we are joined now by omar shakir.el and palestine director at human rights watch which has just published a report headlined "israel: starvation used as weapon of war in gaza." he is joining us from amman, jordan. omar, why don't you lay out your finding. folks we found five very disturbing trends coming together that lead us to this conclusion. the first of which has been more than two months the israeli government has been blocking all but a trickle of aid, food, and water entering the gaza strip. secondly, the israeli government has in essence cut off the entry and exit of goods from its own crossings with gaza despite being occupying power that is obligated to provide for the civilian population. third, satellite imagery we have been carefully studying shows the apparent deliberate razing of agricultural land. you can see entire farms turned into barren wasteland in different parts of the gaza strip. fourth, we look at the destruction of the kinds of objects necessary for human survival. bakeries, wheat meals, san

the director joins us now, omar shakir, with human rights watch. omar, thank you so much for being with us. i wanted to get your response to what the israeli government spokes person, elon levy, said to your organizations claim. quote, this is a lot. israel has capacity to inspect more than twice as many eight trucks entering gaza. we are still pumping water into gaza through two pipelines. we have placed no restrictions on food entry or water. director frustration hamas, which hijacks aid. what is your response to the israeli government? >> i think a lot of levy has not listened enough to his prime minister and other political officials. they have spread out in unequivocal terms that food, water, aid will be blocked from reaching the population of gaza until there aims in this particular campaign, whether it be the release of hostages or the eradication of a math, is achieved. starving population as a tool of war is a war crime under international law. the reality here is the israeli government, before october 7th, was facilitating the entry of goo

our second speaker is omar shakir, and omar serves as the israel and palestine director at the human rights watch where he investigateses human rights abus in israel, the west bank and gaza and has authored several major reports including in 20221 a report called a hold crossed which is a 200 -- threshold crossed which is a 2000-page report -- 200-page report which deals withnd the background into the occupation and the situation that we see in palestine and particularly in gaza right now. so i want to start with nathan, and you'll have opportunity to ask questions aty the end. but i want to start with nathan and just ask you about your choice to write this book. you could have whereupon this story -- written this story, you know, with a a number of entry points, but you chose this particular fam ally and this story of a father and the tragedy that befell his son and his family. and then you introduce us to many, many other issues and challenges ands. provocations. so why this story, and what has the journey been like for you? >> thank you. thank you, barbara. thank you all for comin

our second speaker is omar shakir and omar serves as the israel and palestine at the human rights watch, where he investigates human rights abuses in israel, in the west bank and gaza and has authored several major reports, including in 2021 a report called a threshold cross, which is a 200 page report with graphic illustrations that give a kind of context and background to the to the and to the situation that we in palestine in particularly in gaza right now. so i want start with nathan and you'll have opportunity to ask questions the end. but i want to start with nathan and just ask you about your choice to write this book. you could have written this story, you know, with a number of entry points, but you chose this particular family in the story of a father, the tragedy that befell his son and its family. and then, you introduce us to many, many other issues and challenges and provocations. so why this story and what is a journey been like for you? and welcome, chicago. thank you. thank barbara. thank you all for coming so. you know this story, there are a number of different ways t