On Saturday, Nov. 16, Drake’s Middle Eastern Peace and Prosperity Alliance showed the documentary “Starving Gaza” from the award-winning series “Fault Lines.” The documentary is available on Al Jazeera. 

MEPPA President Rachel Kaiser specifically chose the documentary to focus on the issue of malnutrition and to highlight the humanitarian aspect of the Israel-Hamas War.

“Last year, we did [a documentary on] background information and humanitarian issues at the time. This documentary is almost an update on that,” Kaiser said.

Kaiser opened the event by saying that “citizens should not be held responsible for the actions of their government.” Kaiser then read statements from the International Court of Justice, which ordered Israel to suspend military actions and to prevent genocide; the Human Rights Watch, which stated that the Israeli government is using starvation as a weapon of war; and a U.N. Special Committee, which found that Israel had obstructed aid, carried out targeted attacks and starvation, intentionally caused death and used collective punishment in Gaza between October 2023 and July 2024.

The documentary followed starvation cases in northern Gaza’s Kamal Adwan Hospital and showed the extent of damage done in Gaza since October 2023. One family, after recounting their story of their two-year-old son dying of starvation, was shown on screen in a burnt room with scraps of metal all over the floor. Occupation forces had destroyed their son’s room as they moved through northern Gaza. 

As images of destruction played on screen, the voice of Yoav Gallant, Israel’s Defense Minister at the time of the documentary’s production, said: “We are imposing a total siege in Gaza. No electricity, no food, no water, no fuel.”

Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said in the documentary, “We will not allow humanitarian assistance in the form of food and medicines…into the Gaza Strip.” 

According to the documentary, not a single case of malnutrition was reported before the war. Now, a staff of eight people at the hospital is responsible for hundreds of starving children. 

In July of 2024, the U.N. issued a famine declaration for Gaza. Israel has called the famine the fault of humanitarian aid groups — a claim refuted by testimony and data in the documentary, which show Israel has denied aid delivery and targeted aid workers in Gaza. Over 300 aid workers have died in Gaza so far, and the attacks appear to be targeted, according to the documentary.

On Feb. 29, 2024, the Israel Defense Forces opened fire on those clamoring to get food from aid delivery stations, killing hundreds of civilians. The attack came to be known as the Flour Massacre and prompted deeper analysis of these kinds of attacks on aid workers and on those receiving aid.

Al Jazeera’s analysis performed in partnership with open source investigators of forensic architecture found that those attacks were systematic, not arbitrary. The analysis found that attacks primarily occurred where civilians seek aid in the form of food and supplies. The documentary called those attacks a “purposeful military tactic” and described it as a “chilling effect.” 

The story of Stacy Gilbert, a former official for the U.S. Department of State, featured prominently in the documentary.
The U.S. has given Israel billions of dollars in security funding and over 50,000 tons of weapons. In the documentary, Gilbert said, “U.S. weapons are the engine fueling this war.” The United States has faced tremendous international pressure from the U.N., other global organizations and individual countries and politicians to halt financial and military support for Israel. 

Gilbert also spoke on malnutrition in Gaza.

“Famine happens when assistance is blocked. It’s deliberate,” Gilbert said.

Upon receiving claims that Israel was blocking aid, the U.S. conducted an investigation. Gilbert, a senior civil military advisor in the chief humanitarian office, was part of those efforts, but when she voiced that Israel was indeed blocking aid, her contribution was erased from the report, she claimed. She added that information she called “patently, demonstrably false” — that Israel was not blocking aid — was published. 

That report was used by the Biden administration to justify sending billions of dollars in weapons to Israel. Gilbert resigned shortly after in protest. She had worked in the Department of State for more than 20 years.

“That report will haunt us,” Gilbert said in the documentary, voice breaking and near tears. 

Gilbert was asked by the interviewer if the U.S. has blood on its hands. “Yes,” she said.

After the documentary, MEPPA hosted guest speaker Dr. Omer Ismail, who spent his spring working in Gazan hospitals as part of an aid convoy with a team of other doctors. He described his impressions upon entering Gaza through the Egyptian border crossing. 

“As you got closer to the border in Rafah, you could hear the drones. There’s a constant sound it makes — zzzznnnnnnnnnn. But you can’t see them; by the time you look up, it’s already moved,” Ismail said. “You could hear bombs. I remember thinking, ‘Will it look bad if I go back?’ I remember that feeling very clearly. But if anything, people were more driven.”

Ismail was then asked by an attendee about his experiences in the hospital in Gaza. 

“I wasn’t prepared to deal with the trauma. I worked with the ICU team; that was depressing. Machines were completely inaccurate — it was almost like this facade that we have equipment, but we don’t because none of it worked. The nursing staff was completely burned out,” Ismail said. “The medical and nursing staff actually live there; they have their families in tents behind the hospitals. There were no bedsheets, so there were a lot of bed sores. And there were so many flies. We ended up covering patients’ faces with gauze so that flies don’t eat their faces. A lot of burn patients in the ICU had maggots in their wounds. Eventually, we decided we were better off with maggots than infections…It was hard. Shortages were constantly changing; antibiotics ran out. Food came in waves. I ate a lot of cereal bars.” 

Kaiser asked Ismail if there had been any people he’d met or stories he’d heard that stuck with him.

“Every moment was like a story. Everyone wanted to tell you their story,” Ismail said. 

Ismail smiled as he spoke about the children in Gaza. 

“The kids are very lively. It gives the adults something to live for,” Ismail said.

Kaiser ended the event by emphasizing that MEPPA events are always open to Drake students and invited attendees to send any questions to the organization’s email, [email protected].