GAZA, (PIC)
“I wish I could regain my health!”
Rahaf Ayyad, 12, from the Shujaiya neighborhood in Gaza, once was a lively girl. Now, however, she is a shadow of herself.
War, displacement, and blockade have left her malnourished and medically neglected as the healthcare system is crushed due to the ongoing Israeli bombardment.
For two months, Rahaf hadn’t eaten anything but bread. For her, meat, vegetables, milk, fruit, and honey have become distant memories.
“I wish I could regain my health. I want my hair to grow back. I want to brush it. I want to go to school. I want to pray while I stand still.”
These were the words Rahaf uttered with a trembling voice while her eyes were empty of hope. Her pain finally broke through in tears that could flood the world, if the world still has a trace of humanity.
That’s not the story of Rahaf alone. Over one million children in Gaza suffer from malnutrition, while dozens have died of hunger.
Since the 2nd of March, no humanitarian aid has been allowed into Gaza. With food and medicine warehouses bombed and emptied, almost 65,000 children have been hospitalized for severe malnutrition, and over 30 have died from hunger and dehydration, according to Gaza’s Government Media Office.
Full-blown famine
In a press statement on Friday, the Hamas leader Abdulrahman Shadid pointed out that Gaza has officially entered a phase of full-blown famine and acute malnutrition, affirming that Israel is using starvation as a weapon of war to turn Gaza into an open-air prison where children die from lack of food not only from missiles.
“Israel continues to ban the entry of thousands of stranded aid trucks at the Rafah border despite international appeals to lift the siege,” Shadid highlighted, stressing that the Israeli crimes violate the international humanitarian laws and conventions.
Shadid stated that the Israeli government continues its bloody coup against the ceasefire agreement, adding that it escalates its atrocities backed by the US and under the direction of war criminal Benjamin Netanyahu.
He held the US administration and its supporters responsible for their complicity in the Israeli crimes, calling on the Arab countries to pressure Israel to stop its crimes against the Palestinian people.
Blocked aid trucks
The United Nations Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA) warned of the exacerbating humanitarian catastrophe in the Gaza Strip due to the ongoing Israeli blockade on the enclave.
UNRWA revealed via the X platform that almost 3,000 trucks carrying life-saving supplies are blocked outside Gaza, warning that this obstruction endangers the lives of over a million children who depend on this aid for survival.
For his part, UN spokesperson Stéphane Dujarric stated that the UN views the situation in the Gaza Strip with alarm, noting that two million people are in urgent need of food that simply does not exist.
In an interview with Al Jazeera, Dujarric called for an immediate ceasefire to resume the delivery of aid to Gaza, urging Israel to facilitate humanitarian access.
The UN spokesperson emphasized that the entry of humanitarian aid into Gaza must not be subject to negotiations or conditions, noting that the UN is in constant communication with Israeli authorities to urge the lifting of the blockade.
He also acknowledged the UN’s inability to effectively address the crisis, adding that the Secretary-General has no authority to hold countries accountable for violations of international law.
A means of murder not pressure
Israel continues to impose the blockade on Gaza as a means of deliberate killing and not to pressure the Palestinian resistance, as it claims.
Not only has Israel closed the crossings and prevented the entry of aid into the Strip for two months, but it has also blocked every possible channel that could alleviate the effects of this blockade.
On Thursday night, an Israeli drone struck one of the ships of the Freedom Flotilla near Malta, causing a fire to break out on board.
The vessel, Al-Dhamir, which had set sail from Tunisia carrying 30 international human rights activists, was targeted by Israeli drones in international waters off the coast of Malta.
According to Freedom Flotilla media officer, distress calls were made, but only the authorities in southern Cyprus responded, dispatching a rescue ship to assist.
At the same night, Israel attacked a group of police officers guarding aid supplies in the enclave from theft, which led to the killing of some and injury of others.
Local sources reported that Israeli aircraft targeted a group of Palestinian police officers after they had thwarted an attempted theft at commercial warehouses on Al Thawra Street in central Gaza City.
They added that another strike followed in the same street, while a third targeted a new police unit in Al Wihda Street.
