For 15 months, Palestinians in the Gaza Strip have been subjected to a Zionist war of extermination and a systematic policy of starvation, due to the Zionist enemy’s obstruction of the entry of humanitarian aid, according to numerous UN and international institutions .
The Zionist war of extermination was not limited to bombing with warplanes, artillery and shells that claimed the lives of tens of thousands, but there is another kind of war that the United Nations and UNICEF have talked about and warned against, which is the systematic war of starvation by banning food supplies that people basically need .
Since October 7, 2023, the ongoing war of extermination waged by the Zionist enemy on the Gaza Strip has deprived citizens in general, and the people of Khan Yunis, in the south, in particular, of their custom of gathering to eat a hearty lunch full of meat and sweets on Fridays, because obtaining it has become impossible or a figment of the imagination .
Since the beginning of the war, the Gaza Strip has been subjected to a systematic starvation policy, as basic food items that help build the body are banned, especially for children and youth, and canned and processed foods are allowed to enter, which the Ministry of Health warns against consuming in large quantities because they contain preservatives that harm health .
When looking at what is allowed to be brought into the sector, it is canned food of various types, in addition to small quantities of basic food items such as flour, vegetables, fruits and meat, which makes their prices very high due to the scarcity of available food .
In this context, the Government Media Office in the Gaza Strip confirms that the Strip has reached a catastrophic stage due to the enemy’s adoption of a starvation policy, and that the enemy continues to close all crossings and prevents the entry of aid and food supplies into the Strip .
The media office condemned the complex crimes of the Zionist enemy against the Palestinian people, including the systematic starvation policy, and called on the Arab and Islamic countries to take a clear position towards what the Palestinian people are being subjected to .
The office said: “We are ringing the alarm bell to all countries of the world, and we demand that they put an end to what the sector is experiencing.”
The authorities in Gaza called on the United Nations Office for Humanitarian Affairs to manage the serious food crisis in the Strip, and called on Arab and Islamic countries to take a clear position on the crisis.
Famine has spread in most areas of the Gaza Strip, especially in the north, as a result of the persistence of genocide and starvation, coinciding with the arrival of winter for the second year in a row for about two million displaced Palestinians, most of whom live in tents .
It is noteworthy that the war on Gaza caused the destruction of all farms, which were spread in the agricultural areas, most of which are located east and north of the Strip, those areas that the Zionist enemy forces took control of and turned into a buffer zone in which there is no sign of life .
According to a report issued by the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO), the food crisis in the Gaza Strip remains the most severe in the history of the Global Report on Food Crises, with approximately 2.2 million people still in dire need of food and assistance .
International humanitarian law prohibits the starvation of civilians as a method of warfare. The United Nations also prohibits the use of starvation as a weapon in conflict, following a Security Council resolution issued in 2018, and considers it a “war crime.”
Article 8 of the International Criminal Court Statute states that “deliberately starving civilians by depriving them of objects indispensable to their survival, including wilfully impeding humanitarian relief supplies” is a war crime .
This is considered another type of collective punishment, and is rejected according to international humanitarian law and the Geneva Convention, especially Articles 33, 55 and 59. Article 27 requires the occupying forces not to make food, water and medical supplies, in any case, a type of collective punishment against civilians in the occupied areas .
The director of the NGO Network in Gaza, Amjad Al-Shawa, says: The Zionist enemy has been using starvation as a weapon since the beginning of its aggression on Gaza. The first decision it took was to stop the supplies of food, medicine and water, and what entered were simple exceptions after international pressure was exerted .
Al-Shawa added during an intervention on Cairo News Channel: Starvation is one of the weapons used against the Palestinian people, and the flour that has entered during the recent period is only a third of the needs, which are increasing.. pointing out that there is evidence on the ground that there are cases of severe malnutrition among children, and what enters the sector does not meet seven percent of the humanitarian needs of the population .
He added: In light of the bitter cold in the tents of Gaza, there is not enough aid and this is a dangerous humanitarian reality that the residents are living … stressing that the Zionist enemy is continuing its policy of starvation.
A video clip circulated on social media showed the reaction of a child in the Gaza Strip when he tasted a banana for the first time in his life, thinking it was a piece of chicken .
The circulation of this video comes at a time when international and relief organizations are constantly warning about the alarming level of severe food insecurity in the Gaza Strip . The Zionist enemy has imposed and continues to impose strict restrictions on the delivery of aid to the Palestinians in Gaza as part of a clear and systematic policy of starvation .
The video clip received a lot of interaction on social media platforms, as bloggers commented by saying: “Israel is an entity of evil and tyranny.”
At a time when famine is spreading and food prices are rising in the Gaza Strip, Gazans are standing in queues not to eat the missing chicken, vegetables and fruits, but to get a loaf of bread or any type of food that will satisfy their hunger. Sometimes, the quantities of available meals run out, and some people’s attempts to get food end in failure after a long wait .
The food shortage and systematic starvation policy have also affected infants, as the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees (UNRWA) has warned that baby milk supplies in Gaza are running low and are close to running out, putting the lives of thousands of infants at risk . Only six boxes of baby milk are left in the Strip, according to the agency, at a time when approximately 8,500 infants in the Strip are supposed to depend on them for milk .
As a result, social media platforms interacted with the Zionist starvation policy in the Gaza Strip, as bloggers said: “Day after day, death after death, hunger and hunger, no shelter, no security… This is how the days of the people of Gaza have been for more than a year.” They wondered: “We wake up every morning carrying with us questions about what the day will bring, such as will we find food to eat? And if we find it, what is the struggle or battle that we will face to obtain it? Will we all be safe today without anyone being harmed?”
With unlimited American support, the Zionist enemy has been committing genocide in Gaza since October 7, 2023, leaving more than 149,000 Palestinian martyrs and wounded, most of them children and women, and more than 11,000 missing, amid massive destruction and famine that killed dozens of children and elderly people.
