“Starving Gaza”: Al Jazeera Film Shows U.S. Keeps Arming Israel as It Uses Hunger as a Weapon of War

AMY GOODMAN: This is Democracy Now!, democracynow.org, The War and Peace Report. I’m Amy Goodman, with Nermeen Shaikh.

NERMEEN SHAIKH: We turn now to Gaza, where human rights experts say a deliberate, man-made famine is underway. Last month, the U.N. special rapporteur on the right to food accused Israel of carrying out a starvation campaign in Gaza.

A new documentary by Al Jazeera English’s Fault Lines worked with Palestinian reporters to investigate how Israel has killed civilians seeking aid and attacked humanitarian networks in Gaza, and that the U.S. knows this is happening and has done nothing to stop it. In a minute, we’ll be joined by the filmmaker. We begin with a clip from Starving Gaza and a warning: This contains graphic images and descriptions. In this clip, we hear from a Palestinian doctor, Ahmed Nasser, who’s trying to save severely malnourished children in Kamal Adwan Hospital in Gaza.

DR. AHMED NASSER: [translated] I don’t think anyone in north Gaza has enough food to eat. We have a new malnutrition case. The number of cases is beyond the malnutrition clinic’s capacity.

HIND HASSAN: Every day, the cries of hungry children fill the halls of Kamal Adwan Hospital in north Gaza. Some children here at the malnutrition clinic have never known a full meal in their life. After the Hamas attacks on October 7th, Israel cut off fuel, food and water from Gaza. Within weeks, starvation had spread in the north. Israel doesn’t allow foreign journalists into Gaza, so we worked with Palestinian reporters who filmed for us at Kamal Adwan Hospital in June.

DR. AHMED NASSER: [translated] How often does he have fever?

ABDULAZIZ’S MOTHER: [translated] He had a high fever and diarrhea all night.

HIND HASSAN: Abdulaziz is 5 months old and starving. Dr. Ahmed Nasser has been taking care of him with what little resources the hospital has on hand.

ABDULAZIZ’S MOTHER: [translated] Should I be concerned? He had a fever for 20 days before I brought him to the hospital.

DR. AHMED NASSER: [translated] The situation is very serious. The child cannot absorb anything in his body. Anything that enters his body is excreted without benefit to him. His mother brought him to the hospital because the child was suffering from chronic diarrhea, vomiting and a high body temperature. Many times we were shocked to see 30 to 40 cases in one day for the same reason.

AMY GOODMAN: That’s part of the opening to the new Fault Lines documentary, Starving Gaza. And this is another clip. We hear from the parents of 2-year-old Khaled, who died of malnutrition in February, an otherwise healthy toddler before Israel began its Gaza assault.

HANAN ASSAF: [translated] It’s very difficult to lose your child because he was hungry. It’s hard.

HIND HASSAN: When famine starts, it takes the youngest first. It’s been five months since Hanan Assaf and her husband Muhammad buried their 2-year-old son Khaled. This is Khaled in happier times, before the war on Gaza and the starvation that followed.

HANAN ASSAF: [translated] This war destroyed everything — houses, people, trees, stones. Everything was destroyed. This was my youngest son’s room. The occupation forces burned it. They didn’t leave us a single memory. Nothing. The boy was fine. All of a sudden he started to cry all the time. He began eating less because there was no food. He was used to drinking milk and eating rice and fruits. But since the beginning of the war, it decreased until it completely ran out. There was nothing available at all except for wild greens. And the prices are unbelievable for whatever is there. The boy looked like a skeleton. He was gone. He was completely gone. I would hold him like a newborn. He stopped being able to sit up, move or walk. His body became very weak. I took him to Kamal Adwan Hospital. There was no medicine or treatment. On the last two days, he was on a ventilator.

HIND HASSAN: Khaled died of severe dehydration and malnutrition at Kamal Adwan Hospital on February 2nd, 2024.

AMY GOODMAN: Starving Gaza. For more, we’re joined in London by Hind Hassan, journalist, filmmaker, long covered Palestine and directed Starving Gaza for Fault Lines on Al Jazeera English.

