Forty years ago, the world's conscience was shocked into action by images of emaciated children and starving babies dying in their mothers' arms. There was a surge in international aid, airdrops of food and activism from the world's most popular artists. Thanks to the news media and events such as Live Aid, we could not look away from the hungry in Ethiopia.
A generation later, people of good conscience must now stop the starvation in Gaza. There is no excuse for the world to stand by and watch two million human beings suffer on the brink of full-blown famine.
This is not a natural disaster triggered by drought or crop failures. It's a man-made crisis, and there are man-made solutions that could save lives today. The hunger catastrophe in Gaza is entirely caused by the men of war on both sides of the Erez crossing: the ones who massacred Israeli civilians on Oct. 7, 2023, and the ones who have been killing tens of thousands of Palestinian civilians in the more than 21 months since.
We are far beyond the blame game of who is the more guilty party. We don't have the time to argue about who is holding up the food trucks.
A starving human being needs food today, not tomorrow.
As the occupying force, the Israelis are responsible for the basic survival of civilians in Gaza. Some people may find this unfair, but it is international law. To that end, the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation, an Israeli-backed aid group, put a new plan in place that distributes food from a few hubs, which forced desperately hungry people to walk for miles and risk their lives. At the time it was created, international aid groups warned this would be dangerous and ineffective. Those warnings have sadly proved true.
It's time to start over.
Food cannot flow quickly enough to Gaza right now. The World Food Program, led by its American executive director, Cindy McCain, said last week that one-third of Gaza's population had not eaten for multiple days in a row. Small children are dying of starvation in numbers that are rising rapidly.
World Central Kitchen, the international aid group I founded, works with our partners in Gaza to cook tens of thousands of meals a day. Last week we resumed cooking a limited number of hot meals after a five-day pause caused by a lack of ingredients. It was the second time we were forced to stop cooking because of food shortages this year. Our teams on the ground are committed and resilient, but our day-to-day ability to sustain cooking operations remains uncertain.
Since the start of the war, we have prepared and distributed more than 133 million meals across Gaza, through large field kitchens and a network of smaller community kitchens. We have delivered thousands of meals to displaced Israeli families, including last month when Israeli towns and cities came under intense missile attacks from Iran.
The Israeli government has claimed that Hamas is stealing the food in Gaza. It also says it is doing "everything possible" to feed Palestinians.
Here is the reality we have seen on the ground. Before Israel's blockade of humanitarian aid, which started in March, our convoys experienced very little violence or looting. After the blockade was lifted, the situation worsened significantly, with widespread looting and anarchy. It is rare now for trucks entering Gaza to make it safely to our kitchens or those of other aid groups without being looted. Drivers and kitchen workers are often attacked by armed groups of unknown origin.
The blockade that was supposed to pressure what's left of Hamas only strengthened these gunmen and gangs. It precipitated mass deprivation and the collapse of society in Gaza.
Our proposal is to change how we feed people, secure distribution and scale up quickly.
- First, we urgently need to open humanitarian corridors accessible to all aid groups operating in Gaza, to ensure that food, water and medicine can arrive safely and at scale.
- Second, we need to substantially increase production of hot meals. Unlike bulk food supplies, hot meals have little resale value for organized gangs.
- Third, we need to feed people where they are. We must deliver meals to where the Palestinian people are sheltering rather than expect them to travel to a few distribution points where violence often breaks out.
- Fourth, we want to prepare one million meals a day, not tens of thousands. We estimate this would require five large cooking facilities in safe zones where bulk food supplies can be delivered, prepared and distributed without risk of violence. These large kitchens would also supply hundreds of smaller community kitchens at the neighborhood level throughout Gaza, empowering communities as essential partners.
This proposal is dependent on securing food, equipment and vehicles. By itself, it won't be sufficient. We want to see all aid groups operating in Gaza able to work freely in their own way.
I understand that many Israelis are still grieving and are focusing first on their own. On the long list of those who continue to suffer, there are the surviving hostages, the traumatized families and the wounded soldiers.
We have seen in the past several months how Israel is able to pursue what it sees as its national interest with courage. The challenge of feeding starving Palestinians is no different.
We are approaching the Jewish fast of Tisha B'Av, which commemorates the destruction of two holy temples in Jerusalem. It is a solemn day of suffering and remembrance.
The Book of Isaiah reminds us that fasting is not enough. The true fast is to share our bread with the hungry and give our clothes to the naked.
"If you extend your soul to the hungry and satisfy the afflicted soul, then your light shall dawn in the darkness," it reads. If we want to light the darkness, we need to extend our soul to the hungry. And we need to do it now.
José Andrés is a chef and the founder of World Central Kitchen, an international aid group.
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