As this letter is being written, on November 15, 2023, 2.4 million Palestinians in the Gaza Strip are being actively denied food and water for 38 days as a form of collective punishment being deployed by the Israeli Occupation Forces. According to Oxfam International, only 2% of the usual food delivered to Gaza is entering the strip. Thousands are facing death by starvation at this very moment. “Starvation is being used as a weapon of war.”  

We write to you as dietitians and public health professionals, appalled by the use of starvation and dehydration as a weapon of war. 

The Palestinian population in the Gaza Strip is almost 50% children. According to the UN Office for Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs 68% of Palestinians in Gaza were food insecure in 2018, up from 59% in 2014 and expected to increase. On November 10, 2023, Alia Zaki, spokesperson for the UN's World Food Program said, “There is a real threat of malnutrition and people starving. What aid workers call ‘food insecurity’ is the new baseline for Gaza's 2.3 million people.”

The current blockade on food and water; attacks on hospitals and healthcare professionals in the Gaza Strip will have devastating effects on Palestinian health, growth, and livelihood for years to come. 

As dietitians and public health professionals we join our colleagues and stand with Doctors without Borders, Amnesty International, and UNICEF in calling for a ceasefire.

We demand:

• An immediate ceasefire in Gaza

• Let in sufficient humanitarian aid to Gaza including fuel, food, and water

• Stop US aid to Israel - no funding for siege, starvation, bombing and occupation of Palestine

• Human rights and self-determination for the Palestinian people

References:

• Starvation as weapon of war being used against Gaza civilians - Oxfam

• Palestine Ministry of Health Annual Report 2022

• Food insecurity in the oPt: 1.3 million Palestinians in the Gaza strip are food insecure