The ongoing starvation in Gaza is not a byproduct of war, it is a weapon of war. A quarter of Gaza’s population are experiencing famine, with the Integrated Food Security Phase Classification (IPC) classifying many areas as Phase 5 (Catastrophe). While Israel and its allies try to portray the starvation of Palestinians as an unintended side effect, it is the intentional outcome of their siege. Israel does not fail to facilitate aid, but actively blocks it. Nothing is clearer than their raids of the flotillas attempting to deliver lifesaving aid, or the targeting of civilians at distribution points. These sites have become scenes of massacres. It is Israel’s policy of stopping all aid even in the face of no military threat.
Several countries, such as the United States, Jordan, and France, have conducted airdrops of humanitarian aid from military aircrafts into Gaza. But these efforts, while extensively publicized, are largely symbolic. Not only are they completely ineffective, they are humiliating. Airdrops cannot replace the sustained flow of aid needed to support a starving population of over two million people. One truck contains on average 25 tons of aid, while an airdrop only carries 14 tons. These airdrops are about 35 times more expensive than land convoys. With thousands of trucks waiting just across the border, airdrops serve more as political cover than meaningful relief. It is an attempt to rewrite imperialist powers’ own complicity.
Recently, U.S. and other foreign politicians have made vague promises about a Palestinian state while actively aiding Israel with what it needs to continue this genocide.
The Soumoud Convoy, the Global March to Gaza, and various flotillas were all attempts to break the siege. These actions represent a vital reaffirmation of internationalism, in line with workers and students all over the world who have taken part in protests, encampments, and boycotts. They emphasize the necessity of grassroots power. Working-class people from all over the world have organized, taken part in protests and strikes, and created alliances rooted in mutual liberation.
Surrounding countries are complicit in the active starvation of Gazans. While Israel raids naval ships carrying aid, they rely on their Arab counterparts to suppress any actions of solidarity. For instance, the Soumoud convoy was blocked by Libya and the activists partaking in the Global March to Gaza were arrested and deported by Egypt. These restrictions point out a contradiction; Egypt presents itself as a regional peacebroker while it materially enforces the isolation of Gaza. Acts of solidarity from below not only challenge the Israeli siege but also expose the regional dynamics that sustain it, drawing attention to the hypocrisy of neighboring governments who prove themselves unwilling to act against the interests of Israel, and by extension, the United States and NATO.
Only a mass international movement — led by workers, youth, and the oppressed — can break the siege, defeat Zionism, and fight for a free, socialist Palestine from the river to the sea.
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