Northern Gaza in final stages of famine as US tries to suppress report on christmas day

Alameen Templeton

Just four trucks carrying aid reached starving residents in northern Gaza this month as three major organisations confirmed Israel’s genocide is now well advanced, but the West’s ears were deafened by jingling bells and songs about goodwill to all men.
The streets of Bethlehem in the besieged West Bank are deserted, bereft of the usual gaudy street lights display and well-heeled tourists flashing cash and just bursting to see the supposed “birthplace of baby Jesus”.
They’re staying away this year because they don’t want to see Manger Square without its usual decorations that draw them there every December in feigned bonhomie.
Home is where the heart is
So, they’re staying home this year instead, where they can watch it all on social media while they vote for their governments to continue feeding their Lawnmower allies with all the weaponry needed to “get the job done”.
It seems it’s best to look away when someone else is doing your dirty work.
Christians in Bethlehem can’t pretend. They’re subjected to the same conditions as their Muslim neighbours with whom they’ve lived in peace for over 1 400 years. They couldn’t bring themselves to celebrate anything according to their traditions that carouse on with joyful abandon and callous indifference in the rest of the Christian world.
Their town is a concentration camp, locked down, under curfew, murderous killers in uniform roaming the streets and signs of conflict everywhere. They see what is unfolding in Gaza and know the Zionists say they’re next.
Many of those Zionists are sitting in Donald Trump’s cabinet. Most of them deny Palestine exists and several support complete Israeli control of the entire West Bank and Al-Quds.
Last-stage famine coming
And they don’t give a damn about Christians in Bethlehem.
Over the past three months, just 12 aid trucks managed to distribute food to starving civilians in northern Gaza, Oxfam noted Monday. Thirty four managed to cross the notorious Netzarim Corridor into the area, but 22 failed to make it through is genocidal sieve of teenage soldier waving them aside and destroying their contents.
“A Famine (IPC Phase 5) scenario continues to unfold in North Gaza Governorate”, a headline screams on the Famine Early Warning Systems Network website, fews.net, banner during a Google search. But access is restricted. “You are not authorized to access this page,” I’m told.
How very Israeli.
“The information provided on this Website is not official U.S. Government information and does not represent the views or positions of the U.S. Agency for International Development or the U.S. Government.” Aaaah. USAID.
So, it must be true
Fewsnet’s last press release was in November, over three weeks ago. It warned:
“A Famine (IPC Phase 5) scenario is unfolding amid the near-total blockade of food supplies into North Gaza governorate, according to the Famine Early Warning Systems Network (FEWS NET).
Next stage is death
“In a new Gaza Strip Food Security Alert, FEWS NET reported that the severity of acute food insecurity in North Gaza governorate has sharply worsened since early October 2024 when the Israeli Defense Forces launched a large-scale military operation that severely restricted humanitarian and commercial food supply flows.
“As of early November, an estimated 75,000-95,000 people in North Gaza have been isolated from food supplies and nutrition services for at least 40 days, and the availability of health services is increasingly dire.
“If food supply flows do not dramatically increase, FEWS NET analysts warn that Famine (IPC Phase 5) will become the most likely outcome in North Gaza governorate.”
Now, famine has stalked the kill zone for a month and still the rest of the world imagines a beery hug of self, a slobbery kiss and a mumbled mantra about goodwill proves they’re still all good people.
The US government is its usual denialist desire to keep the mask in place seems to be preventing Fewsnet from publishing its findings.
Starvation a week away
Fewsnet has warned “deaths from starvation could surpass famine levels as soon as next month”.
That’s next week. People experiencing famine conditions will begin dying.
Al Jazeera seems to have run into the same problems while trying to access the latest Fewsnet report Wednesday.
It’s reporting Fewsnet’s line last month, that famine conditions are unfolding in northern Gaza. Today, the Google headline kicker to the “access verboten” press release says “Famine (IPC Phase 5) scenario continues to unfold” in the kill zone. That “continues” is an important addition, implying the effects of famine are now a month old.
IPC 5 is the most acute stage of famine before death. That acute stage has continued for over a month and the Americans are now trying to stop the news emerging in time to spoil the Pope’s seasonal message.
So, Mr Francis, US earmuffs conveniently deafening him to the Fewsnet warning, only paused to denounced the “extremely grave” situation in Gaza and he prayed for peace in a very goodwill-to-all-men kind of way.
Markaz Sahaba is not sure if the Americans are trying to keep the news from the people or the Oval Office, where Genocide Joe is dozing away his last days of murderous culpability.
Keeping Biden blind
Speaking to Al Jazeera as the report suppression unfolded Wednesday, Hassan Barari, a professor of international relations at Qatar University, said it reflected the “rift within the administration about how to manage the war and how to manage Netanyahu”.
“Biden is seen as if he’s given a blank cheque to Netanyahu to do whatever he wants to do in Gaza.
“He has refused to sign a ceasefire. He [is] depopulating … blockading the north of Gaza, and this cost the Democratic Party [the general] election, or it actually contributed to their losses,” he said.
The US administration speaks about a ceasefire and humanitarian aid, but at the same time, “they try to deny the facts, which is Israeli systematic policy of genocide”, Barari said.
And all that mute filiblustering denial on “the happiest day of the year”.
Nazi Israel had murdered another 23 Palestinians while Washington was wrestling with inconvenient facts Wednesday, taking the death toll to 45 360, according to the Gaza Health Ministry, which even the Americans have given up denying, probably because experts say the count is undoubtedly much higher.
As the Palestine Chronicle noted Tuesday “numbers are greatly underestimated. This is because the ministry only confirms a casualty, be it dead or injured, when a person arrives at any given hospital or clinic that is supervised by the ministry. Only when an official record is established, a casualty is counted as such.
“This explains why anywhere between 10,000 to 11,000 continue to be counted as missing. But even the number is greatly undercounted, because, according to the methods of the ministry, someone would have to officially be registered as missing by a relative, in order for that number to be added to the ever-growing list.
Only Allah knows
“There are many who have gone missing, without being officially counted as such simply because either whole families have been killed together or many of the survivors have no access to the Ministry of Health itself, or the Red Cross to report the loss of loved ones.
“Additionally, many thousands have perished due to easily curable diseases, polluted water, starvation, lack of access to basic treatments – these include cancer patients, heart patients, among other chronic or terminal illnesses – and those who have died and have been buried without being accounted for as victims of the Israeli genocide.”
In Syria, Christians celebrated their day for the first time – for a long time – in Damascus where the only casualty was a Christmas tree.