The Islamic Resistance Movement (Hamas) said on Wednesday that famine in the Gaza Strip has killed 40 children, while 3,500 children face the risk of death due to malnutrition and a lack of nutritional supplements and vaccinations due to the Israeli siege.
The leader of the movement, Izzat Al-Rishq, warned – in a statement – of the deteriorating humanitarian conditions in the Gaza Strip, with the worsening suffering of residents who lack the most basic necessities of human life in light of the ongoing Israeli siege and continuous bombing.
He pointed out, “While Muslims around the world celebrate Eid al-Adha, our people in the Gaza Strip are living a real tragedy, as they suffer from hunger and thirst, and the massacres committed by the Nazi occupation continue against them.”
Al-Rishq explained that the residents of the Gaza Strip have been subjected to bombing and the destruction of their homes for more than 9 months, while they have been living under a continuous siege for more than 17 years.
Al-Rishq called on the international community and the Islamic world to provide urgent humanitarian support to the people of Gaza, who are suffering from harsh living conditions and are searching for the simplest things to keep them alive.
In recent months, many deaths have been recorded in northern Gaza and Gaza City due to food shortages, including children.
On June 12, Martin Griffiths, United Nations Under-Secretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs, predicted that half of the population of the Gaza Strip would face death and famine by mid-July.
Since the beginning of the war, Israel has closed the Gaza Strip crossings and prevented the entry of goods, while allowing very small and limited amounts of humanitarian aid to enter last November, through the Rafah land border crossing with Egypt, before it took control of it on May 7.
The devastating and ongoing Israeli war in Gaza since the seventh of last October has left more than 122,000 Palestinian martyrs and wounded, most of them children and women, and nearly 10,000 missing, amid massive destruction and famine that has claimed the lives of dozens of people.
Israel continues this war, ignoring two UN Security Council resolutions demanding that it stop the fighting immediately, and orders from the International Court of Justice to stop its attack on Rafah, and take immediate measures to prevent acts of genocide and improve the humanitarian situation in Gaza.