Israel’s claim of allowing aid into Gaza a cover for ‘starvation and genocide’

The Palestinian resistance movement Hamas says the Israeli regime continues using starvation as a weapon in its genocidal war against the defenseless civilians across the besieged Gaza Strip.

In a statement released on Wednesday, Hamas said Israel was flagrantly disregarding the growing international calls to halt starvation, forced displacement, and massacres over the past months.

“While the fascist occupying regime attempts to mislead the world public opinion by falsely claiming to allow humanitarian aid into Gaza, it continues to use this deceptive propaganda as a cover to manage one of the most horrific crimes of starvation and genocide known in modern times,” the statement read.

Hamas also called on the international community to “intensify its pressure campaigns to stop these flagrant violations of international law” by Israeli forces in the blockaded Palestinian territory.

Elsewhere in the statement, the resistance movement urged world organizations to “take urgent action to end the genocidal war and ongoing massacres against innocent civilians in Gaza, enforce the breaking of the siege, and ensure the entry of aid without restrictions or conditions.”

Israel said over the weekend that it would allow aid to enter Gaza after an 11-week blockade on the besieged Palestinian region.

Stephane Dujarric, spokesman for UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres, said no humanitarian supplies have been able to leave the Karam Abu Salem (Kerem Shalom) crossing to enter the Gaza Strip.

“None of the supplies have been able to leave the Kerem Shalom loading area,” Dujarric told reporters during a briefing at the UN headquarters in New York.

The Gaza Media Office earlier said that Israeli forces had fully closed all border crossings and “have not permitted a single grain of wheat to enter for nearly three months.”  

“No genuine aid has entered the Gaza Strip for more than 80 days under a complete siege and worsening famine.”  

The office described the situation as “a deliberate policy of starvation targeting 2.4 million unarmed civilians.”

Despite Israel’s pledge to ease the near-total blockade in place for nearly three months, only five trucks entered the territory on Monday.

The UN’s humanitarian chief Tom Fletcher said on Tuesday that 14,000 babies in Gaza could die in the next 48 hours if aid doesn’t reach them.

The UK’s Development Minister Jenny Chapman on Wednesday accused Israel of using hunger as a “weapon of war,” during a visit to the occupied West Bank.