Amid Gaza food shortages, ICC issues arrest warrant for Netanyahu

As aid trickled into hunger-stricken Gaza, limited by Israeli restrictions and local armed looters, the International Criminal Court (ICC) issued arrest warrants for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and his former defense minister Thursday for what it described as depriving civilians in Gaza of items “indispensable to their survival.”

The ICC issued warrants for Mr. Netanyahu, former Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant, and Hamas military leader Mohammed Deif for war crimes and crimes against humanity committed during the Oct. 7 attack and the resulting Israel-Hamas war. Mr. Deif is believed to have been killed.

In its decision, the three-judge panel said of Mr. Netanyahu and Mr. Gallant, “There are reasonable grounds to believe that both individuals intentionally and knowingly deprived the civilian population in Gaza of objects indispensable to their survival, including food, water, and medicine and medical supplies, as well as fuel and electricity, from at least 8 October 2023 to 20 May 2024.”

The court said its warrants are “based on the role of Mr. Netanyahu and Mr. Gallant in impeding humanitarian aid in violation of international humanitarian law and their failure to facilitate relief.”

And yet, despite a 30-day deadline set by the Biden administration for Israel to increase humanitarian aid into starvation-struck Gaza, trucks carrying food, fuel, and sanitation items are still few and far between in the Gaza Strip.

The number of aid trucks entering Gaza dropped from 3,352 in August to 1,298 last month – less than 10% of prewar levels. Only a handful of trucks reached besieged northern Gaza, where Israel has stepped up military operations against a Hamas guerrilla insurgency.

Earrings for flour

Shortages have left hundreds of thousands of Palestinians in Gaza to scour their neighborhoods for disappearing food items.

Many, like Iman Shalat, are facing desperate choices.

“I had to sell my last pair of earrings to buy flour for my children,” Ms. Shalat says. But that flour has run out, so she goes from tent to tent in the makeshift camp where she lives, asking her neighbors if she can “borrow” some.

Then she tells her eldest son, Anas, who is 13 years old, to run to one of the few charity kitchens still operating.

“Go check if the tikiyya [charity kitchen] is handing out food,” she tells him. Anas and his 11-year-old sister grab an old food can with a twisted wire handle – a makeshift pail – to carry food and soups ladled out by the charity kitchen. “Hurry, before the food is all gone.”

Anas runs off in hopes of bringing back a warm meal. But he soon returns empty-handed, the large tin can swinging, empty.

The aid shortfalls have stripped markets of goods and customers. In the Deir al-Balah market, once a hub where food and aid packages were always available, if expensive, only a few stalls now sell a few vegetables, including spinach, tomatoes, and bell peppers grown in the yards of houses that are still standing.

Vendor Jaser Sarsour senses the rising desperation.

As soon as he sets his vegetables out, customers rush his stall. “They beg me for one tomato, one cucumber, or one eggplant,” he says.

Chicken, meat, eggs, and milk are gone from the market. That forced people to rely on canned goods such as fava beans for protein – until beans too disappeared from the market last week.

The prices of what little food can be found are skyrocketing: One bag of 18 pita loaves sells for $12.06, more than 10 times its prewar price. A kilogram of sugar costs nearly $20.

Gazans blame Israel and local merchants

Residents attribute the price hikes to two main causes: the closure of border crossings by Israeli soldiers, and the tight grip that a handful of merchants have on the market.

Palestinian community leaders have shut down local markets in general strikes to denounce what they describe as merchant monopolies. Young people in central and southern Gaza began holding market sit-ins this month.

“Down with the greed of merchants,” they shouted in a recent protest, venting the collective frustration of a community grappling with hunger and scarcity.

In recent weeks, armed gangs, described by locals as “highwaymen,” have sprung up. They hijack and sack aid convoys entering the southern Gaza Strip from Israel through the Kerem Shalom crossing.

Under pressure to crack down on thefts and in the face of growing protests, the Hamas authorities say they have allied with other Palestinian factions to confront the looters.

The new force is focusing on an area near the Kerem Shalom crossing, where last weekend saw one of the largest aid heists since the war began: Ninety-eight out of 109 trucks carrying United Nations food aid were ransacked by armed men Saturday evening.

Two days later, Hamas policemen killed 20 gang members accused of stealing humanitarian aid, according to the Gaza Interior Ministry.

The Hamas-run ministry described the bust as “the beginning of a broad security campaign that has been long planned and will expand to include everyone involved in the theft of aid trucks,” vowing the operation “will not be the last.”

Internal U.N. memos reported by The Washington Post, and local residents, blame Israeli forces for not cracking down on organized looters, even accusing them of being complicit. Local people noted that Saturday’s heist took place in an Israeli-controlled closed military area where civilians and Hamas police forces cannot go.

New border crossings, more aid?

In a move the Israeli authorities described as a bid to increase aid supplies, a new border crossing was opened last week. Israel also coordinated with the Jordanian air force to deliver 7,000 kilograms (about 15,000 pounds) of food and sanitation supplies via helicopter to the new crossing on Wednesday. On Thursday Jordan announced that 100 trucks entered Gaza through the West Bank and Israel.

But the anti-gang operations and the new crossing point are doing little, so far, to help Gaza residents such as Sabha Abu Khousa.

Like many displaced Gaza residents, she and her family last received a sack of flour at the Ramadan feast, in spring.

“It’s all gone now,” Ms. Abu Khousa says.

“We depend on tikiyya for food. If there is no tikiyya, we rely on canned food. If there is no canned food, we rely on dukkah,” a blend of spices, grains, legumes, and nuts. “We used to dip it in olive oil, but now we can’t even afford that.”

“We lost a great deal of weight during the war, but we’ve lost even more these days,” she says. “No one feels full.”