FALCONPOWERS – The days following the unprecedented Hamas attack on Israeli military bases, kibbutzim, cities, and the Nova Music Festival were marked by high-level Israeli officials announcing their intention to deprive the civilian population in Gaza of their basic needs. At that time, more than 80% of the goods entering the Gaza Strip came from Israel, which had maintained a strict blockade on the area for seventeen years.
On October 9th, two days after intensive aerial bombardment, Israeli Minister of Energy and Infrastructure, Israel Katz, ordered the cutting off of water, electricity, and fuel. He stated, “There will be no food, there will be no fuel.” On the same day, Defense Minister Yoav Gallant called for a “complete blockade” on the Gaza Strip, stating, “There will be no food, there will be no fuel” (since then, the phrase “We are fighting human animals” has become common to describe the situation).
On October 17th, National Security Minister Etamar Ben-Gvir insisted that as long as Hamas did not release the hostages in its possession, “not a single ounce of humanitarian aid” would reach Gaza, only “hundreds of tons of explosives” launched by the air force. The following day, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu echoed similar sentiments, stating, “We will not allow humanitarian aid in the form of food and medicine from our territories to reach the Gaza Strip.”
All of these were announcements of the intention to deprive the Palestinians in Gaza of their “basic necessities that they cannot do without” – and these actions fall squarely within the legal definition of “intentionally starving civilians as a method of warfare,” which is a war crime under the Rome Statute. At the same time, Israeli newspapers, television, and social media were saturated with calls to completely or partially destroy the population of Gaza: “eradicate” Gaza, “flatten” it, and turn it into “Dresden” [referring to the German city famous for being heavily bombed]. On October 13th – the day the Israeli authorities ordered 1.1 million people in northern Gaza to evacuate their homes within twenty-four hours – Israeli President Isaac Herzog publicly stated that there were “no innocent civilians” in the Strip.
Since then, the Israeli army has targeted entire neighborhoods, resulting in the deaths of over 32,000 Palestinians, including more than 13,000 children (these numbers do not include those missing under the rubble), and over 74,000 residents have been injured. Seventy percent of civilian infrastructure has been destroyed or damaged, rendering many areas uninhabitable. By November, more than 75% of Gaza’s population, approximately 1.7 million people, had fled their homes. Many have been forced to move repeatedly.
