do not delay. The people of Gaza are on day 75 of Israel’s complete blockade of food, water, and medicine. They don’t have time for us to “get around to it.”

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About Rob Dalrymple

Rob Dalrymple is married to his wife Toni and is the father of four fabulous children, and two grandchildren. He has been teaching and pastoring for over 34 years at colleges, seminaries, and the local church. He has a PhD in biblical interpretation. He is the author of six books (including Follow the Lamb: A Guide to Reading, Understanding, and Applying the Book of Revelation & Understanding the New Testament and the End Times: Why it Matters) as well as numerous articles and other publications. His commentary on the book of Revelation titled, “Revelation: a Love Story” (Cascade Books, July 2024) is making waves in the scholarly world. His latest book, Land of Contention: Biblical Narratives and the Struggle for the Holy Land discussed the role of the church in peacemaking in the light of the war on Gaza and the struggles in the West Bank and is available now on Amazon or wherever you get your books (hopefully somewhere besides Amazon!) You can read more about the author here.

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