Date: July 26, 2025
The Refugee Affairs Department of the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) has called on the international community to take firm and deterrent measures against Israel to end the ongoing genocide, stop the famine in the Gaza Strip, and lift all restrictions on the delivery of humanitarian aid.
“The spread of famine across the Gaza Strip is a stain on the conscience of the international community and humanity itself,” the department declared.
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In a statement issued today (Saturday), the department urged the international community to break its silence and assume its moral and legal responsibilities toward the Palestinian people in Gaza, who are subjected to a deliberate and systematic starvation campaign led by the Israeli occupying state. The goal, it stated, is to serve Israel’s political and military objectives by advancing its forced displacement agenda.
The statement confirmed that over 122 Palestinians, including 83 children, have died in Gaza due to siege-induced hunger and malnutrition. In the past 48 hours alone, 9 Palestinians, including 2 children, were reported to have died as a result of Israel’s starvation policy.
The department strongly condemned the Israeli army’s recent destruction of over 1,000 trucks loaded with medical supplies, humanitarian aid, and drinking water intended for Gaza. These trucks had been held for extended periods at Israeli-controlled crossings, constituting a blatant violation of international humanitarian law, the Fourth Geneva Convention, and relevant United Nations resolutions. This act, the statement noted, represents collective punishment and a crime against humanity, requiring accountability under the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court. It also violates the rulings of the International Court of Justice (ICJ), which has recognized Palestinians as a protected group under the 1948 Genocide Convention and has issued binding provisional measures (on January 26, March 28, and May 24, 2024) obligating Israel to comply.
The department asserted that Israel is using starvation as a weapon of genocide to further its displacement plans. It explained that the closure of border crossings, the obstruction of international organizations’ operations, and the prevention of aid deliveries since March 1 have caused the rotting of thousands of tons of food, medical, and hygiene supplies, and water designated for Gaza. This, it stressed, is clear evidence that the famine in Gaza is intentional, systematic, and premeditated.
“The spread of famine across Gaza is a disgrace to the international community and a moral failure of humanity,” the statement emphasized.
According to UN reports cited in the statement, nearly one-third of Gaza’s population goes days without food, and three-quarters suffer from catastrophic levels of hunger and malnutrition, particularly affecting children, women, the elderly, and the sick—due to the ongoing blockade and the shutdown of border crossings since March 1.
The department further denounced Israel’s replacement of international humanitarian organizations with an unethical mechanism known as the “Gaza Humanitarian Mission”, aimed at exerting full control over aid flows to serve its colonial agenda. Since this mechanism began operating on May 27, over 1,000 starving Palestinians have been killed while trying to access food aid, and more than 6,000 have been injured.
The statement explained that Israel now controls all aspects of humanitarian aid delivery to Gaza, as part of a deliberate strategy to dismantle humanitarian and relief work. This includes systematic attacks against all humanitarian organizations, particularly the UN Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees (UNRWA), which faces a sustained campaign of defamation and incitement aimed at paralyzing its ability to provide essential services to millions of refugees.
The department concluded by urging the international community to impose strict sanctions on Israel, the occupying power, to immediately end the genocide, starvation policies, and humanitarian catastrophe in Gaza. It also called for the immediate lifting of aid delivery restrictions, and for Israel to comply with UN Security Council Resolutions 2720 and 2728, which mandate the opening of humanitarian corridors, as well as Resolution 2730, which requires respect for international organizations and protection of their staff. The statement called for immediate access for the UN and NGOs to carry out famine relief and aid distribution under the UN’s previous coordination mechanism.
