ُThe Euro-Mid Human Rights Monitor calls on relevant international and UN organizations to officially declare a state of famine in northern Gaza as Israel’s use of starvation as a weapon is one component of its ongoing genocide in the Strip, which also includes mass killings and forced displacement.
These demands come as Israel has not allowed the entry of goods and aid to the hundreds of thousands of besieged Palestinian civilians in the northern Gaza Strip for more than 50 consecutive days.
Since September 25, Israel has been preventing humanitarian aid from reaching northern Gaza. Beginning on October 1, Israel extended this blockade to include all goods, and just four days later, it launched an extensive military assault targeting residents of Jabalia and Beit Lahia. This has effectively isolated the North Gaza Governorate from the rest of the Gaza Strip.
For over 36 days, Israeli occupation forces have bombed and targeted hundreds of homes and shelters in the North Gaza Governorate, killing at least 1,900 Palestinians and injuring over 4,000 others. While tens of thousands were compelled to leave the area, many tens of thousands remain in their homes and shelters.
The remaining people in North Gaza are enduring an immobilizing siege, facing relentless and deliberate bombing, and suffering from a lack of food, water, and medical supplies. Those who attempt to escape in search of these essential resources are targeted and killed by Israeli drones.
“Due to the illegal Israeli blockade on the enclave, tens of thousands of Palestinians, including dozens of patients in three hospitals in the northern Gaza Strip, are in immediate danger of starvation or long-term health consequences,” the monitor stated.
The Palestinians remaining in northern Gaza have not recovered from earlier waves of starvation and are currently facing the worst of Israel’s starvation, bombing, and displacement campaigns.
“Israel must be pressured to restore health, water, and sanitation services in the Gaza Strip and to supply safe, nourishing, and sufficient food for the entire Palestinian population there by providing parents with baby formula; treating cases of starvation, malnutrition, and related diseases; allowing the entry and movement of life-saving materials through crossings and land routes immediately, quickly, and effectively; and restoring local production systems and the entry of commercial goods. All of these actions are necessary, especially in the north, as is the urgent restoration of Palestinians’ access to humanitarian aid and services across the entire Strip,” the monitor added.
