ALBAWABA - After UN agencies and foreign experts officially declared famine in Gaza, the Islamic Resistance Movement (Hamas) asked the UN and the UN Security Council to step in right away. People in the movement wanted the war to stop right away and the blockade on the area to be lifted.
In a statement released on Friday, Hamas called for the full opening of Gaza's border crossings so that food, medicine, water, and fuel could keep coming in and out.
The group said that the famine statement was an embarrassment to Israel and its supporters. They also said that it was proof to the whole world that crimes had been committed against more than two million besieged Palestinians.
Hamas said that Israel was lying about the famine to hide what it called a "systematic policy of starvation and killing." It called this a war crime and an act of genocide. The statement also said that Israel should be punished for using hunger as a weapon.
This morning, the World Health Organization (WHO), the United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF), the World Food Program (WFP), and the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) said in a joint statement that more than 500,000 people in Gaza are already trapped in famine.
The Integrated Food Security Phase Classification (IPC), a world program that tracks hunger and malnutrition, agreed with what they found. The IPC report revealed that famine is spreading in the Gaza Governorate. By the end of next month, it should have reached Deir al-Balah in the middle of Gaza and Khan Younis in the south.
Alarm for Humanitaria
The statement is one of the most serious warnings since the war started, and it shows how terrible the siege and fighting are for people who are still living there. Aid groups are warning that famine could spread even more in the Gaza Strip in the next few weeks if people can't get food and other necessities right away and for a long time.
