The Guardian has again promoted the starvation libel by uncritically citing the unevidenced claims of those calling themselves ‘human rights experts’. The Guardian report, “Famine has spread throughout the Gaza Strip, warns human rights experts”, July 10, written by Martin Belam and Rachel Hall, relied entirely upon an unsourced press release by a group of ‘experts’ which includes Francesca Albanese.
Albanese, you may remember, is the UN ‘Special Rappatour’ who effectively justified the Oct. 7th massacre, peddled antisemitic tropes and is currently under investigation by the UN for allegations of illegally accepting funding from pro-Hamas groups.
Another ‘expert’ who co-signed the press release is Michael Fakhri, the UN special rapporteur on the right to food. Fakhri is Canadian-Lebanese law professor who has described Canada as a “settler colony”, which he accused of committing a “race-based genocide against indigenous peoples” that is “ongoing.” He also signed an academics’ petition affirming “the Palestinian struggle as an indigenous liberation movement confronting a settler colonial state“, and accused Zionism of “enshrining “the racial supremacy of Jewish-Zionist nationals.” On his X page, he failed to condemn the Hamas Oct. 7 massacre. Yet, as early as Oct. 19, he began accusing Israel of genocide.
The press release which the Guardian relied upon provides no new information, and doesn’t cites sources. It begins by declaring that “the recent deaths of more Palestinian children due to hunger and malnutrition leaves no doubt that famine has spread across the entire Gaza strip”, later citing this:
“When a 2-month-old baby and 10-year-old Yazan Al Kafarneh died of hunger on 24 February and 4 March respectively, this confirmed that famine had struck northern Gaza. The whole world should have intervened earlier to stop Israel’s genocidal starvation campaign and prevented these deaths,”
First, this insidious libel, accusing Israel of an intentional and genocidal starvation campaign, is redolent of classic antisemitic libels and has been contradicited by an overwhelming amount of evidence that has emerged in recent weeks, including by the UN-affiliated ‘Integrated Food Security Phase Classification’ (IPC). IPC published a report in May concluding that the analysis they published in March, warning of impending mass famine in the Strip, is not plausible, pointing to the omission of certain categories of food deliveries. The IPC found inadequate evidence to prove a famine has occurred or is occurring in Gaza.
One additional recent independent study revealed that the food supply provided to Palesinians in the Strip has averaged 3,374 calories per person daily, well above the 2,100 recommended by the Sphere humanitarian movement as the minimum standard.
Further, contrary to the UN ‘experts’ press release, there’s little evidence that any of the three children they mentioned died of starvation due to a lack of food in the territory. The children cited are Yazan Al Kafarneh, Ahmad Abu Reida and Fayez Ataya.
The first child, Yazan Al Kafarneh, suffered from cerebral palsy and required a special diet to survive. That disease can cause malnutrition because it “affects the muscles and movements involved in chewing, swallowing, and eating and can cause gastrointestinal issues”. Other symptoms include accelerated musculoskeletal aging, accompanied by severe muscle atrophy. Even the NY Times article that featured, and helped circulate, the disturbing image of the grossly emaciated boy, didn’t explicitly claim that he died of starvation due to a lack of food in Gaza.
The second child mentioned in the press release is nine-year-old Ahmad Abu Reida, who died on June 3 in Khan Younis. While the press release claims he died due to “malnutrition and lack of access to adequate healthcare”, itself a vaguely worded cause of death, even the PFLP-affiliated Al-Mezan Center for Human Rights reported that he similarly was born with cerebral palsy.
The third child mentioned is Fayez Ataya, who was six months old when she tragically died on 30 May 2024, also had a pre-existing condition. Al-Mezan’s report of the child’s death noted “after birth, [Fayez] showed symptoms of breathing difficulties”, and that she underwewnt surgery at the European Hospital shortly thereafter. While we, of course, can’t determine he precise cause of death, and the girl’s father claims that malnurtion complicated her post-surgery recovery, the omission, in the press release, of the girl’s congenital respiratory problem is telling.
Finally, the press release ends by claiming that, in total, “thirty-four Palestinians have died from malnutrition since 7 October, the majority being children.”. Yet, as there is no corroborating evidnece in the way of a citation, it seems likely that this unbstantiatied claim comes from Hamas. Finally, as we wrote earlier concerning cerebral palsy, dying of “malnurtion” doesn’t necessarily mean that that death was caused an insufficient amount of available food.
In short, the Guardian has – AGAIN – amplified completely unsubstantiated pro-Hamas propagadna.
