Your anonymous correspondent quibbles with the use of the term “siege” to describe Israel’s imposition of control over Gaza (There is no seige while borders are open, October 10).

He or she prefers to describe the situation as a normal imposition of border controls.

The facts of the matter are that Israel has imposed a blockade of Gaza, which has been condemned by the UN and every relevant human rights monitoring and aid agency, and led even David Cameron, a self-proclaimed friend of Israel, to describe Gaza as a prison camp.

Numerous reports have detailed the impact of this blockade upon the health and wellbeing of the Palestinians living in Gaza, 50 per cent of whom are under 18.

I would urge readers to visit the website of the UN organisation for the Commission of Humanitarian Affairs (Ocha), for details of this impact at ochaopt. org.

Some key facts are that 57 per cent of Gaza households are food insecure and about 80 per cent are aid recipients.

More than a third of those able and willing to work are unemployed – one of the highest unemployment rates in the world.

Only a quarter of households receive running water every day, for several hours only.

Israel has not simply sought to control the entry of weapon-making material, but has exercised control over the entry and exit of any goods, including food and medical supplies, in what amounts to a collective punishment of an entire population.

The reality of this policy was made clear in 2012 after an Israeli human rights group forced publication of Israel’s so-called red lines document, the plans set out by the Ministry of Defence on how to operate the blockade.

This showed Israel had calculated the minimum number of calories needed by Gaza’s 1.5m inhabitants to avoid malnutrition.

Those figures were then translated into truckloads of food Israel was supposed to allow in each day.

This made concrete the previously reported remarks of a key adviser to the Israeli prime minister at the beginning of the blockade that the plan was “not to starve the Palestinians but to put them on a diet”.

Israel has found reasons to reduce deliveries below its own accepted limit, leading to health agencies, including the Red Cross, to report a severe risk of malnutrition.

The UN reported in 2012 that, unless the blockade was lifted, Gaza would be uninhabitable by 2020.

All of this was before Israel’s most recent assault which, alongside the thousands of deaths, destroyed 18,000 homes and destroyed or damaged 118 schools and 67 hospitals and health clinics.

Your correspondent may perhaps be right in saying this does not meet the legal definition of a siege.

Their deeper point that people should not exercise concern about a policy that can only be described as extraordinarily cruel is only possible if one is prepared to put aside normal understanding of what constitutes acceptable international conduct and behaviour.

BEN JAMAL

Richmond and Kingston Palestine Solidarity Campaign