FEARS grew today that Palestine’s population may once again be on the verge of starvation following a week-long Israeli blockade.
Israel imposed the siege to try to force Hamas to accept a different ceasefire deal to the one agreed in January.
It blocked the entry of aid shipments to Gaza on Sunday, hours after the ceasefire deal’s first phase had expired, sparking fears of hunger and more hardships during the holy month of Ramadan, which began over the weekend.
Hamas spokesman Abdel-Latif al-Qanou said Israel is pursuing “a policy of starvation and collective punishment” in Gaza by keeping land crossings closed and preventing the entry of crucial aid.
The siege is a “flagrant violation of international and humanitarian laws and a war crime that the world must stop and hold its perpetrators accountable,” he said.
“We renew our call to the international community, all human rights and humanitarian institutions and all free people of the world to force the zionist occupation to open the crossings, bring in relief and medical aid – and end the suffering of our people.”
Israel wants to extend the first phase of the ceasefire deal by 50 days instead of entering the second phase, as agreed originally.
The Israelis were supposed to withdraw from the key Philadelphi Corridor at the end of the first phase on March 1, but have broken the deal by refusing to do so.
Meanwhile, the cost of reconstruction and recovery for Lebanon following the 14-month Israel-Hezbollah war is estimated at $11 billion (nearly £9bn), the World Bank said in a new report published today.
The war killed over 4,000 people in Lebanon, displaced hundreds of thousands and caused widespread destruction.
The report by the World Bank’s Lebanon Rapid Damage and Needs Assessment covered damage and losses in 10 sectors across the country from October 8, 2023 until December 20, 2024.
Hezbollah began firing rockets across the border on October 8, 2023, one day after the deadly Hamas-led incursion into southern Israel.
Israel responded with shelling and air strikes in Lebanon, with the two sides becoming locked in an escalating conflict that became a full-blown war in late September. A ceasefire went into effect in late November.
The report said the economic cost of the conflict in Lebanon totals $14 billion (£11bn), with damage to physical structures amounting to $6.8 bn (£5.3bn).
The report found that the conflict resulted in Lebanon’s real gross domestic product contracting by 7.1 per cent in 2024.