Palestinian official warns of starvation deaths in Gaza Strip

Basem Naim, former Minister of Health, has just come from the Gaza Strip and reports on life in the besieged territory

By Iftikhar Gilani

ISTANBUL, Türkiye – The former health minister of the Palestinian National Unity Government, Basem Naim, made shocking revelations about life in the besieged territory of Gaza, where Israel has launched an unprecedented aggression.

Speaking at a conference in the Turkish metropolis of Istanbul, Naim, 61, a resident of the Gaza Strip and current head of Hamas’ International Relations Council, gave a harrowing account of the conflict, describing Israel’s aggression as “a struggle of humanity, not just the struggle of Arabs and Muslims.”

According to Naim, Israel’s actions are leading to famine in the Gaza Strip, with a disproportionate number of women and children falling victim.

He fears that the gender balance in Gaza will be upset with more women and children killed in Israeli strikes. He said this phenomenon itself disproves the Israeli army’s claim that it is only targeting fighters.

There are currently over 60,000 injured in Gaza, of which only 700 have been able to receive medical treatment outside the region. Of these, 6,000 require immediate treatment.

He said the hospitals are overwhelmed with the wounded. There are 50,000 pregnant women in the strip for whom there is no room in the hospitals. They are giving birth to children on the roads.

Due to overcrowding, there are now 44,2319 cases of infectious diseases.

“We had eradicated many contagious diseases like tuberculosis, smallpox, etc. This was certified by the WHO. But these diseases are coming back to haunt people,” he said.

-Israeli plan

Naim said Israel’s intentions went beyond retaliation or self-defense. Even before the Hamas operation, Israel was pursuing a long-term plan to take control of Al Aqsa, annex parts of the West Bank, and separate Gaza from the West Bank, similar to what Hitler called the “Final Solution.”

Israel’s strategy was to promote normalization with the Arab countries, ignore the Palestinian issue and at the same time settle more Jewish communities on Palestinian land and in Palestinian homes.

He said that Israel was pursuing two goals at the same time: a military campaign to crush the resistance and an expulsion campaign to make life in the Gaza Strip impossible.

Naim revealed that Israeli forces were targeting cultural centers and even ancient icons such as the third oldest church in the world, with no apparent military significance.

They also bombed water wells to obstruct the water supply, all to force people to leave the area. He mentioned a case, where a person carrying water was targeted and warned by Israeli officials not to distribute water so that people are forced to leave the area.

He said that Israel has not given up its plan to expel the population of Gaza to this day.

Naim explained that the main goal is to create such strong pressure that the border with Raffah collapses, and the residents leave the area in large numbers to avoid bombardment.

Israel has not achieved its goal of driving the Palestinians out of the Gaza Strip.

“There are still 600,000 people living in the northern Gaza Strip. Israel has tried to expel them all. There are 1.9 million internally displaced people. They have left the north and the center and are living in the south,” he said.

Naim went on to say that Israel has already placed Gaza under a blockade and siege and has so far used over 70,000 tons of explosives, equivalent to 15 kilograms per capita, increasing the suffering of the Palestinian population.

He said the destruction of the health sector in Gaza is part of a deliberate strategy to demoralize the fighters by cutting off access to medical care, Naim said. He questioned the claims of 100 Jewish doctors who had campaigned for the destruction of Al-Shifa hospital and called on them to prove any wrongdoing at the facility.

“The Palestinian resistance had made it its mission not to use hospitals and educational institutions for military purposes and to preserve their sanctity. There were instructions to this effect, and everyone followed them,” he said.

He said names of these 100 doctors need to be publicized all over the world and they need to be confronted at every conference to back up their claim.

Naim, who is himself a medical doctor, said their call was totally against medical ethics.

He said the schoolchildren had already lost an academic year.

“Many university professors were killed along with their families. 95 schools were destroyed and 295 were partially destroyed. This means that some of them cannot be used to accommodate children,” he said.

The former health minister explained that despite the presence of NGOs and the UN in Gaza, the Palestinian government, which manages 52 health centers and 35 government hospitals, remains the main health provider. Naim emphasized that there have been no deaths due to power cuts in hospitals in the last 17 years thanks to the emergency power supply.

Basem Naim’s revelations are a sobering account of the challenges facing Gazans and the urgent need for international attention and aid to alleviate their suffering.