Welcome, Hind, to Democracy Now! This is a horrifying documentary. If you can start off by talking about these devastating effects of this last year on Gaza? And then we’ll talk about the exposé of the U.S. suppressing its own reports on preventing humanitarian aid from getting in, Israel doing that.

HIND HASSAN: Thank you. And before I start through that, first of all, thank you for having the on the show, but I just want to say that I am a documentary filmmaker, I’m a journalist, but this documentary was made by many people — the director, you know, who’s Mark, who works at Fault Lines Al Jazeera, and all the other filmmakers that we had in Gaza, and their role is so central. And I think that’s what makes this documentary so unique, is that collaboration that we had with the filmmakers who were inside Gaza, so that they can showcase to the world the realities of what is happening in Gaza at the moment and also show just how skilled they are and the conditions that they are working in, and yet they are still producing these incredibly powerful documentaries and films.

And to your question, since October the 7th, we have seen the siege that already existed on Gaza increase, and as part of that, there has been a significant decrease in the amount of aid that has been able to get into Gaza. And as a result of that, we have seen a lot of children and women who were pregnant and newborns, toddlers and people suffering from malnutrition because they haven’t been able to get access to the necessary food or the aid that is needed for them to be able to live a healthy life. And as a result of that, we have seen numerous cases of children who have died as a result of malnutrition. But the number of deaths just touches the reality on the ground and the number of people who are being impacted by what’s happening.

And this documentary, what it does is it speaks to the victims on the ground. It talks to those individuals who have lost their children, who have had to struggle with not being able to provide milk or formula or food or have not been able — pregnant women who have not been able to provide the sustenance that babies need, doctors who are in the wards and who are trying to deal with the high number of victims that are coming in, with the patients that are coming in, showing you that day-to-day of what happens, and then also the search for accountability that you mentioned outside of Gaza, in the United States and in the United Kingdom, because, of course, we, as international journalists, have not been able to get into Gaza since October the 7th.

We have had to rely completely on our colleagues who are inside Gaza, who are not only working every single day, who don’t have a break, who can’t take a moment to try and gather themselves, but who are also — who have also been displaced, have lost family members, who have been through incredible trauma of their own, but yet they are still documenting other people’s trauma in order for us to understand the realities of what’s happening on the ground. Because we haven’t been able to go in and support our colleagues, we did what we could outside in order to support and showcase their work inside of Gaza.

NERMEEN SHAIKH: And, Hind, could you explain — I mean, you’ve said a little bit about this — how is it that you contacted people in Gaza, since, as you mentioned, Al Jazeera has not been there? Who were the filmmakers that you worked with?

HIND HASSAN: So, actually, I want to tell you a story about one of the filmmakers. We had many people who worked on the ground with us. We coordinated with people who were outside Gaza. It’s a full Palestinian team. So, there were people who were outside who helped us coordinate inside, and then we also worked alongside cameramen and cinematographers and directors of photography who were inside Gaza. It’s incredibly difficult. It’s not easy to do, because they are constantly dealing with a lack of data, lack of ability to be able to send footage over. And the internet is very patchy and is very difficult, so communication is tough for us to be able to get in — to communicate with them, let alone send that high-quality footage over to us. And on top of that, they’re dealing with daily bombardments, and they’re dealing with their own issues.

But there is our director of photography who is inside Gaza. His name is Hussien Jaber. When I learned about his story, I was completely shocked. And there’s not much that shocks us journalists that work on these stories, because we see so many horrors and we hear the stories of people and what they’ve been through. But when I heard about our own colleague and what had happened to him, I was really blown away. It’s a heartbreaking story.

So, on the 5th of December, Hussien Jaber had gone to Gaza City, where his family were. They had been ordered to evacuate by Israel, and so they were trying to head west, which is what they had been ordered to do. And he had been working. He had gone to Gaza City in order to help his children evacuate. They had been staying in a building for a number of days. And then he sees his daughter running towards him, his youngest daughter, who’s just 4 years old. Her name is Salma. And she’s running to him, he describes the Israeli military firing bullets. It sprayed everywhere. And he sees — as his daughter runs towards him, he sees his daughter shot in the neck. She’s then still running somehow, slowly. She’s writhing in pain. He runs towards her, and he embraces her, and she dies.

