Geneva/Jerusalem — The head of the World Health Organization (WHO) said Wednesday that “a large part” of the population in Gaza is suffering from hunger and food supplies to the embattled Palestinian territory are “far below what is needed,” while Israel denied accusations of “mass starvation” and blamed the Hamas movement.
"I don't know what else you can call what's happening other than that there are people dying en masse from hunger and that's man-made," Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus told a news conference in Geneva.
Their statement joins that of 111 aid organizations and human rights groups, including Doctors Without Borders and Oxfam, which warned that “massive famine” is spreading in Gaza. “Our colleagues and everyone we serve are wasting away,” they said in a joint statement.
Israeli government spokesman David Mencer said there was “no famine caused by Israel. It was a shortage caused by Hamas,” which rules Gaza. Israeli President Isaac Herzog said the country was acting “in accordance with international law” and accused Hamas of trying to “sabotage” aid distributions in an attempt to hinder the Israeli offensive.
“It’s a suffering to feed my children. I have to risk my life to bring them a sack of flour,” says Mohamed Abu Jabal, a displaced Palestinian in Beit Lahia, who hit his head on a truck wheel while collecting the aid.
Youssef Hassouna, an AFP video journalist, said he lost more than 40 kilos in nearly two years of war. His main challenge: finding food for himself and his family. “It’s extremely difficult to get food in Gaza. And when it’s available, the prices increase 100-fold,” he laments.
The United Nations denounced on Tuesday that Israeli forces killed more than a thousand Palestinians trying to collect aid at distribution points since the end of May, when the distribution by the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation ( GHF ), supported by the United States and Israel, began.
The 111 organizations called for the immediate negotiation of a truce, the opening of border crossings, and the free flow of aid through UN mechanisms rather than the GHF. COGAT, an agency under the Israeli Ministry of Defense, said that nearly 4,500 trucks carrying flour and baby and child food recently entered Gaza.
“The 2.1 million people trapped in the Gaza war zone face another killer besides bullets and bombs: hunger,” Ghebreyesus said. “We are witnessing a lethal increase in malnutrition-related deaths,” he stressed. “The global acute malnutrition rate exceeds 10 percent, and more than 20 percent of pregnant and breastfeeding women tested are suffering from malnutrition, sometimes severe,” he noted.
The WHO has recorded 21 malnutrition-related deaths of children under five since the beginning of the year. On Wednesday, 17 Palestinians were killed in new Israeli attacks, four of them near a food distribution center, according to the Civil Defense.
Meanwhile, Hamas confirmed on Thursday that it has responded to Israel's proposal for a 60-day truce in the Gaza Strip, as negotiators from both sides hold indirect talks in Qatar.
Mediators called Hamas's response"unacceptable," a source involved in the mediation efforts told The Times of Israel. Hamas's response demands that Israel withdraw further toward the Gaza border, the source said, adding that the group is also demanding clearer language ending the operations of the controversial Gaza Humanitarian Foundation and increasing the ratio of security prisoners to be released for each Israeli hostage, an Arab diplomat familiar with the negotiations said.
