Northern Gazans rally to denounce ongoing Israeli war, starvation practices

Hundreds of Palestinians, including children from the northern Gaza Strip, participated in a demonstration on Saturday, condemning the ongoing Israeli war and the blocking of aid.

The participants in the demonstration, which traversed the streets of Beit Lahia town in northern Gaza, held up banners reading: "Our wounds and illnesses await treatment", "Hunger threatens the children of Gaza," and "Northern Gaza without food and water."

According to an Anadolu correspondent, Palestinians chanted slogans condemning the Israeli war and the policy of starvation in the northern region of the strip.

Palestinian Ayoub Sweidi said on the sidelines of the demonstration that "the humanitarian situation is very difficult in the northern Gaza Strip, there is no food or water."

He added: "We came out to convey our voice to the world that we are suffering from famine in northern Gaza Strip."

Sweidi continued: "We endured the war but it is difficult to endure famine."

He called on Arab and Islamic countries, as well as international organizations, to "pressure the occupation to stop the war and allow food aid, especially milk for children and treatment for the sick people."

For her part, Palestinian Um Muhammad Al-Madhoun told Anadolu: "We came out to demand the entry of aid, medicine, and to stop the war on the Gaza Strip."

She added that "the necessities of life are not available, we resorted to feeding on animal food and now it's gone, and our children are sleeping with empty stomachs."

Al-Madhoun called for the entry of flour and food to the Gaza Strip, the cessation of the war, and urgent international intervention to save Gaza from famine.

On Feb. 21, the UN agency for Palestinian refugees, UNRWA, announced that "since the start of 2024, 51% of the missions planned by UNRWA and humanitarian partners to deliver aid and undertake assessments to areas in north Gaza this year were denied access by Israeli authorities."

According to the UN, reports indicate increasing catastrophic levels of severe food insecurity throughout the Gaza Strip, with increasing reports of families struggling to feed their children, and an increasing risk of starvation-related deaths in the northern area of the strip.

"The risk of famine in Gaza is increasing by the day, particularly for an estimated 300,000 people in northern Gaza who have been predominantly cut off from assistance and where food security assessments show the greatest needs," according to the World Food Program.

Israel has pounded the Gaza Strip since an Oct. 7 cross-border attack by the Palestinian group Hamas. The ensuing Israeli war has killed more than 29,600 people and caused mass destruction and shortages of necessities. Nearly 70,000 people have been injured.

Around 1,200 Israelis are believed to have been killed in the Hamas attack.

The Israeli war on Gaza has pushed 85% of the territory's population into internal displacement amid acute shortages of food, clean water, and medicine, while 60% of the enclave's infrastructure has been damaged or destroyed, according to the UN.

Israel is accused of genocide at the International Court of Justice. An interim ruling in January ordered Tel Aviv to stop genocidal acts and take measures to guarantee that humanitarian assistance is provided to civilians in Gaza.

Hostilities have continued unabated, however, and aid deliveries remain woefully insufficient to address the humanitarian catastrophe.