A seemingly trivial remark from an Israeli doctor was met with a barrage of fervor from MKs. ‘I’m not sure you’re speaking for us when you say we want to treat every child and every woman,’ said one
Israel’s Knesset held a first-of-its-kind discussion on the humanitarian crisis in the Gaza Strip. During a meeting last Thursday, Dr. Sharon Shaul from NATAN, an Israeli-based organization that provides humanitarian aid around the world, made a seemingly trivial remark: “I think that even everyone sitting around this table doesn’t want a suffering child to be unable to receive painkillers or minimal medical treatment.”
Israeli lawmaker Amit Halevi (Likud) angrily interrupted her: “I’m not sure you’re speaking for us when you say we want to treat every child and every woman. I hope you don’t stand behind that statement either. When fighting a group like this, the distinctions that exist in a normal world don’t exist.”
Amit Halevi at a meeting of the Land of Israel committee at Israel’s Knesset, in March.Credit: Sraya Diamant
Shaul didn’t back down: “I hope that you too don’t want a 4-year-old whose arm has been amputated to go without painkillers. I hope you have that empathy too.” Lawmaker Limor Son Har-Melech (Religious Zionism) couldn’t hold back: “The only treatment needed here is for you,” she said, pointing at Shaul. Another participant remarked: “You are the sickest doctor I’ve ever seen.”
The discussion was convened by MK Moshe Tur-Paz (Yesh Atid) as part of a subcommittee of the Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee dealing with public diplomacy and foreign relations. The issue at hand was not hunger in and of itself, but the diplomatic and public relations damage it might cause.
“To my understanding, the State of Israel does not intend to use hunger as a tool. I believe that even if there are no uninvolved civilians, in the Jewish morality I know, there is no permission to starve non-combatants, and I am under the impression that the Israeli government is not heading toward starving Gaza,” Tur-Paz said after the meeting.
But those who set the tone in the discussion were Halevi and Son Har-Melech. Contrary to Dr. Shaul’s hope, many around the table indeed thought that the starvation and torment of Gazan children is not only legitimate but even desirable.
Shifra Tzur Aryeh, who identified herself as a resident of the Gaza envelope, scolded the MKs for even holding the discussion. “Who are you pitying?” she shouted, repeating the false claim about the “disembowelment” of pregnant women during the October 7 attack as a reason why Gazans don’t deserve sympathy.
Another participant was Rashel Twito, a founder of Tzav 9, an organization that worked to block aid trucks during the first year of the war and whose activities sometimes led to the assault of drivers and the destruction of humanitarian supplies. Twito attributed the first hostage deal to Tzav 9’s actions – even though their activity began two months after that deal in 2023 and ended months before the second release deal in early 2025.
“We stood our ground and succeeded,” she said. “Every day we blocked trucks, and thanks to this action, we got the first wave and hostages returned. I’m not a sadist, but I know my enemy. In the end, there was a siege here, and it helped return hostages. It proved successful. I don’t care about international law or the UN – this is the only serious bargaining chip that works.”
Two girls carrying a water cooler in western Gaza City.Credit: Omar Al-Qattaa / AFP
Tzav 9 is considered an extremist group that was sanctioned by the Biden administration and the European Union. Facebook removed its page. But in yesterday’s discussion, Tzav 9 was at the heart of the consensus.
Even Nir Oz native Yizhar Lifshitz – son of Oded Lifshitz, who was kidnapped and murdered, and Yocheved, who was kidnapped and later released – praised Twito: “I respect you because at least you did something, and they (the politicians) only talk.”
Lifshitz argued that although “there are almost no innocents in Gaza, any moral person can understand that starving children is not something we can be proud of… There’s a line we need to make sure we don’t cross. Seeing mothers with dead children in their arms – is that what will bring back our hostages? Our strength also lies in the justice of our path.”
For that, he was harshly scolded by Son Har-Melech: “It’s terrible that you even bring that up. It’s terrible, awful, and horrific that you’re talking about starvation when our children were butchered so cruelly. I wouldn’t expect you to bring that up.”
There were also those at the discussion who tried to speak about the threat of hunger and the suffering of Gazan children. Arnon Khoury-Yafin, a statistician and economist who built a model to calculate food quantities in Gaza, tried to explain the situation to the MKs.
His model is based on calculating the amount of food brought into Gaza according to IDF data and the calories that can be derived from it. According to his model, on average, there is enough food in Gaza – but he has little doubt that the weakest and poorest populations in the Strip are suffering from severe malnutrition.
Displaced Palestinians receive food distributed by a charity kitchen at the Nuseirat refugee camp in the central Gaza Strip in May.Credit: AFP/EYAD BABA
“According to the model, we are already at a point where tens of thousands have no food at all or have less than 300 calories a day. Even if we look at the average, there may not be a caloric deficiency, but there is a deficiency in certain nutrients,” Arnon explained. He, too, was rebuked by MK Halevi, who didn’t need any model or complex calculations to declare: “There is no hungry person in Gaza, not even a single child. It’s a shame you are amplifying that lie – no one is lacking anything.”
In the closed session that followed, the IDF presented data similar to Khoury-Yafin’s. The army claims there is still enough food in the Strip if distributed equally, but even the IDF admits that “pockets of hunger” may have developed: families, children, and needy individuals unable to secure the minimum nutritional intake.
“I don’t think anyone in this room imagines that in 15 years we’ll look back and say, ‘It was great that we starved them – what a smart strategy,'” said Ron Yamin from the Political Headquarters of the Left-Wing Organizations Coalition.
Son Har-Melech once again couldn’t restrain herself: “No one is starving anyone – stop echoing Hamas lies!” Yamin did not give in: “The fate of a child who hasn’t eaten, who lost their home and family, is sealed. Hunger leads to despair, and despair leads to extremism. I’m here to warn you – if our stomachs don’t ache when we starve children, the headache will follow us for years. The experience of hunger gets imprinted on the body and soul, and it will stay with us for many years to come.”
“Your heart is broken,” Tzur Aryeh shouted at her.