One hundred days have passed since Israel seized and shut down Gaza’s vital Rafah crossing – the only route out of Gaza for nearly all Palestinians since the regime's military launched its genocidal war on the territory more than ten months ago.
Israeli forces, Gaza's media office said, burned, bulldozed and rendered the crossing out of service before launching its full-scale ground offensive on the southern city of Rafah in May.
The closure for 100 consecutive days of the crossing has caused the death of more than 1000 children, patients and wounded Palestinians, the Gaza government media office said in a statement Wednesday.
The military forces, it said, “has blocked the entry of medical supplies and health delegations and also prohibited the entry of medicines and treatments, further exacerbating the dire health and humanitarian situation.”
The media office said the move clearly demonstrates the regime’s intention to “disable hospitals” and highlights “its use of starvation as a tool for political pressure, which deepens famine” across the Palestinian territory.
“This crime constitutes a clear legal violation of international law, international humanitarian law, and all international agreements," said the media office, urging the international community to hold Israel and the United States fully responsible for the severe consequences of closing the Rafah crossing.
The United Nations, aid workers and doctors had warned that the prolonged closure of the crossing would endanger some of Gaza’s most defenseless, including children with severe burns, cancer patients and people needing heart surgery.
The World Health Organization said in July that more than 10,000 people need immediate medical treatment outside the coastal enclave.