Israel's non-denial denial in Gaza

Plus Macron's empty diplomatic gestures on Palestinian statehood

As someone who has spent decades covering conflicts where humanitarian crises unfold alongside military operations, I thought I had seen the full spectrum of how governments respond to international pressure over civilian suffering. But watching Israel's reaction to the hunger crisis in Gaza has introduced me to a new category entirely: the simultaneous acknowledgment and denial of a humanitarian catastrophe.

Let's be clear about what we're witnessing. Five-month-old Zainab Abu Halib died on Friday, weighing less than when she was born. Her father told the Associated Press that "she needed a special baby formula which did not exist in Gaza." The bundle containing her body was "barely wider than the imam's stance" during funeral prayers. Dr. Ahmed al-Farah, head of the pediatric department at Nasser Hospital, called it "severe, severe starvation."

This is not an isolated case. Medical workers describe hospitals overflowing with malnourished patients, with pediatric departments designed for eight beds now treating 60 cases of acute malnutrition, placing additional mattresses on the ground.

According to Gaza's Health Ministry, 127 people have died from malnutrition-related causes, with 85 of them children. The numbers have nearly doubled in the past month alone. Yes, I said the Gaza Health Ministry. And yes, it's run by Hamas. Are they inflating the numbers as Israel and its supporters claim? Possibly. Does that mean there is not a severe hunger crisis? Anyone with eyes who sees the images coming out of Gaza can answer that question.

Don't take Hamas' word for it. This week 111 humanitarian organizations – including Doctors Without Borders, Save the Children and Oxfam – issued a statement warning "mass hunger" is spreading throughout the Gaza Strip.

One of those groups is International Medical Corps, whose field hospitals are the referral center for mass casualties. Ky Luu, their chief operating officer, tells me the group is running out of fuel, food, and water and only has enough to last another 14 days.

I first met Ky about 20 years ago when I was covering the State Department for CNN and he was directing USAID's Office of Foreign Disaster Assistance, making him the U.S. government's lead international humanitarian official. I offer that background to say this is not some Hamas supporter, as Israel claims about most aid organizations.

International Medical Corps reports "nearly one quarter of the population is now facing famine-like conditions," with "a near doubling in cases of moderate and severe acute malnutrition among children and pregnant and lactating women between May and June alone."

"These numbers are horrific!" Ky wrote me.

Action amid denial

Yet on Saturday night, as Israel announced new humanitarian measures including airdrops and tactical pauses in military operations for delivery of aid, Israeli Ambassador to the United States Yechiel Leiter issued a statement declaring: "The accusations that Israel is guilty of implementing a policy of starvation in Gaza are lies, the result of a concerted effort by Hamas to extort concessions in the ceasefire negotiations. This is about political coercion, not about aid."

The cognitive dissonance is staggering. If there's no starvation crisis, why the sudden flurry of humanitarian gestures? Why the emergency airdrops, the reopening of humanitarian corridors, and the decision to restore power to Gaza's desalination plant? The Israeli military's own statement Saturday said these actions were "aimed at improving the humanitarian response in the Gaza Strip, and to refute the false claim of deliberate starvation.

I won't go so far as to say that Israel is deliberately starving Palestinians. And accusations that Hamas uses aid to maintain control over the population are fair. But I think it's legitimate to question Israel's own "political coercion" with regard to aid when you examine the timeline.

After ending the latest ceasefire in March, Israel completely cut off food, medicine, fuel and other supplies to Gaza for two and a half months. Israeli officials said this was to pressure Hamas to release hostages. When international pressure mounted, Israel eased the blockade in May, creating the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation with four distribution centers that critics say are inadequate and dangerous.

Humanitarian groups have cited those dangers for their refusal to cooperate with the GHF, which operates under Israeli military control in the far south of Gaza - forcing Palestinians to walk miles through active combat zones to reach food. Since the foundation began operations in late May, there have been almost daily reports of Palestinians being killed while seeking aid. Last Sunday alone, at least 80 were killed and 95 injured when Israeli forces opened fire on civilians waiting for humanitarian aid in northern Gaza.

