Sadly it doesn't matter how many organizations state the obvious, keeps falling on deaf ears.
Israel carrying out ‘deliberate campaign of starvation’ in Gaza, Amnesty says
Amnesty International says Israel is “carrying out a deliberate campaign of starvation in the occupied Gaza Strip, systematically destroying the health, wellbeing and social fabric of Palestinian life”.
In a statement, the human rights organisation said new testimonies it had gathered revealed that the “deadly combination of hunger and disease is not an unfortunate byproduct of Israel’s military operations. It is the intended outcome of plans and policies that Israel has designed and implemented over the past 22 months.
“As Israeli authorities threaten to launch a full-scale ground invasion of Gaza City, the testimonies we have collected are far more than accounts of suffering, they are a searing indictment of an international system that has granted Israel a licence to torment Palestinians with near-total impunity for decades,” Erika Guevara Rosas, senior director for research, advocacy, policy and campaigns at Amnesty International, was quoted as saying.
‘I can tolerate the hunger, but children cannot’
As we reported earlier, Amnesty International has published testimonies from people facing hunger in Gaza, which it says show Israel is “carrying out a deliberate campaign of starvation” in the Strip.
Abu Alaa, a 62-year-old displaced man from Jabalia refugee camp, told Amnesty that he is surviving on one meal of lentil soup a day and that bread is only distributed once a week, while he has not eaten any fruit in months.
“I can tolerate the hunger, but children cannot,” he said, going on to describe the desperate scramble at aid sites. “In the past, we used to support each other, especially those in need. Even during the beginning of this war. Now people are just led by the individual instinct to survive,” he said.
Nahed, 66, told Amnesty that the desperate situation near aid sites “has denied people their humanity”.
He added: “I had to go there because I have nobody to look after me. I saw with my own eyes people carrying bags of flour stained with the blood of those who had just been shot; even people I knew were almost unrecognisable. The experience of hunger and war has changed Gaza completely; it has changed our values.”
Aziza, 75, told Amnesty she feels like she has become “a burden” on her family.
“When we were displaced, they had to push me on a wheelchair. With toilet queues extremely long in the camp where we stay, I need adult diapers, which are extremely expensive. I need medication for diabetes, blood pressure and a heart condition, and have had to take medicine which has expired,” she said.
“I always feel like these young children, they are the ones who deserve to live, my grandchildren. I feel like I’m a burden on them, on my son.”