And this was our director of photography. This was not someone we featured in the documentary. This was the man who was filming that trauma. He watched his 4-year-old die and be killed in the neck just — shot in the neck and killed just in December. Somehow his 9-year-old daughter Sarah survived. She had a bullet that went through her jacket, but she managed to survive. And then, his son, Omar, his 3-year-old son, he says, is still asking, “Where is Salma? Where is my sister?”

And also, during that, as his daughter was shot, he was also hit. He doesn’t remember how it happened, when it happened, because it was all a blur, and he was focused on his daughter. But he was also shot. And Al Jazeera did an interview with him, and there’s a photograph of him on the Al Jazeera website where his arm is in a sling and he has external screws on his arm.

This is the story of the Palestinian journalists in Gaza. So many of them have gone through this. They’ve been displaced, they’ve been injured, they’ve watched their own children die in front of them, and yet they somehow conjure the professionalism to pick up a camera and record and tell other people’s trauma. And I think that’s what is so powerful about this documentary, what’s so unique about it, is the way that we try to collaborate. This is a platform for them to tell their story. This is a platform for them to show the world what is happening to the children of Gaza, the impact of the lack of aid and the lack of food being able to get in. And it really is them center stage. And our role is to support them, is to be able to do that chasing and to do the accountability chasing.

There is a moment in the film where I actually speak to Dr. Ahmed Nasser. And even during that, you don’t see it on the documentary, you just see the moments that we managed to speak to him. But just during that communication, the line cut off maybe five or six times, and we had to keep calling back, and we had to keep waiting. And the journalists who were filming on the other side — so, Hussien Jaber and his colleagues — they were so patient. They were so professional.

And I think as we look back, as we look back on these moments and these times and remember the journalists in Gaza, they really will be remembered in history as the titans of journalists. And it’s a complete honor for every single one of us that worked on this documentary to be able to say that we worked alongside them.

AMY GOODMAN: And let’s remember that so many have died, have been killed in the Israeli assault over — the estimates are 170 journalists. Now, I want to go to its — the film is sort of in two parts, and then it’s responsibility for what’s happening in Gaza. This is a clip from Starving Gaza that features Stacy Gilbert. She’s former senior adviser in the State Department’s Bureau of Population, Refugees, and Migration, resigned after over 20 years, after disagreements with how the State Department put out the report that she worked on that concluded that Israel was not obstructing U.S. humanitarian assistance to Gaza — not her conclusion.

STACY GILBERT: It is widely known and documented in the humanitarian community and the U.S. government that Israel has been blocking humanitarian assistance since the start of the Gaza conflict.

HIND HASSAN: Stacy Gilbert was a senior officer in the U.S. State Department and specialized in humanitarian assistance. She resigned in May after the Biden administration concluded Israel isn’t blocking aid.

STACY GILBERT: They have made a policy decision to support Israel unconditionally.

HIND HASSAN: What are those specific ways of aid being blocked?

STACY GILBERT: It’s everything. There are administrative obstacles, not enough customs officials checking these items, the food that goes bad because it’s waiting on the trucks. So it’s like a spigot. They turn on, they turn off. They decide that some things can’t go in, other things can. Aid workers’ visas are denied or delayed. And when the pressure builds, they will allow more assistance in, but then the spigot gets turned off again. So, Israel and the United States government will say, “Look, some assistance is going in.” It’s never been enough. And they know that.

HIND HASSAN: The U.S. gives Israel billions of dollars in security funding each year. There’s a U.S. law that prohibits arms transfers to countries that are blocking humanitarian assistance.

STACY GILBERT: The administration deliberately denies the facts on the ground, because it would trigger consequences to cut off security funding. It allows the weapons sales to continue. The weapons are the engine that fuel this war. And we are not taking responsibility for our role in it.

