Five more Palestinians, including two children, have died of hunger over the past 24 hours in the Gaza Strip, where a rights group says Israel is enacting a "deliberate policy" of starvation against Palestinians.
In a statement released on Monday, the Gaza Health Ministry said the five new deaths bring to 263 the total number of people who have starved to death in the besieged territory during Israel’s 22-month genocidal war. It added that 112 children are among the fatalities.
Meanwhile, Amnesty International said Israel is “carrying out a deliberate campaign of starvation in the occupied Gaza Strip, systematically destroying the health, well-being and social fabric of Palestinian life.”
In a report citing testimonies of displaced Palestinians and medical staff who treated malnourished children, it noted that hunger is the “intended outcome” of Israeli policies and “part and parcel” of the regime’s ongoing genocide in Gaza.
Erika Guevara Rosas, Senior Director for Research, Advocacy, Policy and Campaigns at Amnesty International, said the testimonies collected in the report are “far more than accounts of suffering, they are a searing indictment of an international system that has granted Israel a license to torment Palestinians with near-total impunity for decades.”
She also underlined the urgent need to halt any Israeli plan to entrench its occupation of Gaza or escalate the offensive there.
She further called on the international community, particularly Israel’s allies, to uphold their moral and legal obligations to bring an end to the Gaza bloodshed.
“States must urgently suspend all arms transfers, adopt targeted sanctions and terminate any engagement with Israeli entities when this contributes to Israel’s genocide against Palestinians in Gaza,” Guevara Rosas said.
Israel unleashed its brutal Gaza onslaught on October 7, 2023, after the Hamas resistance group carried out its historic operation against the occupying entity in retaliation for the regime’s intensified atrocities against the Palestinian people.
The Tel Aviv regime has so far failed to achieve its declared objectives of eliminating Hamas and freeing all captives in Gaza, despite killing 62,004 Palestinians, mostly women and children, and injuring 156,230 others.
A mass starvation is also gripping Gaza due to Israel’s blockade of the territory that prevents the entry of essential supplies.
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