Less Starvation in Gaza Than in the U.S.

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The tireless Elder of Ziyon has been examining Hamas’ claims of mass starvation in Gaza, and the statistics the terror group — through its “Government Media Office” — puts out to justify such a claim. He has now compared those numbers to the figures we have about starvation in the U.S. And it turns out that there is a higher incidence of death from hunger and malnutrition in the U.S. than in Gaza. But for some reason, the major media simply report Hamas’ claims about mass hunger in Gaza without looking at the figures Hamas provides — which are undoubtedly exaggerated — and comparing them to the figures on hunger here at home.

More on his comparison of the incidence of starvation and hunger in Gaza and in the U.S. can be found here: “According to Hamas’ own figures, Americans are three times as likely to die of malnutrition than Gazans during the war,” Elder of Ziyon, April 25, 2025:

Hamas issued a press statement:

The Government Media Office in Gaza renewed its warning on Friday  of the continuing and alarming deterioration of the humanitarian catastrophe in the Gaza Strip. This comes as the occupation continues to impose a stifling blockade, deliberately closing the crossings completely, and preventing the entry of food and humanitarian aid for 55 days, leading to a wider famine.

There has been no “humanitarian catastrophe” in Gaza because of the blockade that began on March 2. Before the IDF had instituted the blockade, 25,000 trucks filled with humanitarian aid — chiefly food and medicine — had been delivered inside Gaza. There were enough supplies to last for three months. Since the blockade started, seven weeks have gone by. That means there is another five-weeks’ worth of humanitarian aid still waiting to be distributed inside Gaza. In another six weeks, that is, when the three-month supply has been used up, at that point one can begin to worry about malnutrition and starvation, but not before. I assume that the IDF has made plans to renew the deliveries of the humanitarian aid at that point. And most importantly, either the IDF will accompany the aid into Gaza to make sure Hamas does not steal it, or will make other arrangements for it to be safely delivered, possibly by the Egyptians or the UN.

Here is more from Hamas’ statement on the deaths of Gazans from “hunger and malnutrition”:

The [Hamas] government media official said that famine today is no longer just a threat, but has become a bitter reality, as 52 deaths due to hunger and malnutrition have been recorded, including 50 children, in one of the most horrific forms of slow mass killing. At a time when more than 60,000 children suffer from severe malnutrition, while more than a million children complain of daily hunger that has caused emaciation and poor physical structure, and they have become a focus of danger, while thousands of Palestinian families have been forced to face death by starvation after being unable to provide a single meal for their children.

You’ve seen the videos taken inside Gaza. Do the people look emaciated to you? Thin, yes, but “emaciated”? “Emaciated” is how people looked in the ghettos of Eastern Europe, where they were sealed in — as in Warsaw — before finally being taken to the extermination camps. No one in Gaza looks anything like that.

Elder of Ziyon continues:

52 deaths for a population of 2.1 million means 2.48 per 100,000 people, over 18 months.

In the United States, 20,500 people died of malnutrition in 2022, according to the CDC. That comes out to a rate of  6.19 deaths per 100,000 people, over 12 months.  Over 18 months the numbers could be assumed to be about 9 deaths per 100,000.

Which means that even during wartime, even with hundreds of thousands of people displaced, even with severe disruptions in the food supply, the chances for a Gazan dying of malnutrition is less than one third that of an American during peacetime – according to Hamas’ own statistics….

The next time someone starts ranting to you about “starvation in Gaza,” set them straight by telling them 1) how much humanitarian aid, including food, Israel has supplied to Gaza so far in the war — some 66,000 truckloads; 2) that Hamas has a practice of stealing much of the aid for its own members, and taking still more of it for resale at exorbitant prices to those Gazans who were supposed to receive that aid for free, a state of affairs that the IDF hopes to remedy by accompanying the aid inside Gaza and overseeing its distribution; 3) that the videos from Gaza do not show an emaciated population; 4) that so far, by the first week in March, Israel has facilitated the delivery of over 66,000 truckloads carrying over 1.3 million tons of aid, including 25,000 trucks during the temporary ceasefire. That cargo included 1,010,613 tons of food, 53,040 tons of water, 30,430 tons of medical supplies, and 104,792 tons of shelter equipment. These facts, soberly imparted, should give any anti-Israel ranter pause.