I continue to be completely befuddled by the scope of the food problems in Gaza. For starters, here are the UN's overall numbers:
This suggests that 330,000 Gazans are experiencing acute malnutrition and at least 220 are currently dying of malnutrition every day. This comes to nearly 30,000 people dead of malnutrition since January.
How about children? A few days ago the UN reported that "Over 50,000 children require treatment for acute malnutrition." They have been reporting the same number since April. But a few days earlier the director-general of WHO said, "Over 8,000 children under 5 years old have been diagnosed and treated for acute malnutrition."
One of these is about "children" and the other is about "children under 5," so it's not clear if they're comparable. Nonetheless, the difference between 50,000 and 8,000 is too much for that to be the only reason. This is especially true since the WHO number is for those who "have been diagnosed and treated," which implies it covers the entire period of the war—or a substantial part of it. So 8,000 to date but 50,000 right now?
I also spent some time browsing through recent pictures of Gaza. There was suffering, there was death and destruction, there were refugees, and there were wounded. But out of dozens of photos I didn't see a single one that suggested famine levels of malnutrition.
Beyond this, there's the everpresent disagreement between Israel and the UN about how many aid trucks are getting into Gaza and how much food they contain. Both sides count "truckloads," not amounts of food, so even if they agreed it would still be unclear how much food aid is getting in. Nor, given the destruction of some of Gaza's agricultural production, is it even clear how much is required.
I don't doubt for a second that Gaza lacks all the food it needs. But the UN's overall numbers are obviously bogus. Nobody thinks 30,000 Gazans have died of malnutrition this year. Nor does the UN seem to agree with itself about the number of children facing acute malnutrition. And journalists, who have every motivation to document starvation, don't seem to be finding a lot.
So what the hell is going on? I can't make any sense out of it.
It’s almost as if, in active combat areas, statisticians aren’t going to work every day and dutifully reporting back correct numbers to central office. Weird. Don’t these Gazan bureaucrats who probably haven’t gotten paid since October have any self respect or pride in their jobs anymore?
Lesson No. 1: in war zones the comfortable data expectations of a North America executive will not hold.
Regardless of people being paid, war zones are not particularly condusive to data collection nor reporting.
Taking Kevin's assertion/interpretation of what (part of) the UN was reporting:
It wouldn't take self-respect or pride in job to report that many deaths. And would, I would think, be in Gaza's and even Hamas' interest to report them as part of their attempts to mould public opinion against Israel. It would be nearly as many deaths as the still-reporting Gaza Health Ministry has said have died as a result of Israeli strikes in Gaza.
To answer the title: Yes, and it doesn't matter.
Kevin Drum wonders about the claim that, “Over 50,000 children require treatment for acute malnutrition,” versus the claim that, “Over 8,000 children under 5 years old have been diagnosed and treated for acute malnutrition.” I would suggest that it is likely that most children suffering from malnutrition in Gaza are not diagnosed and treated. If there were enough food in Gaza to treat everyone suffering from malnutrition, malnutrition wouldn’t be widespread in the first place.
Huh, hundreds of thousands of starving people, all within an hour's walk of a supermarket. Quite the natural disaster.
What the hell are you talking about? Supermarkets in Gaza are smoking ruins. Supermarkets across the border in Israel are inaccessible, and would get you shot if you tried.
On the Internet, no one hears the snark :). My point was indeed that this a famine engineered and maintained by Israel.
You can't use satire with no clear indcations when people routinely make similar statements in all seriousness.
What the hell is going on, mainly, is that Israel won't let anyone in to check on what they're doing.
Like +100. Israel has targeted and killed about 150 journalists. Cut off electricity, internet access. Sealed the few "checkpoints" in the walled prison of Gaza. Only allowed vetted, "in-bedded" folks in to repeat the propaganda that Israel wants disseminated.
So, why are they hiding what they're doing? Could it be ... they know other people would think it's wrong?
A few days ago on BBC news there was a scene from a refugee camp in Darfur, the famine was immediately obvious. No, in photos and video from Gaza, the people don't look in the grip of famine.
The UN has always been anti-Israel. Simple as that.
Okay, so per the Proprieter, it can't be "genocide" because they're not all dead yet, and similarly, it can't be "famine" because emaciated corpses aren't being carted past UN counting stations.
"So what the hell is going on?" Fog of War?
Seriously, in war everyone lies. And there is no way to make lies consistent in this context. We simply don't know. The fact that humanitarian organizations seem to rely on Palestinian data and to plan based on them would indicate IMHO that the information is not totally false. But it is unrealistic to expect clean, double confirmed figures.
Considering that Israel has waged war on Gaza's entire health system, apparently even seeing it as a primary target and openly treating medical staff like Hamas, there is no contradiction between 50,000 needing treatment and 8,000 getting it.
Also, considering Israel's treatment of UNRWA, killing of UN staff and general attitude re international law and order, the United Nations is doing a very good job within the deliberately restricted realm of its possibilities.
Also, relying on photographs to determine famine levels is nonsense. You see ribs when hunger lasted a good while. Not necessarily when it was sudden and extreme.
I should add that the biggest malnutrition problem may not even be famine but stunting: the reduced physical and mental capabilities, for life, after a serious period of food deprivation during childhood. It is feared that almost the entire next generation of Gazans will suffer from it. This might be the horrible intention. Can't prevent the next Hamas so make it stupid and weak. Such a policy, if it exists, I would truly call genocidal.
As for the trucks, Israel seems to privilege commercial ones. The UN counts humanitarian ones. Which are the only ones that matter for Gazans who have no money left at all.
It's almost as if Israel won't let in any trucks with food or other aid, unless there were shekels in it for Israeli businessmen. At desperation prices! What's not to love?
I'm sorry. That sounds antisemitic, doesn't it? Despite the fact that some level of greed is universal.
"What is going on?"
Hmm. I wonder.
Probably the same sort of reasons that the very publications that constantly tell us about the ever-present menace of far right violence have been strangely silent about Casey Goonan.
Congrats on your cherry-picking abilities.
Oh, well if you can't find photos of people starving to death it must not be happening.
Please, Mr. Drum, you are embarrassing yourself on this subject on a daily basis.