"Israel carrying out deliberate campaign of starvation in occupied Gaza Strip": Amnesty International

Gaza [Palestine], August 19 : Human rights group Amnesty International accused Israel of enacting a "deliberate policy" of starvation in Gaza as the United Nations and aid groups warn of famine in the Palestinian enclave, Al Jazeera reported.

In a report quoting displaced Palestinians and medical staff, Amnesty said: "Israel is carrying out a deliberate campaign of starvation in the occupied Gaza Strip." The group further accused Israel of "systematically destroying the health, well-being and social fabric of Palestinian life".

"It is the intended outcome of plans and policies that Israel has designed and implemented, over the past 22 months, to deliberately inflict on Palestinians in Gaza conditions of life calculated to bring about their physical destruction - which is part and parcel of Israel's ongoing genocide against Palestinians in Gaza," Amnesty said, according to Al Jazeera.

Since the military offensive launched on October 7, 2023, it is reported that Israel has killed nearly 62,000 Palestinians and turned Gaza into rubble. Campaigners and rights organisations claimed it was a war of vengeance and identified Israeli actions as a genocide. The International Criminal Court has issued arrest warrants against Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and former Defence Minister Yoav Gallant for war crimes, Al Jazeera reported.

The Amnesty report is based on interviews with 19 displaced Palestinians sheltering in makeshift camps and two medical staff members in Gaza City hospitals. Hadeel, 28, a mother of two and four months pregnant, said: "I fear miscarriage, but I also think about my baby. I panic just thinking about the potential impact of my own hunger on the baby's health, its weight, whether it will have [birth defects] and, even if the baby is born healthy, what life awaits it, amid displacement, bombs, tents."

A 75-year-old woman, Aziza, told Amnesty: "I feel like I have become a burden on my family. ... 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."

Erika Guevara Rosas, senior director for research, advocacy, policy and campaigns at Amnesty International, said in a statement: "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 license to torment Palestinians with near-total impunity for decades."

Nearly one million Palestinians in Gaza City, many displaced multiple times over the past two years, face forced displacement as Israel intensifies its attacks. Rosas called for "an immediate, unconditional lifting of the blockade and a sustained ceasefire" to reverse "the devastating consequences of Israel's inhumane policies and actions in Gaza".

Rosas added: "The impact of Israel's blockade and its ongoing genocide on civilians, particularly on children, people with disabilities, those with chronic illnesses, older people and pregnant and breastfeeding women is catastrophic and cannot be undone by simply increasing the number of aid trucks or restoring performative, ineffective and dangerous airdrops of aid," Al Jazeera reported.

The Israeli military and Ministry of Foreign Affairs did not comment on Amnesty's findings. Israel has repeatedly rejected claims of deliberate starvation, while heavily restricting aid into Gaza. More than 250 Palestinians, including 110 children, have died of malnutrition during the war.

In April, Amnesty accused Israel of committing a "livestreamed genocide" by forcibly displacing Palestinians and creating a humanitarian catastrophe, claims Israel dismissed as "blatant lies."

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