‘ISRAEL has been intentionally starving the Palestinian people in Gaza since October 8,’ the UN special rapporteur on the right to food, Michael Fakhri said yesterday, adding that ‘famine may very well be already occurring’.
‘The only way to end/prevent this famine is an immediate ceasefire, and the only way to get a ceasefire is to sanction Israel,’ he continued.
As a UN special rapporteur, Fakhri is an independent expert in human rights appointed by the UN Human Rights Council.
Gaza’s Health Ministry reported yesterday that at least 15 children have died in the past few days from malnutrition and dehydration at the Kamal Adwan Hospital in Gaza City.
The US-backed Israeli genocidal war on the Gaza Strip entered day 149 yesterday, massive aerial and artillery strikes continued to pound neighbourhoods, homes and shelter centres and massacre more civilians, mostly children and women.
Gaza’s government media office said in a statement: ‘The famine is still deepening in the governorates of the Gaza Strip to a great extent. 2,400,000 people are still suffering from severe food shortages.’
Israel’s targeting of relief convoys, the latest of which was an aid truck in Deir el-Balah in the central Gaza Strip, is ‘an affirmation and insistence on its part to continue the war of genocide,’ said Hamas in a statement yesterday.
‘The occupation’s continued targeting of aid convoys expresses an unprecedented level of criminality and brutality in contemporary history.
‘Israel is practising systematic starvation and deepening the humanitarian catastrophe in the Gaza Strip in complete disregard for humanitarian laws,’ the statement added.
As Israeli forces continued to besiege al-Amal Hospital in Khan Younis for the 42nd consecutive day yesterday, the Palestine Red Crescent Society (PRCS) said food supplies are sufficient only for one more week. The available drinking water is enough for three more days, it said on Sunday.
‘Continuous shelling and gunfire around the hospital or directly targeting it endanger the safety of patients and medical teams, making it difficult for medical and nursing teams to move between hospital floors to monitor patient conditions,’ the PRCS said.
- US Senator Bernie Sanders has called for an end to funding for Netanyahu’s government.
‘Hundreds of thousands of children are facing starvation. Stop this war right now – no more money for Netanyahu’s government,’ Sanders said on Saturday.
- Palestinian factions have called for a global campaign at the beginning of the holy month of Ramadan to support the Palestinians as the Israeli regime continues its brutal war against the Gaza Strip.
In a statement yesterday, the factions urged all ‘awakened consciences’ around the world to launch the largest official and popular global mobilisation on the national, regional, and international levels to thwart the occupying regime’s plans and to put pressure to stop its genocidal war against the Palestinians in Gaza.
They said the campaign – dubbed ‘Ramadan Flood’ – should include activating boycotts in all their forms and cutting off all supplies to the occupying regime, as well as declaring strikes and sit-ins in public squares, and organising marches in all capitals and cities.
