The limited humanitarian aid reaching Gaza under Israel’s relentless attacks and a tightening blockade is being largely looted amid deliberate “chaos,” placing some 40,000 infants at risk of death, Palestinian group Hamas said Wednesday.
“This weaponization of starvation against Gaza’s population is a clear war crime and systematic genocide,” Hamas declared, highlighting the dire scale of suffering in the enclave.
More than five months of a strict Israeli blockade have plunged Gaza into an unprecedented humanitarian disaster, with border crossings sealed and critical supplies including infant formula, food, and medicine blocked for over two million residents.
The blockade has left 40,000 babies and 60,000 pregnant women vulnerable.
Aid trucks that do manage to reach Gaza are frequently attacked or looted, turning humanitarian relief into “chaos and plunder,” the statement said, accusing Israel of using starvation as a slow-acting weapon while undermining safe distribution of essential goods.
Daily, Gaza requires at least 600 aid and fuel trucks to meet basic needs, but the actual number allowed is far below that threshold.
“The disaster has reached such a level that mothers in Gaza are forced to give their children water instead of milk,” Hamas said. Since the crisis began, 154 Palestinians – 89 of them children – have died from hunger, while the near-collapse of the health system exposes hundreds more daily to malnutrition.
Despite growing international condemnation, Israel allows limited humanitarian aid by air and land, but most airdrops land in zones controlled by Israeli forces, often targeting Palestinians, rendering the aid ineffective and endangering lives.
The statement condemned Israel for targeting aid distribution teams and enabling marauding gangs under its protection, warning that using famine as a weapon is as grave a war crime as direct targeting.
Hamas called on international bodies to legally and morally expose Israel’s deliberate starvation policy and demanded immediate, unconditional lifting of the blockade and border crossings to end the catastrophe.
Any delay, it warned, would amount to genocide against Gaza’s most vulnerable – children, the sick, and the elderly.
The statement urged free peoples, human rights groups, and aid agencies to escalate efforts, including establishing an independent U.N. mechanism to deliver aid free from Israeli interference.
Gaza’s 2.3 million residents face an unfolding humanitarian nightmare marked by widespread hunger, shortages of water, medicine, and hygiene supplies amid Israel’s ongoing military offensive and tight blockade.
Since Oct. 7, 2023, starvation has claimed 147 lives, including 88 children, in Gaza, where local and international observers accuse Israel of weaponizing hunger and thirst.
Israeli forces have destroyed 88% of Gaza’s civilian infrastructure and regularly bomb displaced Palestinians forced from their homes by repeated orders of expulsion.
More than two million Palestinians have been displaced multiple times, living in makeshift tents or overcrowded shelters lacking proper sanitation, where infectious diseases spread.
Daily Israeli airstrikes continue to target these vulnerable populations’ shelters and civilian centers.
Since Oct. 7, Israel’s assaults have killed at least 60,138 Palestinians and injured 146,269, compounding an already dire humanitarian catastrophe.
