Israel/Palestine

RockCreek

(1,079 posts) Tue Jul 29, 2025, 04:05 PM Jul 29

Excellent article "The Mathematics of Starvation: Why Aid Can't Fix the Lethal Shortage of Food in Gaza"

This is an excellent article showing some of the many inaquacies of food aid as currently provided to Israel. It also addressed medical and physiological aspects of what is needed.

I'm a medical professional and have been horrified at the current version of "aid" from that standpoint alone. (leaving aside political, practiczl, etc etc aspects).

The best part of the article is reached through the Archive link at the end.

from Haaretz:

The Mathematics of Starvation: Why Aid Can't Fix the Lethal Shortage of Food in Gaza July 23, 2025

To an uncritical eye, the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation – backed by Israel and the U.S. – looks like a dizzying success story. After it boasted on Monday that it has already distributed more than 85 million meals and that the day's distribution passed without incident, one might have thought all the earlier problems and the negative reports were just the project's birth pangs.

But a few other variables need to be factored into this equation of success. First and foremost, the equation lacks context and ignores the broader picture. If roughly 2.1 million people live in the Gaza Strip today, it's preferable for them to eat three meals a day, and GHF had been in operation for 56 days as of Monday, how many meals should it have distributed? A simple calculation produces the answer – 353 million.
Thus even if, by some miracle, Gazans had managed to evenly divide the food the organization handed out among themselves, then cook it and extract every last calorie and nutrient it contained, this would still be only a tiny fraction of the food they need to survive. And this gap reveals only the tip of the iceberg of the mathematics of starvation.

There's no shortage of other indications. Since this weekend, hunger in Gaza has escalated further. Hospitals, humanitarian organizations, journalists and Gaza residents are all reporting severe shortages of food even in comparison to previous months.

https://archive.is/4jbAr

4 replies

= new reply since forum marked as read

Highlight:

Excellent article "The Mathematics of Starvation: Why Aid Can't Fix the Lethal Shortage of Food in Gaza" (Original Post) RockCreek Jul 29 OP

Finally, some amalysis to cut through the bs. AloeVera Jul 29 #1

This addresses the long term and multigenerational effects. RockCreek Jul 29 #2

On-and-off starvation for nearly two years, malnutrition for 17 years before that due to the blockade.. AloeVera Jul 29 #3

Dafka Israeli Jul 30 #4

AloeVera

(3,632 posts)

1. Finally, some amalysis to cut through the bs.

Reply to RockCreek (Original post)

Tue Jul 29, 2025, 05:21 PM

Jul 29

Thank you for posting!

I had posted about the lack of context in GHF's propaganda a few weeks ago. Concluded that at best, if aid was distributed equally etc Gazans were eating once every 3 days. Without the equal distribution that the UN could be providing through its over 400 aid hubs - a portion of Gazans might be eating at subsistence levels, some OK, and others will be literally starving to death.

With the aid hubs reduced from over 400 to just 4, and the militarization, the starvation was not only inevitable but plain to see that it was inevitable.

RockCreek

(1,079 posts)

2. This addresses the long term and multigenerational effects.

Reply to AloeVera (Reply #1)

Tue Jul 29, 2025, 05:29 PM

Jul 29

https://www.npr.org/2025/07/29/g-s1-79039/gaza-children-starvation-health-risks

AloeVera

(3,632 posts)

3. On-and-off starvation for nearly two years, malnutrition for 17 years before that due to the blockade..

Reply to RockCreek (Reply #2)

Tue Jul 29, 2025, 10:26 PM

Jul 29

Palestinians have been slowly destroyed physically, mentally and emotionally for decades. But this ethnic cleansing operation called a "war" is nothing short of genocidal. It's the children - and their children - that are going to pay the heaviest price. Destroying the children of a people is destroying their future, right? The impact of violence and trauma, two years of missed schooling and the repeated panic-filled displacements etc are also going to stunt them for life. Gaza's children had the highest rate of PTSD in the world - and that was about 16 years ago. There will not be a child unscathed now in Gaza, and able to develop as they would/should have.

Chronic hunger takes a toll on the body and mind, even long after recovery, several health experts agree. It's especially dangerous to children and fetuses developing in the womb, according to the U.N. World Food Programme.

The damage can run as deep as altering how genes function — meaning starvation may not just affect survivors but also their descendants, according to Marko Kerac, a clinical associate professor at the London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine who studies the long-term effects of malnutrition.

" It's a lifelong thing, and it's even across generations," Kerac said.

So the "cure" is intensive nutrition and care of the physical and mental well-being including safety and rest. It's a long process. There is not a chance in hell Gaza's children are going to receive any of those things.

Personally, I think Israel should take it on itself to provide care for the children suffering from severe acute malnutrition or close to death in all its gleaming, well-funded hospitals until they are better. There is not a chance in hell of that happening either.

Israeli

(4,465 posts)

4. Dafka

Reply to RockCreek (Original post)

Wed Jul 30, 2025, 04:56 AM

Jul 30

I posted another from Nir Hasson on the same subject yesterday here :

https://democraticunderground.com/1134144528#post22

Never got a response , so did my own research on this David Collier .
It was as I suspected

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