Biden Admin Tells Congress Famine Is Underway In Gaza For First Time

A top Biden administration official has for the first time declared that famine now exists in parts of the Gaza Strip, more than five months after the Israel-Hamas war began. 

USAID Director Samantha Power said it is “credible” to assess that famine is already occurring. Her testimony was issued at Wednesday’s House Foreign Affairs Committee hearing, where in her introductory statement she laid out that “nearly the entire population” of Gaza is “living under the threat of famine.”

The United Nations defines famine as when there is widespread malnutrition as well as hunger-related deaths due to a lack of access to food in a locale or country.

According to more from Power’s testimony before Congress:

USAID Administrator Samantha Power, a well-known liberal interventionist and the author of a famous book on American leaders’ failure to act in the face of genocide, answered in the affirmative after U.S. Rep. Joaquin Castro (D-Texas) asked whether “famine is already occurring” in Gaza, which is under a suffocating Israeli siege and relentless bombing campaign.

“Yes,” said Power. “In northern Gaza, the rate of malnutrition prior to October 7th was almost zero, and it is now one in three—one in three kids.”

“USAID teams have been working day and night to address the catastrophic humanitarian crisis,” Power added. “Food has not flowed in sufficient quantities to avoid this imminent famine in the south and these conditions that are giving rise already to child deaths in the north,” she described.

The following three conditions must be present for a crisis to be deemed famine, according to more from the United Nations definition:

• At least 20 per cent of the population in that particular area are facing extreme levels of hunger;
• 30 per cent of the children in the same place are wasted, or too thin for their height; and
• The death – or mortality – rate has doubled, from the average, surpassing two deaths per 10,000 daily for adults and four deaths per 10,000 daily for children.

USAID Director Power and other Biden admin officials have been center of increased outrage among progressive Democrats over their pro-Israel policies.

The very hearing that Power testified in was at one point interrupted activists who shouted denunciations at the USAID chief for “not using her power and influence to end” the assault. Progressive activist group Code Pink led the protests…

At Samantha Power’s hearing with the House Foreign Affairs Committee. SAMANTHA POWER IS COMPLICIT! pic.twitter.com/jCGWoV2uHy

— Medea Benjamin (@medeabenjamin) April 10, 2024

The protesters pointed out the contradiction in Biden’s policy – on the one hand it decries famine and a humanitarian disaster in Gaza, but on the other continues arming Israel, and all the while is unwilling to attach conditions on defense aid.