The Famine Early Warning Systems Network (FEWS NET) – an initiative funded by USAID, the US government agency that oversees foreign aid – has taken down a report on its website that sounded the alarm about tens of thousands of Palestinians in northern Gaza at risk of death under Israeli siege.Â
The report was published on Monday and used figures provided by the United Nations.
According to the news outlet Jewish Insider, which initially reported on the report’s withdrawal, FEWS NET had described a “near-total blockade of humanitarian and commercial food supplies to besieged areas of North Gaza Governorate,” and stated that 65,000 to 75,000 civilians remained in the area, “including civilians who have been unable to or prevented from evacuating”.
The US ambassador to Israel, Jacob Lew, quickly reprimanded FEWS NET on social media.Â
The data, he said, “is outdated and inaccurate”.
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“We have worked closely with the Government of Israel and the UN to provide greater access to the North Governorate, and it is now apparent that the civilian population in that part of Gaza is in the range of 7,000-15,000, not 65,000-75,000 which is the basis of this report,” he wrote.Â
The Coordinator of Government Activities in the Territories – better known as COGAT, which is the Israeli government’s regulatory body for Gaza – “estimates the population in this area is between 5,000 and 9,000”, Lew said.Â
Unrwa, the Palestinian refugee agency, “estimates the population is between 10,000 and 15,000”, he added.Â
“At a time when inaccurate information is causing confusion and accusations, it is irresponsible to issue a report like this.”
— Ambassador Jack Lew (@USAmbIsrael) December 24, 2024
The backlash was swift.
In response to Lew, Yousef Munayyer, the head of the Israel/Palestine Program at the Arab Center Washington DC, said on X that what Lew meant to say was that “Israel can’t be starving these people in that area because they have already ethnically cleansed it”.
The Council on American-Islamic Relations (Cair), the largest Muslim civil rights and advocacy organisation in the US, condemned Lew’s remarks and demanded that FEWS NET make its report available to the public.
“Ambassador Lew’s callous dismissal of this shocking report by a US-backed agency exposing Israel’s campaign of forced starvation in Gaza reminds one of the old joke about a man who murdered his parents and then asked for mercy because he is now an ‘orphan’,” a statement by CAIR said.Â
“To reject a report on starvation in northern Gaza by appearing to boast about the fact that it has been successfully ethnically cleansed of its native population is just the latest example of Biden administration officials supporting, enabling and excusing Israel’s clear and open campaign of genocide in Gaza.”
Israel launched its devastating war on Gaza after the Hamas-led attacks on 7 October last year. Its bombing campaign, ground invasion and siege of the Gaza Strip has killed over 45,000 people, the majority of which are women and children.
