"Apocalyptic Wasteland" How US Envoys Suppressed USAID Gaza Warning

The suppression of a USAID humanitarian cable in early 2024 illustrates how internal U.S. reporting on Gaza’s collapse was constrained at a critical moment of the war. Drafted three months after the Oct. 7, 2023 Hamas attack, the February 2024 cable warned senior U.S. officials that northern Gaza had become an “Apocalyptic Wasteland,” citing acute shortages of food, water, and medical care.

According to Reuters, U.S. Ambassador to Jerusalem Jack Lew and his deputy Stephanie Hallett blocked the cable’s wider distribution, arguing it lacked balance.

Four former U.S. officials said the decision prevented graphic first-hand accounts from reaching senior leadership inside the Biden administration.

“Catastrophic Human Needs”

The cable drew on United Nations fact-finding missions conducted in January and February 2024. USAID staff relayed observations of human remains on roads, bodies left in vehicles, and what they described as “catastrophic human needs, particularly for food and safe drinking water.”

Three former officials said the unusually graphic descriptions would likely have intensified scrutiny of a National Security Memorandum issued that same month, which conditioned U.S. weapons and intelligence support on Israel’s compliance with international law.

A Cable That Never Traveled

The February cable was one of five USAID messages drafted in early 2024 documenting the rapid breakdown of health, sanitation, and food systems across Gaza. Six former officials told Reuters that all five were blocked by Lew and Hallett over concerns about balance.

One cable approved in January 2024, focused on food insecurity across Gaza, did reach senior officials and was included in the President’s Daily Brief. That assessment warned of famine risks in the north and severe food insecurity elsewhere due to restricted deliveries. Deputy National Security Adviser Jon Finer was said to be surprised by how quickly conditions had deteriorated.

Former USAID officials described a pattern of skepticism from senior policymakers toward humanitarian reporting that relied heavily on U.N. agencies, including UNRWA, because USAID has had no staff inside Gaza since 2019. One former disaster response official summarized the internal dynamic bluntly: “Simply put, humanitarian expertise was repeatedly sidelined, blocked, ignored.”

Siege Conditions and Policy Signals

The cables emerged amid a policy environment shaped by Israel’s siege tactics. In August 2025, Israeli Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich stated, “Water, electricity, and food must be cut off from Gaza. Those who don’t die by bullets will die of hunger or surrender.”

Humanitarian groups and U.N. agencies have repeatedly warned that strikes and blockades targeting water systems have left millions exposed to thirst, disease, and hunger, with children disproportionately affected.

Deliberate targeting of water resource is still stark. For instance, Gaza’s water system was systematically crippled between June and September 2025, showing strikes on water infrastructure, blocked aid, and contamination of aquifers. With nearly 90% of water and sanitation systems damaged, millions daily faced shortages, disease risk, and hunger, as civilians queue for scarce water amid widespread urban destruction.

By Dec. 20, 2025, U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres warned that 1.6 million people - more than 75 percent of Gaza’s population - faced extreme food insecurity, even as famine was temporarily averted.

The Gaza Health Ministry has reported more than 71,000 deaths since October 2023, a toll that has been cited by multiple international bodies and, in aggregate terms, acknowledged by Israeli Defence Forces briefings. Palestinian officials say the violence has not fully abated, noting that at least 481 additional deaths were recorded during the ceasefire period, underscoring the fragility of de-escalation efforts and the continued exposure of civilians to lethal risk.

Political and Institutional Friction

The Biden administration publicly acknowledged humanitarian suffering. In February 2024, President Joe Biden said Israel’s response was “over the top,” noting that “a lot of innocent people… are starving.”

Yet internally, former officials said cables describing starvation were sometimes questioned with remarks such as “where are all the skinny kids?” Reuters reported that Hallett at times requested edits or questioned whether cables were necessary because similar information appeared in media coverage.

The blocked February 2024 cable had cleared USAID field offices and the State Department’s Office of Palestinian Affairs before being halted at the embassy level. Former officials said Hallett would not have acted without Lew’s approval. Neither responded to Reuters’ requests for comment.

The episode underscores how access constraints, political sensitivity, and diplomatic gatekeeping shaped what U.S. decision-makers formally acknowledged as Gaza’s humanitarian crisis deepened.