Nearly 900 killed at food collection points

The humanitarian situation in Gaza is deteriorating, with nearly 900 people killed at food collection points run by the United States-linked organisation, while others, especially children, are dying of malnutrition due to the Israeli blockade that prevents the free movement of food, water, fuel and medical supplies.

In the last 24 hours alone, 18 malnutrition deaths have been recorded, according to the Gaza Health Ministry.

Palestine Ambassador to Zimbabwe Dr Tamer Almassri has this morning condemned the escalating humanitarian situation in the Gaza Strip.

“The hunger crisis in Gaza has reached an unprecedented and unbearable level of desperation as our people are literally dying from a lack of access to basic food, and the rates of malnutrition are soaring to unimaginable heights, with an estimated 90 000 women and children in need of immediate nutritional treatment,” he said.

“These are not mere numbers; these are human lives being extinguished by a calculated policy of deprivation.

“Compounding this horrific reality, Israeli occupation forces continue to turn aid distribution areas into lethal zones. Over 132 aid seekers have been brutally killed at these sites in the last 24 hours, which are clearly being used as death traps, where desperate civilians seeking sustenance are met with lethal force.”

The Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) has indicated that as of July 13, 875 people had been killed in Gaza while trying to get food, with 674 of them killed in the vicinity of the US-Israeli-run Gaza Humanitarian Foundation (GHF) sites.

The remaining 201 victims were killed while seeking food “on the routes of aid convoys or near aid convoys” run by the UN or UN-partners still operating in Gaza, which has been decimated by Israeli bombardment since October 2023.

Ambassador Almassri said the deliberate targeting of a starving population is “an egregious violation of international law and a crime against humanity”.

“The State of Palestine unequivocally holds the international community and all nations that claim to uphold human rights principles directly responsible for their abject failure to compel the occupying power to cease its use of starvation as a weapon of war against the Palestinian people in Gaza.

“The world’s silence and inaction in the face of such calculated cruelty are not only morally reprehensible but also constitute complicity in a genocidal campaign,” he said, adding that global silence “in the face of such blatant human rights violations is a betrayal of the values of humanity and dignity”.

Ambassador Almassri said it is time for the world to stand up and demand an end to the suffering of the people of Gaza, and to work towards a lasting solution to the conflict based on justice, equality, and human rights.

“The clock is ticking, and the world must act now to prevent further humanitarian catastrophe in the Gaza Strip,” he said.

A United Nations-coordinated partnership of 15 international organisations and UN agencies that investigated the hunger crisis in Gaza reported in March last year that “all evidence points towards a major acceleration of death and malnutrition.”

Over the weekend, the Israeli army dropped leaflets in a residential area in Deir el-Balah, directing them to vacate as more bombardment is expected in the area.

The notice to leave came at a time when protesters in Tunisia, Iraq, Turkiye, Morocco and Lebanon, took to the streets demanding an immediate end to the war.

In Ramallah, which is the occupied West Bank, also joined the protests demanding an end to the war and occupation, which has denied the people of Palestine an opportunity to live normally for a long time.

The Herald