The organization Human Rights Watch (HRW) denounced this Monday that Israel is deliberately denying water and food to the residents of the Gaza Strip. Using hunger as a weapon of war in their offensive against the Islamist group Hamas, which constitutes a war crime.
“Israeli forces are deliberately blocking supplies of water, food and fuel, intentionally preventing humanitarian assistance, apparently devastating agricultural land and depriving civilians of vital supplies,” HRW said in a statement.
This policy is “promoted or supported by senior Israeli officials and reflects the intent to starve civilians as a method of warfare,” said Omar Shakir, the organization's director for Israel and the Palestinian territories.
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“World leaders should speak out against this heinous war crime that is having a devastating impact on the people of Gaza,” he stressed.
The New York-based organization interviewed several Strip residents who described the lack of drinking water and food: “You're constantly looking for the things you need to survive,” said a father of two.
(Also read: The international news of the year: The war between Israel and Hamas in Gaza)
The United Nations World Food Program reported this on December 14th 93% of IDP households have inadequate food consumption, while access to water remains very limited: less than 2 liters per person per day, while estimates suggest 17 liters are needed to survive.
“International humanitarian law or the laws of war prohibit starvation of civilians as a method of war,” HRW recalled, ensuring that intentionally starving civilians “through the deprivation of vital items, including obstructing the “deliberate removal of relief supplies,” is a crime.
The war broke out on October 7 after a Hamas attack in which thousands of rockets were fired into Israel and around 3,000 militiamen were infiltrated. who massacred about 1,200 people and kidnapped another 250 in Israeli towns near the Gaza Strip.
(Also: The Israeli army admitted it “mistakenly” killed three hostages in Gaza.)
Since then, Israel has carried out counterattacks by air, land and sea that have left more than 19,000 dead and 51,000 injured in the Gaza Strip – most of them women and children – and 1.9 million displaced, 85% of the total population survives in tents in the middle of winter and in the midst of a severe humanitarian crisis due to the collapse of hospitals, outbreaks of epidemics and lack of drinking water, Food, medicine, electricity and fuel.
This Monday, Gaza's Ministry of Health reported that 110 people had died as a result of Israeli bombings in Jabaliya in the last 24 hours. in the northern Gaza Strip.
In the south, clouds of smoke rose over Khan Younis the morning after Israeli attacks.
The Health Ministry also said that Israeli forces attacked Al-Awda Hospital (North) and detained medical staff. In the south, an attack on Sunday left one dead and six injured at Nasser Hospital in Khan Yunis.
According to the United Nations, less than a third of Gaza's hospitals are partially functioning.
In addition, the United Nations Security Council will vote this Monday on a new resolution calling for an “urgent and permanent cessation of hostilities” in Gaza, ten days after the veto by the United States, which has shown signs of impatience in recent days with the standstill. Number of civilian casualties.
On the Israeli side The government is facing increasing pressure from hostages' families to negotiate their release. Especially since it emerged on Friday that soldiers “accidentally” killed three hostages after mistaking them for Palestinian fighters.
(Read more: These are Israel's demands to end the war in Gaza immediately)
Qatar, the main mediator between Israel and Hamas along with Egypt and the United States, assured that it was continuing its “diplomatic efforts to restore a humanitarian pause.”
A Hamas member pointed out this Monday that the conditions “It is clear: a complete ceasefire, the withdrawal of tanks from the cities, the opening of the highway between north and south, the end of the siege, the normal import of aid throughout the Gaza Strip without restrictions.
EFE and AFP