The organization Human Rights Watch (HRW) denounced this Monday that Israel deliberately denies water and food to the inhabitants of the Gaza Strip. to use 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 areas, and depriving civilians of supplies essential to their survival,” HRW said in a statement.
This policy is “promoted or supported by senior Israeli officials and reflects the intention to starve civilians as a method of warfare,” said Omar Shakir, the organization's director for Israel and the Palestinian territories.
“World leaders should speak out against this abhorrent war crime, which has devastating effects on the people of Gaza,” he stressed.
The New York-based organization interviewed several Strip residents, who described shortages of drinking water and food: “You're constantly searching for the things you need to survive,” said one father of two.
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Smoke billows over Khan Yunis in the southern Gaza Strip during an Israeli bombardment.
The United Nations World Food Program reported on December 14 that 93% of IDP households have inadequate food consumption, while access to water remains very limited: less than 2 liters per person per day, when it is estimated that 17 are needed to survive.
“International humanitarian law, or the laws of war, prohibits starvation of civilians as a method of war,” HRW recalled, ensuring that intentionally starving civilians “by depriving them of objects essential to their survival, including hindering “intentional removal of relief supplies” is a crime.
The war broke out on October 7 after a Hamas attack that included the launch of thousands of missiles towards Israel and the infiltration of some 3,000 militiamen. who massacred some 1,200 people and kidnapped another 250 in Israeli towns near the Strip.
(Also: The Israeli Army acknowledged having 'mistakenly' killed three hostages in Gaza)
Since then, Israel has counterattacked by air, land and sea, causing more than 19,000 deaths and 51,000 injuries – most of them women and children – in the Strip, in addition to 1.9 million displaced people, 85% of the total population, which survives in tents in the middle of winter and in the midst of a deep humanitarian crisis due to the collapse of hospitals, the outbreak of epidemics and the shortage of drinking water, food, medicine, electricity and fuel.
This Monday, the Gaza Ministry of Health reported that 110 people died in the last 24 hours due to Israeli bombings in Jabaliya, in northern Gaza.
In the south, clouds of smoke rose over Khan Younis in the morning after Israeli attacks.
The Ministry of Health also indicated that Israeli forces assaulted the Al Awda hospital (north) and detained the medical staff. In the south, an attack left one dead and six wounded at the Nasser hospital in Khan Yunis on Sunday.
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Bodies of Palestinians lie in Al Aqsa hospital.
According to the UN, 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 that calls for an “urgent and lasting cessation of hostilities” in Gaza, ten days after the veto of the United States, which in recent days has shown signs of impatience with the halt. number of civilian losses.
On the Israeli side, The government faces growing pressure from the hostages' families to negotiate their release, especially since it was learned on Friday that soldiers killed three hostages “by mistake” after mistaking them for Palestinian fighters.
(Keep reading: 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 continues “diplomatic efforts to reestablish a humanitarian pause.”
A Hamas member indicated this Monday that the conditions “are clear: a total ceasefire, the withdrawal of tanks from the cities, the opening of the highway between the north and the south, the end of the siege, the normal entry of aid throughout Gaza without restrictions.
EFE and AFP
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