Euro-Mediterranean Human Rights Monitor calls for officially declaring famine in northern Gaza

The Euro-Mediterranean Human Rights Monitor called on the relevant official bodies and specialized international and UN organizations to officially declare famine in northern Gaza Strip, with more than 40 days having passed since the Israeli occupation prevented the entry of any aid or goods to hundreds of thousands of Palestinians besieged there, who are subjected to the most violent campaign of genocide to eliminate them through killing and forced displacement.

The Euro-Mediterranean Human Rights Monitor said in a statement: “Tens of thousands of Palestinians, including dozens of patients in three hospitals in northern Gaza Strip, face imminent danger of starvation due to the illegal Israeli siege.”

The Euro-Mediterranean Human Rights Monitor stated that the residents who are still in northern Gaza are under a stifling siege and are subjected to continuous and deliberate shelling, and remain without food, water or treatment supplies, while anyone who tries to leave in search of food or water will be targeted and killed by drones.

The Euro-Mediterranean highlighted that it documented shocking testimonies from Palestinians who were forced to leave the northern Gaza Strip due to the widespread hunger and lack of food, warning that this portends an increase in rates of hunger, severe malnutrition and the diseases associated with them,  especially among the elderly, children and pregnant women.

It warned that the Palestinians who are currently facing the worst days of starvation, bombing and displacement have not recovered from previous waves of starvation that emerged at various points at the end of last year and several times in the previous months.

It pointed out that the situation in southern Gaza is not better, as the occupation continues to place stifling obstacles to the entry of goods for traders, and limits the number of trucks entering as aid to limited numbers.

The Euro-Mediterranean Human Rights Monitor stressed that the international community bears legal and moral responsibilities to prevent the spread of famine in the Gaza Strip and to take immediate decisions through officially declaring the famine in the Strip. It noted that the delay in the official declaration of famine means not taking new serious steps to pressure “Israel” to lift its illegal blockade of the Strip and stop its crimes, pointing out that the continued delay in the arrival of life-saving aid means more malnutrition, poverty, hunger and death.

He also called for the restoration of humanitarian access to the entire Gaza Strip, including allowing the entry and transfer of life-saving materials through crossings and land routes immediately, quickly and effectively, restoring health services, water and sanitation, providing safe, nutritious and sufficient food for the entire population, providing treatment for cases of hunger, malnutrition and diseases associated with them, and restoring local production systems and the entry of commercial goods.

Inas Abdulkareem