Al-Thawabta: Enemy managing starvation in Gaza through trade, continuing collective punishment
The director of the government media office in Gaza, Ismail al-Thawabta, affirmed on Sunday that the Israeli enemy is practicing a systematic policy of managing starvation in the Gaza Strip under the guise of commercial activity, exploiting the movement of goods to achieve political and punitive objectives, rather than meeting the basic needs of the population.
Al-Thawabta said in a statement to the Palestinian “Safa” news agency: “The Israeli enemy is trying to create a false image of a normal commercial situation, while the reality on the ground is tragic by all standards.”
He added that the enemy precisely controls the types and quantities of goods allowed to enter, preventing everything that sustains human life, while only allowing what is “neither nourishing nor sufficient.”
He pointed out that the actual number of trucks entering the Strip does not exceed 145 trucks daily out of 600 trucks that were agreed upon, which is less than a quarter of the required amount.
He continued: “These figures confirm that the Israeli enemy is using a policy of disguised starvation as a weapon in its war, in a blatant violation of international humanitarian law and the Geneva Conventions, and constitutes a slow genocide managed with calculated economic and commercial tools.”
Al-Thawabta considered the international silence unjustifiable, allowing the Israeli entity to continue punishing more than 2.4 million people inside the Strip.
He stated that the humanitarian situation has not witnessed any improvement in food security indicators, and famine remains prevalent, while the aid that is allowed in does not cover the minimum needs of the population. He pointed out that during October, the month of the ceasefire, only 145 trucks entered daily, most of them carrying non-essential goods, emphasizing that the enemy continues to deprive civilians of basic necessities and is deepening the crisis of hunger and malnutrition, especially among children, women, and the sick.
The director of the government media office in Gaza reiterated that the humanitarian situation in Gaza remains at the “highest level of alert regarding malnutrition and systematic starvation,” and that these Israeli policies constitute a dangerous indicator of the continuation of the policy of collective punishment practiced by the Israeli enemy against civilians.