Is the Israeli ambassador to France right to assert that “there is no famine” in the Gaza Strip?

Joshua Zarka, Israeli ambassador to France, reacted on franceinfo to the arrest warrants issued by the International Criminal Court against Benjamin Netanyahu in particular.

The International Criminal Court has issued arrest warrants, notably against Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, after finding “reasonable grounds” to believe that he is “criminally responsible” for the war crime of starvation in the Gaza Strip . An assertion rejected Friday, November 22 by Joshua Zarka, the Israeli ambassador to France. “In May, the NGOs said there was an imminent famine and since then there has been no famine, quite the contraryhe said on franceinfo. NGOs tell certain stories and give certain statistics, but ultimately you have to see the facts on the ground. And the facts on the ground are that there is no famine.”

What the Israeli ambassador to France says is generally false, but there are several things to sort out. First of all, it is not only NGOs which warn of famine or a risk of famine, it is above all the United Nations. The UN has been talking about it for months, with the first concerns dating back to November 2023, exactly a year ago. The Israel-Hamas conflict had started two months earlier and the UN was already denouncing access to Gaza at the time. “completely blocked” and a “great risk of famine for the entire population”.

However, is there an ongoing famine in Gaza? Officially, the UN has not declared famine in the Gaza Strip, but several of its officials have made it very clear. Earlier this month, a UN report claimed that “Famine thresholds may have already been crossed or will be crossed in the near future.” Last summer, independent UN experts went even further by asserting that famine had already spread to Gaza. They had notably documented the deaths of several children, due to malnutrition and dehydration.

Accusations which have always been rejected by Israel. The Israeli army assures that the data used in the UN report is “incorrect and inconsistent”.

What do we know about the humanitarian and food aid arriving in Gaza? On this point, we have information that sheds light on the lack of food in this small territory. We know that in recent months the delivery of foodstuffs has been increasingly limited.

According to the United States, Israel's ally, the volume of aid entering Gaza in September was the lowest since the start of the year. Same story from the UN, which notes a “drastic reduction” in the number of trucks delivering humanitarian aid: only 58 trucks per day at the end of October, compared to around 200 during the summer, or almost four times less. And above all, whatever happens, these figures are a long way from the 350 trucks per day that the United States would like to see enter the Gaza Strip.