‘Starvation engineering’: Gaza authorities slam Israel’s brutal blockade on food
More than 80 days into Israel’s total blockade of Gaza, the Gaza Media Office says the humanitarian catastrophe unfolding in the populated Palestinian territory is a direct result of the regime’s policy of “starvation engineering.”
In a statement on Saturday, the office said that since the closure of Gaza’s border crossings on March 2, the humanitarian toll has been devastating.
At least 58 people have died directly from malnutrition, while 242 others—most of them elderly —have succumbed to shortages of food and medicine, according to the statement.
For the 84th consecutive day, it said, Israeli forces have maintained a complete blockade on Gaza, shutting all border crossings and drastically restricting the entry of humanitarian aid, fuel, and food.
While the people of Gaza endure escalating famine, hundreds of thousands of tons of relief and humanitarian supplies have piled up and begun to spoil because they have been barred from entering Gaza for months, the media office said.
According to the statement, at least 46,200 truckloads of aid and fuel should have reached Gaza to meet residents’ minimum needs since early March.
However, despite claims from Israel that aid is allowed in, only about 100 trucks—less than 1 percent of the basic requirements—have entered the enclave in recent days.
“This starkly exposes the occupation’s policy of ‘starvation engineering,’ whereby it deliberately controls the flow and distribution of food, deepening the catastrophe facing more than two million civilians in Gaza,” the statement said.
The media office once again accused the United States of complicity in Israel’s war crimes in Gaza, condemning the Trump administration for failing to take meaningful action to alleviate the suffering of Palestinians.
It reiterated its call on the international community and humanitarian organizations to shoulder their moral and legal obligations and intervene immediately to rescue Gaza’s civilians from catastrophic famine.
