GAZA, (PIC)
The Israeli enemy continues its genocidal war on the Gaza Strip for the 147th consecutive day, culminating yesterday, with the “Flour Massacre” on Rashid Street, southwest of Gaza City, targeting isolated civilians awaiting the arrival of aid and flour. The massacre resulted in the death and injury of over 360 civilians.
Simultaneously with the enemy’s massacres and atrocities, it continues to spread lies and false claims about the reality of what happened. The United States, the supporter of the aggression, described the incident as “serious” and awaited reports about it. This crime is seen by observers as a continuation of a consistent Israeli-American policy seeking to commit genocide against the people of Gaza, with premeditation, and a greater effort to empty Gaza City and the north of over 700,000 Gazans who refused to surrender to the enemy’s policies and atrocities, insisting on resilience despite all attempts, which led to the commission of the “Starvation War Crime” in plain sight.
Ramy Abdu, the Director of the Euro-Med for Human Rights, affirmed that the Israeli occupation is continuing its policy of starvation and the policy of emptying northern Gaza of its population. Calls continue for the international community and the US to press for breaking the unjust blockade on Gaza and delivering aid to civilians to preserve their humanity and basic rights guaranteed by all covenants, charters, and religions, while preserving their dignity and their right to life like all other humans.
US insists on its partnership in the crime
The Gaza government media office held the American administration, the international community, Israel, and the international organizations that neglected their responsibilities fully responsible for the mass killings, massacres, genocides, and starvation wars carried out and being carried out by the Israeli occupation forces until now, aimed at forcibly displacing the population and emptying the area.
It appealed to all countries of the world, Arab and Islamic countries, the Arab League, and the Organization of Islamic Cooperation to intervene immediately and urgently to pressure Israel to stop the genocide against the Palestinian people in the Gaza Strip, stop the bloodshed, stop killing and targeting civilians, children, and women.
Military expert Dr. Mohammed Al-Muqabala stated in his remarks to the Palestinian Information Center that the US sees this scene and knows all its details more than others. It manages it, directs it, and exercises known hypocrisy and consciousness distortion, pretending to calm emotions and feelings.
He pointed out that this is an American policy that we see today and have seen in the past, which kills and then sends its media tools to mourn and open condolence houses to appear in a humanitarian guise to deceive Arab awareness.
He added, “They kill the victim, mourn him, open condolence houses for him, accept condolences, and produce documentaries and statements talking about terrorism and crime, while falsifying awareness that America did not agree to these actions.”
He noted that all these actions are consistent with the Israeli mentality based on falsifying awareness and committing crimes throughout modern history, “which we have witnessed with our own eyes.”
A terrorist entity
Almoqabala affirmed that the policies of this criminal entity (Israel) are based on a military theory, not a political theory like other natural countries. It is based on terrorism and considers the military arm the only means to prove and achieve its political goals, unlike others who want to be a political entity and put a military arm to protect these policies; it is the opposite, it is a “terrorist entity.”
He pointed out that the “Flour Massacre” carried out by Israel, in addition to aiming to pressure Palestinians in Gaza City and its north to forcibly displace them and empty the area, also carries a message directed to several parties and on several levels.
He emphasized that the first message is that they want to say to all Arab countries, led by Jordan, that “if you send this aid and pressure us to deliver it to the people of Gaza, we can turn it into a bloodbath.” Therefore, this aid will be seen by the people of Gaza as an act of betrayal, showing people that these regimes claiming to help and supply them are unable to protect them even if they send flour.
Almoqabala warned of the danger of this message, which contains segregation and loss of confidence that these regimes must provide protection to deliver aid, and this is embarrassing for Arab regimes that now appear as “helpless in everything.”
He continued saying, “Another message is that there is a war against them on several levels, starting with gunfire, destruction, annihilation, and obliteration, and the intensity of firepower that we have not witnessed throughout history. In this stage, for the enemy, it’s moving to another stage and killing in more cunning and silent ways, through ‘starvation.'”
He added that this starvation, which we do not directly see its effects, kills infants due to starvation or malnutrition. Men and women suffering from diseases will die slowly in the coming days in a war of starvation practiced daily by preventing the arrival of aid, food, and medicine. This is another war being waged against the people of Gaza.
