Gaza government calls for international pressure on Israel to end ‘crime of starvation’

By Iyad Nabolsi

ISTANBUL (AA) - Gaza’s government urged the international community on Monday to pressure Israel to stop using “the crime of starvation” to pressure civilians in the enclave.

“The Israeli occupation and the US administration are using aid and food as political leverage against civilians in Gaza, perpetuating famine and worsening humanitarian conditions deliberately,” the government’s media office said in a statement.

Due to the ongoing war and Israeli-imposed restrictions that violate international laws, most of Gaza's approximately 2.4 million residents are facing famine, according to international groups.

The statement stressed that Gaza's residents “are enduring severe humanitarian conditions and a real famine, especially in Gaza City and Northern Gaza.”

It stressed that this situation "violates moral and humanitarian values and international law, exploiting the needs of children, civilians, and patients for political purposes, putting their lives at risk."

Israel has imposed a severe blockade on the enclave since 2006, and its recent military aggression has forced nearly 2 million residents into catastrophic conditions.

The media office warned that these human rights violations “will have unprecedented catastrophic and severe impacts on the humanitarian situation.”

It condemned the “crime of starvation” and called for those responsible to be brought before “international courts for committing these crimes.”

The office also urged the international community to “apply serious pressure to stop the genocide and the use of food and aid as political tools against civilians, children, patients, and the wounded.”

Flouting a UN Security Council resolution demanding an immediate cease-fire, Israel has faced international condemnation amid its continued brutal offensive on Gaza since an Oct. 7, 2023 attack by Hamas.

More than 37,300 Palestinians have since been killed in Gaza, most of them women and children, and more than 85,000 others injured, according to local health authorities.

Over eight months into the Israeli war, vast tracts of Gaza lie in ruins amid a crippling blockade of food, clean water and medicine.

Israel stands accused of genocide at the International Court of Justice, whose latest ruling ordered Tel Aviv to immediately halt its operation in Rafah, where over a million Palestinians had sought refuge from the war before it was invaded on May 6.

*Writing by Mohammad Sio