Palestinians wait for their turn to get some food from a hospice set up at Al-Shifa Hospital in Gaza (Al-Jazeera)
The Euro-Mediterranean Human Rights Monitor said, "The Israeli army killed 563 Palestinian citizens and wounded 1,523 others while targeting aid waiters, distribution centers, workers, and those responsible for organizing, protecting, and distributing aid in the Gaza Strip."
He added - in a report seen by Al Jazeera Net entitled “Killing the hungry and bombing aid is a deliberate Israeli approach to perpetuating famine in Gaza” - that the measures implemented by Israel and the collective punishments it imposes on the Gaza Strip aim directly and clearly to starve the entire population, and expose them to the risk of actual death.
The report documented - as of March 23 - 256 deaths in the Kuwait Roundabout area, 230 on Al-Rashid Street, and 21 in the targeting of aid distribution centers. It also documented the martyrdom of 12 aid distribution workers, two of whom were from UNRWA, while the occupation killed 41 members of the civil police and the People’s Protection Committees responsible for ensuring the distribution of aid.
He pointed out that the use of starvation as a weapon resulted from an official political decision from the first day of the war, as expressed by Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant, and was implemented in several stages, which included: tightening the siege and closing the crossings, preventing the entry of commercial goods, and preventing the entry of humanitarian aid, including food. And drink.
The Euro-Mediterranean Observatory added: When Israel allowed the entry of aid, it restricted its entry in terms of quantity, type, and places of arrival, and also bombed food stores, malls, and shops, all the way to bombing those waiting for aid and those working on it and protecting it.
He stressed that Israel is using starvation, preventing aid, and killing the hungry as part of a clear plan to implement the crime of forced displacement against the Palestinians in the northern Gaza Strip.
The report highlighted that Israel worked systematically during its war to target all necessities of life in the Gaza Strip, including bombing mills, bakeries, food stores, commercial malls, markets, water tanks and their extensions, to deprive 2.3 million residents of the Gaza Strip of access to the food resources that keep them alive in the midst of attacks. Intensive raids and bombardment via air, land and sea, during which thousands of tons of explosives were dropped.
The human rights report stressed the need to protect the urgently needed relief operations in the Gaza Strip, and that Israel - as the occupying power - must fully comply with its obligations under international humanitarian law to provide the civilian population with the necessary food and medical supplies, and ensure that the population has access to vital life-saving humanitarian assistance. In proportion to their needs.
The Euro-Mediterranean Human Rights Monitor called for immediate international pressure on Israel to stop all its crimes in Gaza, including genocide and starvation, and to hold it accountable for its crimes and grave violations against this besieged sector and its residents.
Source: Al Jazeera