Opinion: A U.S. arms embargo is needed now to force a Gaza ceasefire
Israeli forces recently bombed the last functional hospital in northern Gaza, and World Health Organization (WHO) officials report that they are no longer able to contact the hospital staff. This is the latest in over 500 recorded attacks on health care facilities in Gaza.
The news comes on the heels of a recent report published by the United Nations Development Program, finding that the year-long war in Gaza has set Palestine's development back by 70 years, leaving in its wake a "vast wasteland of rubble and twisted steel" and a population "rapidly exhausting all available means for their survival."
A statement drafted in September by the WHO illuminates the depth of the tragedy; after a year of war, "[m]ore than 2 million Palestinians are without protection, food, water, sanitation, shelter, health care, education, electricity and fuel — the basic necessities to survive." The statement goes on to outline that all 2.1 million residents are at risk of famine and that relief workers have been attacked and killed in, "unprecedented numbers." This is what it looks like when the means of survival are exhausted.
With no end to the war in sight, the death toll continues to rise rapidly. Since the publication of the WHO statement in September, the death toll has risen from 41,000 to over 42,000.
Where is the United States in all of this?
Our nation is supplying, funding, and shipping weapons to Israel to exhaust the means of survival for Palestinians. A paper released this month by the Watson Institute for International and Public Affairs at Brown University calculated that from Oct. 7, 2023 to Sept. 30, 2024, the United States spent $22.67 billion dollars on Israel's military operations and the related U.S. operations in the region. In fact, for the past five decades, the United States has been Israel's primary source of weapons.
This uniquely positions Americans to have an impact on the war on Gaza. A U.S. arms embargo could force a ceasefire.
The Biden Administration last month took the first action that signaled the possibility of restricting military aid. In an Oct. 13 letter to Israeli officials, U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken and Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin gave Israel 30 days to improve the humanitarian situation in Gaza or risk the loss of military aid from the United States. The letter specifically outlined a need to improve conditions in northern Gaza.
However, Israel is not using these 30 days to improve the humanitarian situation. Rather, they are escalating their military campaign in northern Gaza. Three days after receiving the warning from the United States, Israel killed Hamas leader, Yahya Sinwar providing additional incentive to end the war.
Instead, Israel subsequently intensified bombing of civilian infrastructure, killing 115 Palestinians and injuring over 500. The situation in northern Gaza forced the WHO to postpone its polio vaccination campaign.
On Oct. 22, Philippe Lazzarin, the commissioner general of the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees (UNRWA), posted the following SOS from UNRWA staff in northern Gaza:
Nearly three weeks of non-stop bombardments from the Israeli Forces as the death toll increases.
Our staff report they cannot find food, water or medical care. The smell of death is everywhere as bodies are left lying on the roads or under the rubble. Missions to clear the bodies or provide humanitarian assistance are denied.
In northern Gaza, people are just waiting to die. They feel deserted, hopeless and alone. They live from one hour to the next, fearing death at every second...
On behalf of our staff in northern Gaza, I am calling for an immediate truce, even if for few hours, to enable safe humanitarian passage for families who wish to leave the area and reach safer places.
This is the bare minimum to save the lives of civilians who have nothing to do with this conflict.
Ceasefire now.
This is what it looks, and smells, and feels like to exhaust the means for survival. As Israel's primary weapons supplier, America is uniquely positioned to end these atrocities — not in 30 days, but now.
Contact the Biden Administration and our elected officials to demand an arm embargo and permanent ceasefire now. Our tax dollars should not fund the decimation of Palestine.
Rodrigues is an academic and studies social inequality. She lives in Springfield, Missouri.
