22/8/2025–|Last update: 18:56 (Mecca time)
The Director General of the Palestinian Ministry of Health in the Gaza Strip, Dr. Munir Al -Barash, said that the world waited 272 deaths, including 113 children, before international organizations officially announced a famine in the Gaza Governorate for the first time.
Al -Barash confirmed – during an intervention with Al -Jazeera – that these tragic numbers were expected and known to international organizations for a long time.
Official statistics reveal a real humanitarian catastrophe that is exacerbated daily, as 28,000 malnutritions have been recorded since the beginning of this year, while 35,000 infants are struggling without the first year of starvation in the silence applied.
The circle of suffering includes 250,000 children under the fifth, who face a severe lack of food, while one million and 200,000 children live below 18 bitter facts from acute food insecurity.
The tragedy is not limited to children alone, but extends to women and mothers in particular, as 107,000 pregnant and breastfeeding women suffer from famine and malnutrition, while the besieged hospitals embrace 500 infants receiving treatment due to acute malnutrition.
According to Al -Barsh, the occupation forces prevented the entry of 430 essential food items to the sector, including meat, eggs, cheese, fish, vegetables, fruits and nutritional supplements.
And not only the Israeli policy is to prevent food, but also extends to include biological medications to treat malnutrition, including therapeutic solutions and others, while Al -Barish described it as “silent extermination.”
An exceptional situation in the north
The northern governorates face an exceptional exceptional situation, as fuel is prohibited from entering it two weeks ago, in addition to a strict restriction of the arrival of international institutions, and this systematic policy – according to Al -Barsh – aims to force the population to displace the south through forced starvation.
On the other hand, the Israeli authorities refuse to recognize the internationally documented reality, describing the reports of the World Health Organization as “fabricated and designed to suit propaganda campaigns”, stressing that these reports “will be received as a basket of trash.”
In a remarkable development, the United Nations Secretary -General Antonio Guterres described the famine in Gaza as a “man -made disaster”, in a statement that is considered the most explicit about the humanitarian situation in the sector.
International estimates indicate that half a million Palestinians in Gaza are suffering from malnutrition and famine.
In the face of this reality, fears are escalating with the approval of the Israeli government on an imminent military operation to occupy Gaza City, which warns of a greater exacerbation of the health and food crisis.
In a clear message to the international community, Al -Barsh stressed that “if the world wants to stop famine in Gaza, he must stop this war directly,” adding that the current situation means that “there is no medicine, there is no food and there is only a deadly death in Gaza.”
Earlier today, the World Health Organization, the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF), the World Food Program, and the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) announced in a joint statement that more than half a million people in Gaza are stuck in famine.
In conjunction with this, the integrated phased classification of food security, a global initiative specialized in the issue of measuring food security and malnutrition, issued a report in which he confirmed that the famine is spreading in Gaza Governorate, and expected to extend to Deir Al -Balah (center) and Khan Yunis (south) by the end of next month.
(Tagstotranslate) Politics (T) Middle East (T) Arabic (T) Palestine