AMY GOODMAN: So, that was Stacy Gilbert, former senior adviser in the State Department, who resigned. Hind Hassan, this is another clip from your report, Starving Gaza, when you come to Washington and question State Department spokesperson Matt Miller.

HIND HASSAN: We went to a press briefing at the U.S. State Department to ask about Washington’s support for Israel as famine has spread throughout Gaza.

We’ve had aid organizations and relief groups who have said over and over again that Israel is using starvation as a tactic of war. How do you respond to the allegations of complicity of the U.S. government? And what more will it take for the U.S. to stop Israeli military funding?

MATTHEW MILLER: So, it is the United States that has secured all of the major agreements to get more humanitarian assistance into Gaza, going back to the very early days, the first week after October 7th, when the secretary traveled to the region and the president traveled to Israel and together convinced Israel to open Rafah crossing to allow humanitarian assistance in. It has not been enough There are obstacles. Sometimes those are logistical obstacles coming from Israel. Sometimes those are the nature of moving humanitarian assistance around in an armed conflict.

HIND HASSAN: Under U.S. law, it is required that any country receiving military support must not obstruct the flow of humanitarian aid during war. And every major rights group, from the United Nations to Human Rights Watch, has said that Israel is using starvation as a tactic of war. Do you disagree with them? And are you — just, sorry, one final question: Are you not afraid of completely losing legitimacy, of being seen as being hypocritical when it comes to supporting human rights in one country, but not when it comes to Palestinians?

MATTHEW MILLER: Let me just answer the first question. So, I would encourage you to read the report that we issued on this very question two months ago that looked into Israel’s compliance with international humanitarian law and their work and whether they had done a good enough job to let humanitarian assistance in, where we said that there were some roadblocks that needed to be overcome. And we had worked to overcome those, and we had seen Israel take steps to allow humanitarian assistance in.

AMY GOODMAN: So, that’s State Department spokesperson Matt Miller, Hind Hassan questioning him in Washington, D.C., coming out of the Stacy Gilbert clip from the film, who quit the State Department over the report that was issued. And ProPublica recently revealed that USAID and the State Department’s refugees bureau, where she worked, both concluded this spring that Israel had deliberately blocked deliveries of food and medicine into Gaza, but U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken and other top Biden officials rejected the findings of the agencies. Blinken’s decision allowed the U.S. to keep sending arms to Israel. Your final thoughts, Hind?

HIND HASSAN: So, as you saw there, two very contrasting statements. You have the former State Department official saying that Israel is deliberately blocking aid, and then you have Matthew Miller, Matt Miller, saying, “Oh, please check out our report. Israel could do more, but they’re not deliberately blocking aid.”

And to understand this, you really have to understand Stacy Gilbert and her role and who she is. She has worked for the State Department for many, many years. She’s been doing this job for decades. And this decision may have been an easy decision for her, but it’s not one that she took lightly. She has worked in so many other countries. So, for her, at this point to decide, “I cannot continue in my job, I must step down because of this,” shows you how huge that is, that opinion is to her, or what’s happened is to her. And so, I really don’t think that you can take lightly what she’s done or any of the other officials who have resigned. I was born in Iraq, and I remember watching all the resignations of the officials in the United States who did not support the War in Iraq or the invasion for legality reasons. And so, it’s full circle now to have been sat in front of Stacy Gilbert and to hear her say that she is haunted by that report and that the reason why she resigned was because she wants to be an asterisk in the history books, that she didn’t stay quiet and that she spoke up.

And so, I think viewers can watch this documentary, and they can make up their own minds, but there is a huge body of evidence which suggests that Israel has been purposefully blocking the flow of aid into Gaza and that the United States government knows about it.

AMY GOODMAN: Hind Hassan, we thank you so much for being with us, journalist, documentary filmmaker, has long covered Palestine, is the correspondent and narrator on the new Al Jazeera documentary film Starving Gaza, worked with many Palestinian filmmakers in Gaza.

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