Nobel prize winners join call for immediate end Gaza occupation

According to Middle East Eye, 23 leading economists from the US and Europe signed a letter addressed to Benjamin Netanyahu, calling on him to abandon plans for a military occupation of Gaza City and to allow the unrestricted entry of food aid into the besieged enclave.

The first signatory of the letter is Daron Acemoglu, MIT economist, Nobel Prize winner, and co-author of the bestselling book Why Nations Fail. He shared the letter publicly on the social media platform X on Friday.

The letter states: "We write out of grave concern about the spread of famine in Gaza and Israel’s plan to concentrate civilians in a so-called ‘humanitarian city.’ As economists, scientists, and human beings, we call for the immediate end of any policies that exacerbate hunger on a mass scale."

Citing UN World Food Programme data, the economists stressed that nearly one-third of Gaza’s 2.1 million residents have gone several days without food, while market prices in the enclave are now ten times higher than just three months ago.

The economists also criticized the role of the so-called “Gaza Humanitarian Foundation,” an organization established by Israel under the pretext of distributing food aid, but which, according to them, has instead facilitated further atrocities. They described the foundation as “deadly.”