The Israeli Information center for human rights in the Occupied Territories,
B'tselem, has this to say:
It is too soon to determine how the shift in Israel’s policy will affect reality on the ground. Yet it is clearly too little, too late, and attests to Israel being chiefly responsible for the humanitarian crisis that has, since the war began about six months ago, spiraled into the catastrophe we are witnessing now.
For months, Israel
refused to let humanitarian aid in through the land crossings in its territory, thereby limiting the amount of aid that could enter. Even when, following international pressure,
Israel did agree to allow aid in through its territory, the amounts were a far cry from the needs of the population, and Israel even stooped so low as to
try and present a false image that there was no serious nutritional crisis in Gaza.
The current change in policy cannot absolve Israel of its responsibility for the hunger crisis in the Gaza Strip, and it is doubtful whether the “new measures” it recently announced – whose effect on the ground, to the extent they actually exist, it is to early to analyze – can meet the current needs of the civilian population there.
Based on various reports from international bodies about the situation in Gaza and on testimonies gathered by B'Tselem's field researchers, we unfortunately conclude that for months, Israel has been committing the crime of starvation under international law in the Gaza Strip.
