SENIOR Hamas official Osama Hamdan has stated that the Israeli occupation has transformed Gaza into ‘a Nazi concentration camp,’ and the regime is practicing genocide.
In a televised speech on Monday evening, Hamdan said Israel is deliberately starving Palestinians and blocking the entry of 22,000 aid trucks into the territory.
‘The occupation continues its war of genocide and starvation against Gaza with American support and international silence.’
He also criticised Washington’s attempts at the recent UN Security Council session on Gaza to try to shift the focus to the issue of Israeli prisoners.
Nearly 1,500 Palestinians have been killed due to Israeli attacks on aid seekers as part of a systematic policy of starvation against the Gaza population he said, noting that the number of starvation victims has now reached 180, including 93 children, with 96% of families facing food insecurity.
‘The Strip is suffering from a severe shortage of infant formula and health supplies to deal with hunger. 22,000 aid trucks are waiting at the crossings amidst the suffering of the people of the Gaza Strip.’
The Israeli occupation is intentionally preventing aid delivery as part of its starvation strategy, he stated.
The humanitarian situation in Gaza is ‘catastrophic’ he warned, emphasising the urgent need for essential health supplies to combat hunger and malnutrition.
Hamdan asserted that Israel’s actions amount to crimes against humanity, – committed with full American support, demonstrating Washington’s double standard in policies.
He stated that Hamas treats Israeli captives ‘according to Islamic values and principles,’ and they share the same suffering as the people of Gaza.
However, Israel’s treatment of Palestinian prisoners involves torture, brutal revenge, and humiliation.
Hamdan emphasised that the silence of the international community and United Nations institutions regarding Israel’s war places a moral and humanitarian responsibility on them.
He also expressed Hamas’s willingness to cooperate with the Red Cross to provide food and medicine to Israeli prisoners and urged the necessity of establishing humanitarian corridors into Gaza.
Rights groups have condemned the Israeli blockade on vital supplies as a crime against humanity and a flagrant violation of international law.
Since May alone, Israeli forces have killed more than 1,330 Palestinian aid seekers, and over 8,810 others have been wounded in Israeli attacks, mainly at the so-called humanitarian aid distribution (GHF) sites.
The United Nations agencies themselves say more than 6,000 Palestinian children are being treated for malnutrition resulting from the all-out blockade.
Apart from total killed in the war since October 2023, at least 175 people, including 93 children, have starved to death.
Israel has rejected calls from the UN, aid agencies, and world leaders to allow more aid trucks into the besieged region to alleviate the crisis, but more Palestinians die every single day due to the forced starvation and malnutrition.
Parents watch their children waste away as deliberate aid restrictions from Israel mean hunger is becoming a killer across the besieged territory.
The whole Palestinian population was completely relying on UN agencies and other partners to distribute food. Israel has dismantled the UN-backed aid delivery system and replaced it with a controversial US-backed mechanism, which humanitarian aid workers and Gaza authorities say has only exacerbated the crisis.
Meanwhile, the Israeli regime’s prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, has ordered a full military occupation of the Gaza Strip following the 22-month genocidal war against the Palestinian territory, according to Israeli media reports.
Senior officials from Netanyahu’s office confirmed this decision on Monday evening, stating: ‘Israel is going to conquer the Gaza Strip.’
The plan involves Israeli occupation forces expanding their ground invasion into more areas, including central refugee camps.
‘We are moving to occupy the Strip, the decision has been made,’ an official in Netanyahu’s office said, adding that Hamas will not release the 50 remaining hostages without surrender.
‘If we do not act now, the hostages will die of starvation while Gaza remains under Hamas control,’ the official claimed.
Palestinian and Israeli rights groups say that 50 Israelis remain captive in Gaza, including 20 believed still to be alive, while the Israeli regime is holding more than 10,800 Palestinian detainees, many of whom face torture, starvation and medical neglect.
A senior official with the Palestinian resistance movement said on Sunday that Netanyahu seeks to kill Israeli captives through starvation.
Izzat al-Rishq said Israeli captives are also being affected now by the starvation and thirst policy that Netanyahu and the ‘Nazi’ administration have imposed on the people in Gaza, and the Israeli regime must bear full responsibility for their condition.
‘When Netanyahu could not find the hostages and kill them through airstrikes, he is now trying to end the matter by starving them,’ he said.
He noted that the Palestinian resistance forces observe religious and humanitarian principles in dealing with Israeli captives, sharing their own food and water with them as they do with the wider Palestinian population.
He pointed out that those Israeli captives who were released in the previous prisoner exchanges were in good physical and mental health, while the ones who remain are only now suffering from hunger, weakness and weight loss – mirroring the plight of besieged Gaza residents.
Currently, Israeli forces occupy about 75% of Gaza. The escalation announced by Netanyahu faces criticism domestically and internationally, with calls for a diplomatic resolution growing amidst rising humanitarian concerns in Gaza.
Opposition to a full occupation includes warnings that it could risk the hostages’ lives and prolong the war.
Israeli lawmaker Gilad Kariv denounced the plan as a ‘death sentence’ for the captives, while a group of former military and intelligence chiefs warned that ongoing warfare could lead to Israel’s defeat.
Israeli lawmaker Merav Cohen said that any plan to take full control of Gaza, including areas where Israeli captives are still being held, would mean ‘we will bring our brothers back only in coffins’.
‘We want them alive, we do not want them in coffins,’ Cohen said.
Former Mossad director Tamir Pardo emphasised that the humanitarian crisis in Gaza is largely of Israel’s making, slamming the regime for perpetuating the war under false pretences.
While both Israeli officials and global leaders have called for a ceasefire, there are currently no indications that the Netanyahu regime will resume negotiations with Hamas.
In January, a temporary ceasefire agreement between Israel and Hamas led to the release of several captives and Palestinian abductees held illegally in Israeli jails.
However, the Israeli regime refused to extend the deal as initially planned, instead, intensifying its military assaults on Gaza by shattering the 2-month deal.
Dozens of the captives have already been killed in Israel’s indiscriminate and relentless bombardment of the Palestinian territory, and now, the Israeli-imposed starvation is taking its toll on them, too.
Israel started its genocidal campaign on October 7th, 2023, but the regime has failed to achieve its declared objectives in Gaza despite killing nearly 61,000 Palestinians, mostly women and children, and some 175 people, including 93 children, have starved to death.
