'A war crime': Gaza says US, Israel use starvation as political weapon

Gaza's Government Media Office says Israel and the United States are using the policy of starvation as a tool to exert political pressure on the Palestinians, condemning the practice as “a war crime and a crime against humanity.”

In a statement issued on Tuesday, the Government Media Office “condemned in the strongest terms” the Israeli use of the policy of starvation against civilians in the Gaza Strip and depriving them from food as “a means of political pressure”, with the “declared” approval of the US administration.

Referring to recent remarks made by US President Joe Biden and Secretary of State Antony J. Blinken, the statement categorically rejected linking the delivery of humanitarian aid and food to civilians, including women and children, to reaching a ceasefire agreement between the Israeli regime and Palestinian resistance factions in Gaza.

“Linking the two issues to each other is a clear crime that requires a condemnation from the international community, the international and UN organizations, and all the countries of the free world.”

The statement noted that the Israeli army, given a green light from the US, has been closing the Rafah border crossing between Palestine and Egypt for 105 days as part of “the crime of genocide committed by the two sides against civilians in the Gaza Strip.”

The closure of the border crossing is a crime that violates the international law, the international humanitarian law and all the international agreement and “has exacerbated the humanitarian disaster” in Gaza in “an unprecedented way”, the Office said.

“The crime of blocking the entry of all kinds of aid, medical supplies, medical delegations and medications [into Gaza] seriously contributes to worsening the health and humanitarian situation,” the statement warned.

The statement held Israel and the US fully responsible for the “catastrophic” repercussions of their use of starvation as a weapon against Gazans and the closure of Rafah crossing.

Aid worker deaths hit record high following Israel’s war on Gaza: UN report

The United Nations has revealed a distressing rise in the number of aid worker fatalities in conflict zones, largely linked to the ongoing Israeli genocidal war on Gaza.

It also urged the international community and international organizations and all free countries across the world to exert pressure on Israel and the US to put an end to the genocidal war on Gaza, stop their use of food as a bargaining chip and to open the Rafah crossing.

Israel launched the genocidal war on Gaza on October 7 after the Palestinian resistance movement Hamas waged the surprise Operation Al-Aqsa Storm against the occupying entity in response to the Israeli regime's decades-long campaign of bloodletting and devastation against Palestinians.

The regime’s bloody onslaught on Gaza has so far killed more than 40,000 Palestinians, mostly women and children, and injured tens of thousands others. Thousands more are also missing and presumed dead under rubble.

Press TV’s website can also be accessed at the following alternate addresses:

www.presstv.co.uk