GAZA, June 4, 2025 (WAFA) – The Government Operations Room affirmed on Wednesday that the Gaza Strip was subjected to deliberate starvation given the closure of the border crossings and the blocking of aid into the Strip.
It said that Israel has been deliberately starving the war-torn enclave since it continues to close the border crossings and block the entry of aid, although tens of thousands of tons of food aid are just meters away from the civilian population facing real famine, and called on the international community to take immediate action to save the last flicker of life in the Strip.
It made these remarks during a meeting with two delegations from the World Food Programme and the United Nations Agency for Palestinian Refugees (UNRWA) in the West Bank city of Ramallah.
Hamad said in a statement that for over 600 days, the Strip has been under a total blockade imposed by the Israeli occupation, with a complete ban on food, medicine, water and fuel, at a time when crossings are closed to patients and humanitarian aid.
She added that following 100 days of renewed aggression on the Strip, Palestinian civilians were killed by Israeli bombings and starvation, as the world continued to stand idle and just watch the genocide slowly carried out, employing starvation as a method of warfare.
Noting that the Israeli blockade on the Strip was a systematic crime of genocide, Hamad said that Israel has turned 81 percent of the total area of the Strip into no-go or access restricted areas or areas that are subjected to mass forced evacuation orders, displacing 40 percent of the total population since the start of March 2025.
She slammed Israeli statements on opening the border crossings as false and misleading claims, as the aid that Israel has allowed into the enclave, mostly flour, only constitutes 0.1% of the minimal requirement, at a time when hundreds of vital food items and medicines are banned entry into the enclave.
Commenting on the scenes of starving displaced Palestinians frantically surging forward in search of any chance to survive, of children dying of hunger, of the elderly breathing their last without access to treatment, and of people crowding behind trucks in a desperate attempt to stay alive, Hamad affirmed that what was taking place in the Strip was a total collapse of the principles of international law as well as of international justice system, and held the Israeli occupation and all who support it fully responsible for this catastrophe.
She reiterated the call for the immediate and unconditional cessation of the aggression on the Strip; the permanent, effective and unhindered opening of all crossings; and allowing the unobstructed entry of food, water, medicine and fuel into the Strip.
She also reiterated the call for enabling the UN organizations, particularly the WFP and the UNRWA, to administer the delivery of humanitarian aid and ensure its impartiality and neutrality, and halt the deployment of aid as a weapon of warfare.
K.F.
