THE Government Media Office (GMO) in Gaza run by Hamas, yesterday said that the famine is worsening in the Gaza Strip, warning against false narratives regarding the entry of aid, and noted that weekly flour needs exceed 500,000 bags.
In a statement the GMO said that the severity and spread of famine are increasing across Gaza’s governorates, coinciding with the complete closure of all crossings by the Israeli occupation forces for 145 consecutive days, and the continued ban on the entry of baby formula and humanitarian aid.
It confirmed that Gaza’s hospitals have recorded more than 115 deaths due to famine and malnutrition, pointing out that this comes amid an almost total lack of food, water, and medicine.
The GMO stressed that the Gaza Strip urgently needs at least 500,000 bags of flour weekly to avoid a total humanitarian collapse.
It expressed regret over some people outside Gaza promoting the narrative that ‘the famine is over’ and ‘hundreds of trucks are entering,’ categorically denying these claims.
It said, ‘These narratives are completely detached from reality and dangerously align with the Israeli misleading rhetoric, deliberately distorting the truth about the ongoing crime.’
The GMO called on all countries without exception to immediately break the blockade, open the crossings permanently, and ensure the entry of baby formula and aid for the more than 2.4 million people under siege in the Gaza Strip.
It also warned against spreading rumours that mislead global awareness, urging Palestinians not to align with false narratives, and to hold everyone morally and humanely accountable for conveying the truth and ending the suffering.
Meanwhile, the Director-General of the World Health Organisation (WHO), Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, announced that there is a deadly surge in malnutrition in the Gaza Strip.
In a press statement on Wednesday, Ghebreyesus explained that 90 per cent of Gaza’s population is struggling to access water.
He added, ‘We are determined to remain in the Gaza Strip and call for the protection of our teams and UN agency staff.’
Ghebreyesus noted that new aid distribution points in Gaza have turned into centres of violence.
He continued: ‘More than 1,000 people have been killed while trying to get food in Gaza.’
The humanitarian catastrophe continues to escalate in Gaza at an unprecedented rate.
The United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees (UNRWA) warned that ‘people in Gaza, including our staff, are fainting from extreme hunger’, while thousands of UN aid trucks remain stuck at the closed crossings since March.
The humanitarian situation in the Strip continues to deteriorate amid the full closure of crossings for over 140 days, despite a previous ceasefire and prisoner exchange agreement that Israel has failed to implement.
Israel, with US support, continues to wage a genocidal war against the people of the Gaza Strip through killing, starvation, destruction, and forced displacement, in blatant defiance of all international appeals and rulings by the International Court of Justice calling for an end to the war.
