Tehran – In a letter to the President of the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC), the head of Iran’s Red Crescent Association (IRCS) calls for swift action to stop the humanitarian crisis escalated by Gaza’s starvation and end the torture of civilians.
IRCS Head Pir-Hossein Kolivand, referring to the World Food Programme (WFP) and the UN Relief and Labor Bureau reports for UN Palestinian Refugees, said about a quarter of Gaza’s population is facing hunger, with thousands of women and children dead from the pram.
There have also been reports that Zionist troops were targeting civilians waiting for food, officials added.
The letter highlights Israel’s actions as a clear example of war crimes and as a clear violation of the principles of humanitarian law. The actions of the Israeli regime may fall under the International Criminal Court’s definition of genocide in the Roman law and the 1948 treaty.
Officials called on the ICRC to utilize all their capabilities to expand humanitarian diplomacy with responsible institutions and pave the way for humanitarian assistance to the region.
Erase Gaza via star
Israel’s relentless military attacks on Gaza continue to leave a trajectory of death, destruction and hunger as it is largely passive, in the face of what the international community is described as a current campaign of deliberate extinction.
On Monday alone, the Israeli strike killed dozens more Palestinians, according to medical sources. Just a day ago, Israeli forces massacred more than 100 Palestinians across the besieged strip – including 92 unarmed civilians who were desperately searching for food near the Jikim intersection in northern Gaza and were shot dead at the aid distribution point of Rafa and Khan Yonis.
The humanitarian crisis reached catastrophic levels under Israeli siege, pushing Gaza to the edge of hunger. Gaza’s 2.3 million residents face starvation in real time as important intersections are sealed and severely restricted.
UNRWA sounded an alarm and revealed that it was receiving “desperate message of starvation” from inside Gaza. In X’s post, the agency wrote: “Food prices have risen 40 times. Meanwhile, UNRWA, stockpiled in a warehouse just outside Gaza, has enough food for the entire population for over three months.”
Calling the crisis “artificial,” Unrwa called for urgent intervention. “The suffering in Gaza is artificial and must be stopped. Lift the siege and help on a safe and large scale.”
WFP reflected these warnings. WFP’s Palestinian representative Antoine Leonard told Al Jazeera of the occupied East Jerusalem (AL-QUDS):
Leonard added that many families have gone for days without food and survived every three days with meals. He noted that only a “very limited” number of charity kitchens are still operating, increasing malnutrition and fainting among civilians is becoming more common.
“(a) There’s a surge in the number of people facing malnutrition and you really see that the situation is reaching levels that you’ve never seen before.”
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