Sakhnin protesters denounce Gaza starvation
Protesters, predominantly Arab, marched through the Israeli city of Sakhnin's streets voicing support for Palestinians facing starvation in Gaza.
Protesters carried placards that read "Gaza is not alone" and "starvation is a war crime" calling for an end to war and hunger in the enclave.
The Gaza health ministry says more than 100 people have died from starvation in the Palestinian enclave since Israel cut off supplies to the territory in March.
In the first two weeks of July, the U.N. children's agency UNICEF treated 5,000 children facing acute malnutrition in Gaza.
World Health Organization chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said Gaza was suffering man-made mass starvation caused by a blockade on aid into the enclave.
Aid agencies warn that Gaza is perilously close to exhausting its limited stocks of Ready-to-Use Therapeutic Food (RUTF), an essential treatment for severe childhood malnutrition. UNICEF has enough RUTF remaining to treat about 3,000 children, yet treated some 5,000 cases of acute malnutrition in the first half of July alone.
Israel blamed a “lack of cooperation from the international community” for the limited aid entering the Gaza Strip while dismissing Hamas’s “famine narrative” as a tactic used in the hostage talks.
Speaking to reporters on the Gaza side of the Kerem Shalom Crossing, Col. Abdullah Halabi, head of COGAT’s Coordination and Liaison Administration for Gaza, said that approximately 1,000 trucks’ worth of aid are piled up inside the Strip, awaiting collection by the United Nations and aid groups.
Since October, when conflict erupted between Israel and Hamas, Gaza has endured severe shortages after a supply cutoff in March and a heavily restricted reopening of crossings in May. Aid agencies say only a fraction of required medical and food aid is entering the territory.
