Starvation is occurring in Gaza as food shortages caused by the Israel-Hamas war continue to worsen. Lives and hopes for peace will be lost if we don’t take action. The United Nations warns of emergency levels of hunger throughout Gaza with at least half a million people suffering in famine like conditions.
“Emaciated children and babies are dying from malnutrition in Gaza,” pleads UNICEF Executive Director Catherine Russell. “We need immediate, safe and unhindered humanitarian access across Gaza to scale up the delivery of life-saving food, nutrition, water and medicine.”
America has responded in the past to the cries of hunger from abroad. We must not stop now.
As President Harry Truman said after World War II when confronting famine in Europe and Asia “I know every American feels in his heart that we must help to prevent starvation and distress among our fellow men in other countries.”
Humanitarian pauses in the Israel-Hamas war are not enough to feed the hungry. America must lead diplomatically in ending the war, getting all hostages released, and ensuring the UN World Food Program (WFP), UNICEF and other relief agencies have consistent access to those starving in Gaza.
Cindy McCain, the WFP executive director, pleads “We need to flood Gaza with large-scale food aid, immediately and without obstruction, and keep it flowing each and every day to prevent mass starvation. People are already dying of malnutrition and the longer we wait to act, the higher the death toll will rise.”
We must also increase funding for food aid as recent cuts by the Trump administration have been devastating. The Trump administration must stop cutting food aid and instead become a supporter. The administration even took away global food aid funding in a recent rescissions package including cuts impacting UNICEF, one of the lead agencies in Gaza.
The American people do support feeding the hungry abroad, and will lead the way in this crisis. But we have to remember that the scope of the terrible hunger we face goes far beyond Gaza.
In war-torn Sudan there is also starvation and famine occurring. The Sudan war impacts neighboring South Sudan, another one of the countries most at risk of famine. Haiti is also facing a severe hunger crisis as well as Mali and Yemen. The WFP and other relief agencies do not have the funding to keep up with these hunger emergencies.
That’s why at this critical time, it’s important for the United States to be increasing funding to help these charities feed the hungry. Food aid is life, hope and stability for millions worldwide.
Look at the recent peace deal between the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) and Rwanda, a potential step toward ending the conflict in the Eastern DRC. Food aid is desperately needed to save lives and reinforce those peace efforts. The DRC is facing record levels of hunger and recovery will be lengthy.
In the Middle East people are starving in Gaza but also in Yemen, Syria and Lebanon. One of the best hopes for Middle East peace rests on food and hope for the war weary people. More fighting is not going to eliminate extremism in the Middle East. Food and economic development is what the region needs instead of armaments and war.
We must not forget the impact of this severe hunger on children, the future of all these nations.
As Dwight Eisenhower observed after WWII, children in Europe were living an “animal-like level of existence, struggling each day for any kind of scrap that will keep them alive.” Eisenhower asked “how can we expect them to develop the ideas and the ideals that in the future will bring them to be apostles of peace?”
If we are serious about peace in the world today, we should be doing far more to feed hungry children.
Both the Trump administration and the Congress need to get busy fighting global hunger. They should be increasing funding for the Food for Peace program, which is a relatively tiny part of the budget. U.S. farms also play a major role in Food for Peace. The life-saving child nutrition that Food for Peace supports must see a big expansion.
America has a proud tradition of taking action to feed those suffering in hunger. We must carry on this noble mission in Gaza right now where starving children need to be rescued now.
Lambers is an author who partnered with the UN World Food Program on the book “Ending World Hunger: School Lunches for Kids Around the World.”