He pointed out that there is a third war aimed at driving a wedge among Arab communities and between them and their regimes leaving the people distrustful of their regimes, turning the conflict into one between Arab regimes and their people. This is currently happening, with wars between peoples, between peoples and each other, and between peoples and their regimes, a situation in which Israel seeks to sow chaos in the Arab world.
Starvation for the purpose of “forced displacement”
Meanwhile, the Euro-Med stated that Israel deliberately deepens the catastrophic starvation crisis for all residents of the Gaza Strip by depriving them of essential materials for their survival to an extreme and continuous degree, and by preventing and obstructing the entry and distribution of humanitarian supplies, especially in Gaza City and the northern areas of the Strip, with the aim of pushing the population into forced displacement from their areas, within the framework of the ongoing genocide in the Strip since last October.
The Euro-Med also emphasized that the continued decline in the pace of entry of humanitarian aid trucks, and undermining mechanisms for their protection and distribution, is a key tool through which Israel is deliberately subjecting the Palestinians of the Strip to living conditions intended to cause their actual demise. Additionally, it aims to complete its plans to empty Gaza City and the northern areas of the Strip of inhabitants, forcing them to migrate south under the pressure of military attacks, threats, intimidation, the policy of starvation, and maintaining aid levels disproportionately low compared to the enormous needs.
The Euro-Med documented testimonies from residents of Gaza City and its north regarding receiving phone calls from the Israeli army in recent days, clearly and explicitly demanding them to evacuate to the central and southern areas of the Strip to obtain food and water and avoid starving to death.
According to the testimonies, recorded messages received by residents from the Israeli army stated that it is still “operating forcefully” in their areas while allowing the entry of humanitarian aid to the “Mawasi” area south of the Strip, urging them to head to that area to receive aid.
Establishing a civil administration under Israeli control
The Euro-Med confirms that Israel’s approach is based on undermining the civilian administration in the Strip in order to obscure its role in facilitating the entry of humanitarian supplies. It has semi-regularly targeted the security of the administration of the Kerem Shalom crossing and the civilian police elements responsible for securing aid convoys, thus removing them from the scene and leaving chaos prevailing upon the entry of aid, undermining the humanitarian aid distribution process even further.
On his part, Suleiman Basharat, director of the “Yabus Center for Consultations and Strategic Studies,” does not rule out that the goal of starvation is to succeed in the plan of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s government to create a “civil administration” model managed by Israel for the northern Gaza Strip, whereby Israel attempts to force the population to accept this step and deal with it under the pressure of hunger and need.
He added to Al Jazeera Net that “Israel wants to turn the north into a model that can be generalized to the rest of the Gaza Strip if successful, and therefore it is betting on the factor of time.”
Basharat also believes that the policy of starvation has political objectives, represented in linking the entry of food for the population of the north with the release of Israeli prisoners detained by the Palestinian resistance.
Popular and official pressures to prevent the starvation of Gaza
Ramy Abdu, director of the Euro-Med Monitor, affirmed that genocide in Gaza could have stopped if thousands, led by “elites and scholars,” had undertaken a peaceful open siege of European and American embassies in just two Arab capitals, and perhaps one capital.
Military expert Mohammed Al-Maqablah opined in his statements to the PIC that the “blood-soaked flour” in Gaza is a direct message to Arab leaders and regimes that they cannot speak as citizens do, claiming genocide. These regimes are capable, at least to maintain their dignity and prestige as regimes, if not for their people. They can do so by proving that they can implement the will of their people, at least in delivering aid and preventing massacres against the Palestinians and the people of Gaza through various economic, political, and military means, if necessary.
Hamas, the Islamic Resistance Movement, affirmed that the massacre committed by the occupation against citizens who were waiting for humanitarian aid in western Gaza, caught by the Israeli occupation’s gunfire, resulted in the death of dozens and the injury of hundreds, is nothing but a crime within the framework of the starvation war waged by Israel with US collusion to displace Palestinians from their land.
According to the Euro-Mediterranean Monitor, humanitarian supplies that entered the Gaza Strip in February have decreased by 50% compared to January, despite the growing enormous needs of more than 2.3 million people living in dire living conditions.
