News - Middle East: Starvation of people is a war crime with devastating effects that will be felt for generations, says a famine expert, urging urgent humanitarian intervention and restoration of essential services to avert further tragedy and alleviate the suffering of the people of the Gaza Strip.

In an interview with the Press TV website, Alex de Waal, a social anthropologist and researcher at Tufts University, US, said the starvation in the besieged Palestinian strip is “man-made.”

 “The starvation of Gaza is man-made. It is a crime—certainly a war crime, possibly the crime of extermination, possibly the crime of genocide. Its effects will be experienced for generations,” he said.

De Waal is known for his work on humanitarian crises and famine and serves as the Executive Director of the World Peace Foundation at the Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy at Tufts University.

He fears that the situation in Gaza has already surpassed the famine threshold, with people suffering extremely and risks of further deprivation and epidemic diseases causing escalating death rates.

“Because journalists are not permitted to enter Gaza and aid workers are not able to collect the necessary data, it is not possible to say for certain how grave the humanitarian crisis is. I fear that it has passed famine thresholds,” he said in a conversation with the Press TV website.

“Even if it has not, the suffering is extreme, and the risk of further deprivation, and new factors such as epidemic disease causing escalating death rates, are real.”

De Waal, who has written extensively on starvation and famine crimes and has been involved in various humanitarian efforts in Africa and elsewhere, said famine is not just about hunger and deaths from starvation but also a social trauma.

“Famine is not just an aggregate of hunger and deaths from starvation. It is also a social trauma. The experience of starvation, and of witnessing the starvation of others, is deeply traumatizing,” he said.

“The disruptions to the social fabric and the destitution and humiliation that it causes cannot be underestimated. People who have been through mass starvation feel that they have been stripped of their basic human dignity.”

He hastened to add that child malnutrition also has lifelong effects and the ongoing situation is bound to impact future generations of Palestinians.

“Children exposed to starvation while they are young grow up with reduced physical and mental capabilities, in addition to the loss of essential years of learning in school and at home, and emotional maturation. Children born to mothers who experienced starvation when they were little girls are also disadvantaged compared to their peers.”