Palestinian Territory - A new Euro-Med Human Rights Monitor report titled “Killing starving Palestinians and targeting aid trucks: A deliberate Israeli policy to reinforce famine in the Gaza Strip” reveals the killing of 563 Palestinians and the injury of 1,523 more due to Israel’s targeting of people waiting for aid, distribution centres, and workers responsible for organising, protecting, and distributing aid.

The use of starvation as a weapon has been an official political decision from the first day of the war, as declared by the Israeli Minister of Defense, and was implemented in integrated stages, which have included tightening the siege and closing the border crossings; preventing the entry of commercial goods; destroying all components of local production and food sources; increasing the Gaza Strip population’s reliance on humanitarian aid; and turning it into their main source of food.

According to the report, Israel also uses starvation, aid restrictions, and the killing of hungry individuals as part of its forced displacement crime against Palestinians in the Gaza Strip, especially the northern Gaza Strip. As a result, famine has spread throughout northern Gaza, where nearly all food supplies have run out in the markets, resulting in a rise in the number of fatalities from starvation, malnourishment, dehydration, and related illnesses, particularly among children and infants.