3,500 Gaza children face imminent death from Israel’s starvation blockade

290,000 others ‘on the brink’

Israel’s starvation blockade preventing all food and water, as well as medicines, fuel and other essentials for life, from entering Gaza has now lasted more than 60 days. According to humanitarian groups, UNICEF and the World Health Organisation, more than 3,500 children under the age of five face imminent death by starvation, with a further 290,000 others described as ‘on the brink’. Adults too, but especially children, are dying daily.

While families are forced to In Gaza, people are forced to dig through rubbish piles for scraps of food, or to scramble at the few remaining food distribution points – which will run out of food completely in mere days – for a bowl inadequate to sustain, just a few miles away more than 116,000 tonnes of food assistance is blocked at border crossings by the criminal occupation – enough to feed the whole population for more than four months.

Israel has a legal obligation to ensure the nutrition and health of the whole population living under its occupation. Article 55 of the Fourth Geneva Convention states:

To the fullest extent of the means available to it, the Occupying Power has the duty of ensuring the food and medical supplies of the population; it should, in particular, bri.ng in the necessary foodstuffs, medical stores and other articles if the resources of the occupied territory are inadequate.

Article 59 states:

If the population of an occupied territory does not have adequate supplies, the Occupying Power shall agree relief schemes on behalf the said population, and shall facilitate them by all the means it its disposal.

The rogue state of Israel is not only refusing to fulfil these obligations but actively engineering starvation, while enjoying complete impunity from colluding politicians including the UK regime of Keir Starmer.

Mahmoud Alsaqqa, Oxfam’s Food Security Lead inside the Gaza Strip, has laid the guilt for the starvation not only at the feet of genocidal Israel, but the passivity and inaction of the watching world:

The whole world, unfortunately, is contributing to or participating in starving the children in the Gaza Strip. Without taking any action, they are all, unfortunately, complicit.

Human rights group Humanti Project has created a template for supporters of Palestinian freedom to email their elected representatives demanding action against Israel’s blatant crime. UK-based readers can use TheyWorkForYou to send the message directly to your MP.

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