Israeli admission of starving Gazans

The report published yesterday by Haaretz newspaper indicates a sharp and unprecedented decline in the number of aid trucks that entered the Gaza Strip during the month of October, which turned its last page and departed carrying more tragedies and massacres. The number of trucks reached only 859 trucks, compared to 3,591 trucks as a monthly average for previous periods, which is the lowest number since the beginning of this year. This is an admission of a severe shortage that indicates a systematic and programmed starvation campaign approved by the Israeli government, in order to impose more suffering and difficulties on the citizens of the Strip.

The publication of this data coincides with a review presented yesterday by the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA), which discussed in a detailed report the humanitarian and health conditions suffered by civilians in the Gaza Strip in light of the continuation of the Israeli aggression for the twenty-fourth day of the second consecutive year.

In the most prominent axes, reports indicate at least seven incidents that resulted in large numbers of casualties across Gaza during the past week, including four incidents in northern Gaza, in addition to the recent horrific Beit Lahia massacre. The report moves on to address the Palestinian Ministry of Health’s appeal to immediately deploy medical teams, ambulances and civil defense vehicles in order to save lives in northern Gaza, given that there are only two doctors left in Kamal Adwan Hospital, which is under enormous burden.

According to OCHA, children in Gaza are not dying because of bombs, bullets and shells alone, but because those who survive are prevented from leaving Gaza to receive life-saving care. According to UNICEF, only 127 children in critical health conditions have been allowed to leave the Strip since last May.

The report points out the difficulties faced by citizens in living and sleeping in displacement schools, which are being bombed and burned by Israel, with the continued raids carried out by Israel without justification. Despite the calls for help, Israel prevents the entry of aid and obstructs the work of international institutions and bodies.

The report, which includes a review of the past three weeks, talks about the displacement of more than 71,000 people from the North Gaza Governorate to Gaza City, while about 100,000 people remained in North Gaza, according to the latest estimates issued by the United Nations and its partners, and the announcement by the Palestinian Civil Defense Authority to stop its operations in North Gaza, leaving the area without life-saving defense services, including firefighting, search and rescue, and emergency medical assistance.

The picture of the situation remains catastrophic and tragic in terms of the overall situation, especially the rise in the number of martyrs to more than 43 thousand, several hundred and thousands missing, and more than one hundred thousand wounded. In an accurate descriptive picture, Ms. Joyce Msuya, Under-Secretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs and Emergency Relief Coordinator, says: “What the Israeli forces are doing in the besieged northern Gaza Strip cannot be allowed to continue. Hospitals are being bombed, health workers are being arrested. Shelters are being emptied and burned. First responders are being prevented from rescuing people from under the rubble.

Families are being torn apart, men and boys are being taken away on trucks. Hundreds of Palestinians have been killed. Tens of thousands have been displaced once again. The entire population of northern Gaza is at risk of death,” the UN Secretary-General said in a statement, followed by an expression of shock at “the appalling levels of death, injury and destruction in the north.”

Gaza remains targeted and the occupation fires are killing all aspects of life there, and the massacres continue. Yesterday alone witnessed the death of more than 80 citizens, most of them women and children, in the northern Gaza Strip, amidst many indications that the negotiations for a prisoner exchange deal and ceasefire will fail, due to the United States’ blatant bias in favor of Israel, and their planning to move towards a limited and short deal, during which Israel will be able to resume its aggression after obtaining its detainees. This is what the resistance rejects, insisting that the solution is through a comprehensive ceasefire, the withdrawal of the army from the Gaza Strip, the return of the citizens of the Strip to their homes, and the reconstruction and rehabilitation of the Strip. It seems that this will take more time.