Turkish FM describes aid blocking in Gaza as 'first phase of genocide'
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Fidan encouraged the international community not to remain silent over "Israel's oppression."
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UN and Red Crescent workers prepare aid for distribution to Palestinians at an UNRWA warehouse in Deir el-Balah, Gaza Strip. (AP)
"Israel's" practice of obstructing aid, executing relief workers, and allowing humanitarian goods to decay constitute crimes against humanity and the "first phase of the genocide," Turkey's foreign minister said.
After visiting Egypt's el-Arish port and Rafah border crossing, Fidan expressed that "Israel's closing of the border gate, targeting aid convoys, killing humanitarian workers, blocking the evacuation of the sick and civilians, and causing the decay of thousands of trucks' worth of aid materials are crimes against humanity and constitute the first stage of the genocide being conducted on the other side of the border."
The Turkish foreign minister also encouraged the international community not to remain silent over "Israel's oppression", reminding the West, particularly the US, that if the slaughter continues, "humanity will be complicit in it."
The Israeli occupation recently took control of the Rafah border, frequently blocking the closely regulated gate in a deliberate attempt to prevent the passage of food, medicine, and basic necessities into Gaza, using famine as a weapon of war.
Weeks ago, the Government Media Office in Gaza condemned the ongoing Israeli and American blockade on humanitarian aid, medical supplies, and goods into the Gaza Strip.
Zionist settlers attack and destroy food on aid trucks headed for Gaza. pic.twitter.com/FDhiZjjRgp
— Lowkey (@Lowkey0nline) May 15, 2024
On July 10, a group of UN experts warned in a press release that the recent deaths of more Palestinian children from hunger and malnutrition unequivocally indicate that famine has now spread across the entire Gaza Strip.
“Fayez Ataya, who was barely six months old, died on 30 May 2024 and 13-year-old Abdulqader Al-Serhi died on 1 June 2024 at the Al-Aqsa Hospital in Deir Al-Balah. Nine-year-old Ahmad Abu Reida died on 3 June 2024 in the tent sheltering his displaced family in Al-Mawasi, Khan Younis. All three children died from malnutrition and lack of access to adequate healthcare,” the experts said.
“With the death of these children from starvation despite medical treatment in central Gaza, there is no doubt that famine has spread from northern Gaza into central and southern Gaza,” they added.
The UN experts stressed that the death of a child due to malnutrition and dehydration signifies that essential health and social structures have been targeted and are severely compromised.
In 12 hrs., IOF struck 3 Gaza schools, 1 hospital; committed massacres
In a new massacre committed by the Israeli occupation forces in the Gaza Strip, 30 Palestinians were killed on Sunday following a series of Israeli airstrikes that targeted two schools in Gaza City sheltering thousands of displaced people.
According to Al Mayadeen’s correspondent, the Israeli airstrikes on the Hassan Salama and Al-Nasr schools in western Gaza City killed 30 Palestinians and injured dozens of others, including many in serious condition.
Palestinian news websites also reported that the Israeli bombardment destroyed the northern wing of the Al-Nasr School, which consists of three floors, and damaged the ground floor of Hassan Salama School.
Video footage showed fires breaking out inside the Hassan Salama School, which shelters thousands of displaced individuals whose homes have been destroyed.
مجزرة جديدة يرتكبها الاحتلال الإسرائيلي في مدرسة "حسن سلامة" غرب مدينة #غزة.#الميادين #فلسطين_المحتلة pic.twitter.com/RDj5FnnG62
— قناة الميادين (@AlMayadeenNews) August 4, 2024
Hamas commented on the latest massacre, vowing that the Israeli occupation's objectives of terrorizing, intimidating, and displacing people would be thwarted by the steadfastness of the Palestinian people and their courageous Resistance.
It also warned that Netanyahu and his henchmen's delusions of subjugating and oppressing the Palestinian people will result in the destruction and devastation of their fragile and beleaguered entity and its failing military.
This comes less than 24 hours after a similar Israeli massacre at the al-Hamama School in the Sheikh Radwan neighborhood, which killed 16 displaced Palestinians.
