Gaza urges world: Stop starvation, open aid corridors now

The government media office in Gaza issued an urgent international appeal Saturday calling on the global community to immediately open safe and permanent humanitarian corridors into Gaza, end the deliberate politicization of aid, and lift the ongoing Israeli siege causing starvation.

In a statement, the media office urged all countries, UN agencies, international organizations, human rights and legal bodies, and political entities worldwide to intervene without delay.

It demanded "the establishment of internationally supervised humanitarian corridors to guarantee unrestricted delivery of food and medicine across Gaza," and called for "aid distribution to be free from manipulation by Israeli occupation forces or their collaborators."

The media office also condemned the blockade as a "collective crime" against civilians and demanded its immediate lifting.

It called for "intense international pressure on Israel to halt its genocidal policies of starvation and forced displacement," and for a swift international investigation into "the crime of starvation with those responsible held accountable in courts of justice."

Rejecting international calls for a ceasefire, the Israeli army has pursued a brutal offensive on the Gaza Strip since Oct. 7, 2023, killing nearly 59,000 Palestinians so far, most of them women and children.

Israel imposed a full humanitarian blockade of Gaza on March 2, cutting off food, medical supplies and other aid to the more than 2 million Palestinians in the territory.

Amid growing international pressure, it began allowing a trickle of aid in late May. The UN agencies have been bypassed and the controversial Gaza Humanitarian Foundation is operating distribution sites, leading to hundreds of deaths since then.