The Israeli government said on Wednesday, July 23 that he was not responsible for the chronic food shortage in the Gaza Strip. It accuses the Palestinian Islamist movement of having deliberately created a crisis.
“In Gaza, today, there is no famine caused by Israel,” said government spokesman David Mence, after warning for more than 100 NGOs against a generalized “famine”, urging Israel to unlock humanitarian aid.
“This is a shortage caused by Hamas,” added David Mence, accusing the movement of preventing food distribution and looting for their own needs.
“This situation is the result of the blockade imposed by Israel”
The spokesman of the Foreign Ministry of Foreign Affairs for his part pointed to Israel on Wednesday. He said that the “famine risk” that weighs on the civil populations of Gaza after 21 months of war fought by the Israeli army against the Islamist organization Hamas is the consequence of the blockade imposed by Israel.
The extension of the offensive launched this week in the center of Gaza “accelerates the deterioration of the humanitarian situation, marked by malnutrition and the risk of famine. This situation is the result of the blockade imposed by Israel,” he said in a statement.
Quai d’Orsay has “called Israel again” “to immediately eliminate all the restrictions imposed in the entry to humanitarian aid in Gaza to allow its immediate, massive and without obstacles.”
“France also asks the Israeli authorities to allow the work of the United Nations agencies and stop the pressures of their agents,” is specified in the press release.
Israel faces greater international pressure, especially with respect to humanitarian disaster in Gaza, where some 2.4 million Palestinians have been besieged since the beginning of the war. A total blocking imposed in March for Israel and very partially softened at the end of May led to a serious shortage of food, drugs and fuel in the Palestinian enclave.
More than two million people face a serious food shortage. On Tuesday, Gaza’s largest hospital director said that 21 children died of malnutrition and hunger in three days.
“The famine hits all doors” in Gaza, said UN Chief Antonio Guterres.
Source: BFM TV
