“The Islamic Resistance Movement (Hamas) affirms that the Gaza Strip is facing a catastrophic famine as a result of a comprehensive ongoing blockade, in the most dangerous phases of genocide, for more than five months, including the closure of crossings and the prevention of infant formula, food, and medicine from reaching more than two million people, including 40,000 infants threatened with immediate death, in addition to 60,000 pregnant women. The occupation has transformed food into a weapon of slow killing and aid into an instrument of chaos and looting, under the direct supervision of its army and aircraft.*
The majority of relief trucks entering Gaza are subjected to looting and assault, within the framework of a systematic policy pursued by the occupation, based on "engineering chaos and starvation" aimed at depriving civilians of the limited aid and failing its safe and organized distribution.
While the Strip requires more than 600 aid trucks and fuel daily to meet the minimum of its needs, what is actually permitted to enter represents only a minimal percentage.
The catastrophe has reached such a level that mothers in Gaza have been forced to feed their children water instead of milk, and 154 Palestinians have been recorded as martyred due to hunger thus far, including 89 children, with hundreds of daily cases of malnutrition, amid an almost complete collapse of the health system.
Despite escalating international condemnations, the occupation promotes theatrical limited airdrops and ground aid, while most of it falls in dangerous areas that it had previously ordered to be evacuated, rendering it useless and threatening civilian lives.
In repeated criminal behavior, the occupation targets aid security teams and opens corridors for looting gangs under its protection, as part of a systematic plan to perpetuate famine as a weapon of war.
Hamas calls upon international institutions to expose the occupation's behavior based on "engineering starvation" and to expose it legally and morally, as it constitutes a compound and deliberate war crime, no less dangerous than direct bombing and destruction.
Hamas affirms that breaking the blockade and opening crossings immediately and without conditions is the only solution to end the catastrophe in Gaza, and any delay in this means proceeding toward a phase of genocide, especially against vulnerable groups of children, patients, and elderly.
We call upon free peoples and human rights and humanitarian organisations around the world to escalate their movements and work to impose an independent and safe UN mechanism for the entry and distribution of aid, away from the occupation's control and its criminal policies.”
