Hamas demands Gaza crossings open after UN famine alert

GAZA STRIP: Hamas called on Friday for an immediate end to the war in Gaza and the lifting of the Israeli siege on the territory after the UN declared a famine in parts of Gaza.
In a statement published online, the group called for 'immediate action by the UN and the security council to stop the war and lift the siege' and demanded that crossings be opened 'without restrictions to allow the urgent and continuous entry of food, medicine, water and fuel'.
The group went on to say that the declaration by the United Nations confirmed the 'humanitarian catastrophe' in Gaza and accused Israel of using starvation as a 'tool of war'.
'We in the Hamas movement emphasise the importance of this UN declaration, even though it comes far too late — after long months of warnings and suffering endured by our people under systematic siege and starvation', the group said.
'The international community and all its institutions bear an urgent legal and moral responsibility to stop the crimes against humanity and save more than two million people facing genocide, starvation and systematic destruction of all aspects of life'.
Hamas's October 2023 attack that sparked the war resulted in the deaths of 1,219 people, mostly civilians, according to a tally based on official figures.
Israel's offensive has killed at least 62,192 Palestinians, most of them civilians, according to figures from the health ministry in Gaza that the United Nations considers reliable.
Meanwhile, the hunger crisis in Gaza is at a tipping point, with critically low supplies of fortified milk and special nutritious pastes exacerbating food shortages and pushing greater numbers of children into starvation, according to aid agencies, malnutrition experts and the United Nations.
Almost two years since Israel's attack, famine was formally confirmed for the first time in parts of Gaza on Friday with almost a quarter of the population facing starvation, according to the Integrated Food Security Phase Classification (IPC), the main global hunger monitor working with the UN and other aid agencies.
After a global outcry at Israel severely restricting aid from March, its military began allowing more food into Gaza in late July.
But volumes are too small and distribution too chaotic to stop greater numbers of the enclave's over 2 million people becoming malnourished, while those who are already starving or vulnerable are not getting life-saving supplements, three hunger experts and aid workers from six agencies said. — AFP/Reuters