Euro-Mediterranean Monitor: The occupation’s attempt to starve the people in Gaza Strip will leave irreversible effects

Occupied Al-Quds, (ST) – The Euro-Mediterranean Human Rights Monitor confirmed that the Israeli occupation’s policy of starving the people in Gaza Strip will leave long-term effects that cannot be reversed, especially since international reports indicate that the number of victims of starvation and the diseases associated with it may exceed the number of those who were martyred as a result of the bombing during the ongoing aggression against the Strip, Since the seventh of last October.

The Monitor on Wednesday issued a policy paper, entitled “Gaza Strip… a scene of genocide since October 7th and a potential famine zone on February 7th,” in which it presented an analysis of the catastrophic food situation in the Strip, and indications of the beginning of the spread of famine, especially in its north. The monitor’s paper was based on reports issued by specialized international authorities, foremost of which is the global initiative for the Integrated Food Security Phase classification (IPC).

The paper referred to the conclusions of reports issued by the IPC mechanisms that the Strip is witnessing the highest percentage of the population facing high levels of acute food instability in the past twenty years, and that by the seventh of this month, about 53 percent of its population will suffer from Acute malnutrition, while 26 percent, or about half a million people, will suffer from famine, and an increase in deaths resulting from hunger, malnutrition, or diseases related to them.

The paper pointed out that in the best case scenario, the rate of humanitarian aid allowed into Gaza Strip ranges between 70 and 100 trucks, only two of which enter the north of Gaza Strip, while the number of goods and aid trucks entering Gaza Strip before October 7 was at least 500 trucks daily.

Lima Bastami, Director of the Legal Department at the Monitor said: These statistics are self-explanatory, and do not need much clarification, as what enters the Strip does not meet the minimum needs in the light of the severe and continuous deprivation of food, potable water, and medicine due to the siege and the increasing needs, given what the people are facing of inhumane conditions, genocide, and cuts of electricity, water and fuel supplies.

Bustami added: The situation is becoming more complicated because the people in Gaza Strip are besieged from all sides, which prevents their ability to produce the local products necessary to survive or obtain food from other sources, noting that whether or not officially declaring a state of famine in Gaza Strip does not change the situation.

The paper stated that “Israel” committed the crime of starving civilians in Gaza Strip as a method of its war, but the declaration of famine gives clear evidence that it committed the crime of starvation as a war crime in itself or as a form of the crime of genocide that it commits against the Palestinians in Gaza Strip, which could have important effects on advancing the process of holding “Israel” accountable for the crimes it committed against civilians before the International Court of Justice.

The Monitor  called on the international community to take urgent action in order to respond quickly, prevent the deterioration of the catastrophic situation in Gaza Strip, lift the siege, bring in humanitarian aid urgently and quickly,  maintain complete funding to UNRWA and increase pressure on the occupation in order to stop its aggression.

Raghda Sawas