A non-aid aid crisis

But the crisis isn't happening because aid doesn't exist. The bottleneck isn't supply; it's permission. The World Food Program released a damning list of obstacles: Israel has approved only 76 of the 138 aid convoys the agency requested permission to collect cargo from holding areas. After trucks are loaded, convoys wait up to 46 hours for permission to travel along the few approved routes. The agency reports difficulty getting spare parts into Gaza for its trucks and a dearth of drivers approved by Israel to carry food into the enclave. WFP says it needs about 120 trucks per day to meet basic humanitarian needs. Nearly 600 trucks were sent into Gaza in the past week – roughly 85 per day, still below minimum requirements.

The human cost extends beyond Palestinian civilians. Palestinian journalists and humanitarian staff are themselves collapsing from hunger. UN employees are fainting while trying to treat patients. One aid worker reportedly walked hours to purchase a bag of flour and lentils for $200.

Narrative management

What makes Israel's response particularly jarring is how it frames humanitarian action as a public relations exercise rather than a moral imperative. The military's statement explicitly said the new measures were designed "to refute the false claim of deliberate starvation." This suggests the primary concern isn't only feeding hungry people but managing international perception.

These humanitarian gestures came only after international criticism. The leaders of the UK, Germany, and France held an emergency phone call Friday, issuing a joint statement calling the situation a "humanitarian catastrophe" that "must end now." When allies are using language typically reserved for natural disasters to describe the consequences of your policies, the diplomatic cost is becoming unsustainable.

The internal Israeli political dynamic reveals how contentious these humanitarian measures are within the government itself. Earlier this week, far-right Heritage Minister Amichay Eliyahu said in a radio interview that "there is no nation that feeds its enemies," concluding that the government was "rushing toward Gaza being wiped out" while also "driving out the population." The comments were so inflammatory that Netanyahu was forced to publicly disavow them, with Israeli Ambassador Leiter stating Eliyahu's quotes were "wrong, foolish and totally unrepresentative of the government and people of Israel." Yet Eliyahu remains a government minister.

The contradiction reaches its peak in Israeli officials' descriptions of their own aid system. They acknowledge civilians are struggling to access food while simultaneously claiming there's no starvation. Countries don't typically airdrop emergency food supplies, implement tactical military pauses for aid delivery, and restore power to water treatment plants unless they recognize a genuine crisis exists.

The tragedy isn't just that people are starving in Gaza. It's that the response treats their deaths primarily as a narrative management problem rather than a human catastrophe demanding immediate action. When saving face becomes more important than saving lives, we've crossed a line that no amount of diplomatic language can obscure.

Recognition without reality

As expected, President Emmanuel Macron of France announced on Thursday that he would recognize a Palestinian state.

As I have written many times before, I fully support the creation of a Palestinian state that lives in peace and security alongside Israel. But watching Emmanuel Macron felt like watching someone throw a life preserver to a drowning person – except the life preserver is made of paper. It's a purely symbolic gesture designed to censure Israel and signal French moral superiority, not to actually help Palestinians.

The brutal reality is that recognition doesn't feed starving children. And it won’t, as Macron promised, “win the peace.” It doesn't create the institutions necessary for statehood. It doesn't build hospitals or schools or functioning governments. What it does do is give Israeli hardliners ammunition to argue that the international community rewards terrorism, potentially pushing any real Palestinian state even further into the distance.

Macron may want applause for a move that changes absolutely nothing on the ground, but Palestinians don’t need empty diplomatic theater. They need sustained pressure on Israel to lift the aid restrictions, efforts to end the war and programs to help the Palestinians develop legitimate governance – not gestures that make European leaders feel better about themselves while accomplishing zero for the people they claim to support.