GAZA, (PIC)
Arab and Muslim activists and influencers launched a campaign on Friday evening in the largest “live stream” on Instagram, lasting for hours with the aim of shedding light on the dilemma of hunger and the starvation war in northern Gaza. They called upon the Arab and Islamic world, as well as the free world, to urgently act to save the people of the besieged Gaza Strip from hunger, bombardment, and diseases.
During their live broadcast, the activists emphasized that “the weapon of starvation” is part of the enemy’s battle to break the will of the people. This has not only happened in Gaza but has been widely used during the Arab Spring against the peoples.
Several journalists from within North Gaza governorate participated, affirming that the situation has reached a catastrophic stage of hunger that no one imagined it would reach.
Gaza journalists deplored that in the year 2024, people are dying of hunger in Gaza due to continuous Israeli aggression in violation of all international laws and norms, amidst global silence.
They emphasized that the people of Gaza have experienced blockade and queuing in lines at bakeries, and waiting for gas cylinders during previous wars, but it has not reached this level of criminality.
They highlighted that the suffering is increasing amid continued shelling and aggression, especially affecting the most vulnerable groups such as the elderly, children, women, and particularly the sick and pregnant women.
They pointed out that the people of Gaza are not the richest, but they are a “generous people” despite their poverty, which had reached seventy percent before the war.
They stressed that “the situation is beyond description,” no matter how eloquent one may be with words, what the people of Gaza are experiencing today is “harder than words can describe.”
The activists condemned the Arab, Islamic, and international communities for their silence, considering them complicit in the crime against Gaza.
700,000 Palestinians threatened with death
The Civil Defense Directorate in the Gaza Strip warned on Friday that “the continued prevention by the Israeli occupation of the entry of food and medicine to those besieged in the governorates of Gaza and the north threatens the lives of more than seven hundred thousand citizens with death at any moment.”
Furthermore, a statement released by the Interior Ministry in the enclave via the Telegram platform said, “The continued prevention by the Israeli occupation of the entry of basic foodstuffs and medical treatment to the besieged citizens in the governorates of Gaza and the north threatens the lives of more than seven hundred thousand citizens with death at any moment.”
Triangle of death
The Israeli occupation army has put the residents of the Gaza Strip in a triangle of death represented by targeting, famine, and epidemics, according to the Ministry of Health in the Gaza Strip.
The ministry said on Friday that the continuation of the Israeli aggression on the Gaza Strip means more genocide, which is what Israel and its supporters want.
It added that half a million Palestinians in northern Gaza suffer silently from famine, where 350,000 suffer from chronic diseases, 60,000 Palestinian women are pregnant, and about 700,000 children in the Gaza Strip are exposed to serious complications due to malnutrition, dehydration, and the lack of medical facilities.
Raising the alarm… Starvation War Continues
For his part, senior Hamas official Osama Hamdan said, “The declared starvation war against our Palestinian people in the Gaza Strip continues, especially in the northern governorate, where its people cannot find enough to feed their children. The situation has reached the point where they resort to grinding and baking animal feed, if available.”
He confirmed that it is a declared starvation war, and the world should always remember that this war began with a clear decision issued by the Israeli premier Netanyahu and his war minister Ghalant, when they declared on the ninth of October that there will be no entry of water, food, and fuel to the people of the Gaza Strip, in a blatant war crime that the world did not move to end, even after the International Court of Justice considered this decision an indicator of the commission of genocide.
Hamdan said, “We are raising the alarm bell … our people are facing death by starvation that has been declared by Israel with the intention of killing, which has brought matters to a point that threatens the lives of tens of thousands of our people.”
He expressed surprise at the decision of the World Food Program to suspend the delivery of food aid to Gaza and the north, just three days after attempts to deliver very limited quantities, further deepening the humanitarian crisis facing civilians.
The World Food Program and all UN agencies, including UNRWA, are urged not to yield to the Israeli demands and to announce the immediate return to work in northern Gaza, and to take effective and serious steps to alleviate the suffering of the Palestinian people and confront the expanding famine, in accordance with their legal and humanitarian responsibilities, he added.
In Gaza, humanity has been buried, along with our dignity as Arabs
In an article, the writer and political analyst Osama Abu Arshid said that the genocide in the Gaza Strip is “a disgrace to humanity, a collapse of the so-called institutions of international legitimacy, and an exposure of the falsehood of claims of human rights that the West has been deafening the world with.”
Abu Arshid affirmed that there are no words to describe “the shame we are experiencing as Arabs, Islamists, and humans. We can talk about the collapse of global human conscience; we have seen that many times in history, both recent and distant. However, I think we should start by acknowledging the disgrace of us Arabs and Muslims.”
