The Gaza Strip’s Palestinian resistance movement Hamas has described the United Nations' earlier declaration of famine in the coastal sliver as an “important” step, while still condemning it as long overdue.
The announcement that was made on Friday was “very late after long months of warnings,” the group said in a statement later in the day.
“We have repeatedly warned that the policies of blockade, systematic starvation, and the denial of food, medicine, and water to our people constitute a full-fledged genocide,” it added.
The UN-backed Integrated Food Security Phase Classification (IPC) declared a full-blown famine in Gaza City, warning that up to 800,000 Palestinians are now enduring catastrophic conditions marked by starvation, destitution, and death.
The movement was referring to the Israeli regime’s near-total ban on the entry of desperately needed supplies into the territory, which has already endured more than 22 months of a Western-backed war of genocide.
The brutal method has led to human rights bodies denouncing the regime for using starvation as a weapon of war.
The approach has increased the Palestinian death toll by hundreds, bringing the total to nearly 62,100 so far, with women and children comprising the majority of the victims.
Still referring to the declaration, Hamas said, “Today, UN reports confirm to the entire world the extent of the humanitarian catastrophe our people are experiencing.”
‘Criminal denial’
The group went on to lambaste the Israeli regime’s continued “criminal denial” of the facts on the ground, pointing to its officials’ unexceptional rejection of such declarations and similar reports.
The denial, Hamas added, “reveals a criminal mentality that deliberately lies to cover up the murder by starvation practiced against children, women, and the sick, in flagrant defiance of all international laws and norms.”
The international community, meanwhile, bears an urgent legal and moral responsibility to stop the atrocities, and “save more than two million people facing genocide, starvation, and the systematic destruction,” it noted.
Israel killing over 500 Palestinian children monthly in Gaza: UN https://t.co/CaRbbaKgJt
— Press TV 🔻 (@PressTV) August 20, 2025
The group asserted that the draconian conditions imposed on the Palestinian territory have to be followed by immediate UN action towards stopping the war and provision of unrestricted aid access for the coastal sliver.
The international community also had to hold the regime accountable over its crimes, the movement concluded.
