Why Is Is-rael Killing So Many Pales-tinians in Quest of Food?
People in Ga-za are starving. Children cry for bread. Mothers stand in long bread lines for flour. Fathers walk miles in search of water. These are simple actions – basic human needs. But, sadly, many Pales-tinians are dying, simply for trying to survive.
When people are killed and injured, families grieve. It becomes even saddening when we learn that many of them were dead, just trying to source food, and didn’t make it home.
Why is this happening? Why are people getting killed while searching for food? This blog will examine the facts, the reasons, and the psychology behind this type of violence. I’ll do my best to present these sources with humanity and compassion.
Read more: Boycotting Products: What Psychology Reveals
Starvation in Ga-za
Ga-za is under siege. This means no food, no fuel, and no clean drinking water passing guilt easily. Is-rael controls the borders of Ga-za. Conditions began deteriorating significantly in October 2023.
Food trucks attempt to enter. Large crowds gather quickly. Many people are starving. Children wait in the scorching hot sun for hours. Some families go home with nothing, and some never return home at all. Is-rael’s military has bombed humanitarian convoys. The Is-raeli military has also shot at families waiting in the heat for bread. Many people’s lives are lost during these moments.
These horrifying attacks shock our world. Human rights groups and experts declare these to be crimes. Politicians and leaders raise concerns and demand answers. But, there seems to be no meaningful change.
Why Target the Hungry?
This question elicits a visceral reaction but is essential. Why would any military shoot at people who are just hungry? One potential reason is that hunger is a weapon used to break the will of people. When people no longer believe in the possibility of some hope, they inevitably stop providing resistance. The hunger becomes the weapon of the attacker. It won’t be accepted by Israel, yet, it is unmistakable. If you control the food, you control the person.
Sometimes the excuse is security, maybe the army says there was “chaos”, or that there were “threats”. But, there are many videos, that show unarmed, un-militarized people with no guns, just bags, just bread. They were still shot.
Psychology: The Salience of Dehumanization
In psychology, we term this process dehumanization. To dehumanize means to see people as less than a person. Soldiers, warriors, and governments talk about a whole community by calling parts of it “terrorists,” or other words that suggest they are a threat. Once we make that distinction, the brain stops seeing the human connection. It does not feel sympathy as it should.
Once we’ve done this, it starts to become easier to enact violence upon those “others.” You don’t see a mother, you don’t see a child, what you see is an enemy. This type of perspective fosters the impulse toward violence, this process makes killing the norm, which is a danger in its own right but also takes away any culpability or guilt.
The same is true in the case of Ga-za; whole portions of Is-raeli leadership and media have ultimately given up calling Pales-tinians anything resembling a human, and its deadly consequences; when people just looking for food become fodder for bombers.
Once you have dehumanized people, there is no safe place to eat.
The laws of war say that civilians should be spared; it is a part of international law. However, in Ga-za there is no safe place; there isn’t even a safe place to eat, bombers are bombing bakeries, airstrikes help destroy food warehouses, and aid trucks are denied entry.
All and all, the intent seems to be to starve an entire region of people. If people are starving, they will never be able to fight back, if families are starving, they will completely lose the will to survive.
This is more than an act of war. It is a slow promise to destroy.
The World Watches Quietly
Countries speak about peace. They give speeches. And they provide limited assistance. They do not stop the violence. Oftentimes powerful nations continue to support Is-rael. Also, some provide weapons.
This silence is not neutral. Neutral is approval, or condoning. Silence tells Is-rael, “Continue.” The killings persist. The Pales-tinians suffer. Pales-tinians are burying children in mass graves wrapped in white cloth.
Psychology: Obedience versus Moral Degeneration
Another important factor in psychology is moral disengagement. That is turning off conscience. People choose to obey orders regardless of how they feel. A soldier can state, “I was just doing my job.”
History has shown this multiple times. Warfare can unconsciously lead individuals to make decisions opposed to morality. The human mind can convince and manipulate people to justify cruelty. This act of brainwashing can lead to murderous behavior. People are processing and obeying commands instead of following their hearts.
In Ga-za, perhaps this explains how and why people are killed while starving. Soldiers are trained to view every member of a crowd as a danger. Then, the only thing that can be viewed as a danger is the danger in real-time and that only happens extremely rarely. Yet, the mind is still in danger mode. They pull the trigger before they process. This results in death.
Control Through Hunger
When Is-rael reduces food, panic is created. People run to get supplies. Soon the crowd becomes a mob. The military then states they have lost control of the situation. All of this was created from the act of their blockade.
They created the problem and then used this chaos as an excuse. This is a type of control. When hunger is weaponized, people suffer doubly: first by starvation and when they resist by violence.
Aid Is Not a Crime
To attempt to eat is not a crime. To walk and get flour is not an act of war. Even more, to stand in line for bread is not a danger. Yet Is-rael sees these acts as threats.
Humanitarian organizations have attempted to assist. Transport trucks come with food loads. But these trucks are often assaulted by armed Is-raeli forces. Sometimes they impede the supplies completely by bombing the roads; sometimes they impede the aid by blocking them entirely.
Pain, Not Peace
Violence—it only breeds violence. Killing the hungry will not provide safety. Only more pain. Only more fear. Families lose hope. Children grow up in fear. Peace cannot take root in an empty stomach and a broken heart.
Justice must be the starting point. People must be treated with dignity. Only then we can hope to consider peace again.
Concluding Thoughts
Ga-za is starving. But even worse, Ga-za is bleeding. People are dying simply because they are seeking food. This is not a war; it is cruelty. It must come to an end.
Psychology demonstrates how we can act, and how the mind can embrace horrible acts when dehumanization and moral blindness ensue. And while humanity has trouble unlearning this behavior, hearts can change. Minds can heal.
The world needs to raise its voice… Not just in words but in action. Food should never be a target. Hunger should never be punished. Every lost life over a loaf of bread is a blemish on humanity as a whole.
Let us not turn away. Let us not forget. And let us never be silent.
