US said to demand Israel declare it is not deliberately starving Gazans

The Biden administration’s Middle East aid envoy Lisa Grande reportedly made demands of Israel regarding the humanitarian situation in the Gaza Strip, in a harsh phone call with Israel’s military liaison to the Palestinians, COGAT chief Gen. Ghassan Alian.

Channel 12 news reports that Grande demanded during the call that Israel declare it is not following a policy of deliberately starving Gazans amid the ongoing war, which was sparked by Hamas’s brutal massacre in southern Israel on October 7, 2023.

She also demanded that Israel cancel all civilian evacuation orders, allow Palestinians who have been evacuated to return to their homes, and present a comprehensive plan to reduce harm to civilian infrastructure, according to the report.

Channel 12 cites US officials as saying that it was a constructive call, though it caught Alian off guard — especially given Israeli efforts in recent months to increase humanitarian aid to Gaza.

“There are some in our administration who believe the harm to civilian infrastructure is not proportionate,” Grande reportedly said during the call.

“Stunned” by the call, Alian was said to respond: “What kind of proportionality is expected from the IDF when it is acting against a terrorist organization whose deliberate modus operandi is to fight from inside civilian areas and civilian and humanitarian facilities, including hospitals, residential buildings, UN facilities, and others, while simultaneously keeping 100 hostages in these areas.”

“I am astounded that you raise the notion that we are following a policy of deliberate starvation. We are bringing in aid on a wide scale and without limitation, and there has been an increase in the inflow of aid since October, especially in November,” the COGAT chief said, according to Channel 12.

The International Criminal Court in the Hague has accused Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and former defense minister Yoav Gallant of war crimes and crimes against humanity for allegedly using starvation as a method of war against the Palestinians.

Israel has persistently claimed that it has facilitated the transfer of tens of thousands of aid trucks with enough food to provide for Gaza’s nutritional needs, and has blamed the UN for not scaling up its logistics and distribution operations.