Palestinians in Jabalia in the northern Gaza Strip rush towards a plane conducting an airdrop of aid above the Palestinian territory on August 1, 2025. Photo by Bashar TALEB / AFP
Ramallah: President of the Palestinian National Council (PNC) Rawhi Fattouh described the situation in the Gaza Strip as a humanitarian tragedy and an unimaginable catastrophe, calling for the territory to be declared an internationally recognized disaster zone.
In a statement issued by the Council Friday, Fattouh said that the continued policy of systematic starvation, which grows more brutal by the day, is nothing short of a form of genocide being inflicted on a defenseless population through tools of siege and slow death.
He pointed out that the death of more than 147 Palestinians from hunger, most of them infants and children, is a stain on the conscience of humanity and irrefutable evidence of the horrific humanitarian scene unfolding under the auspices of the occupation.
Fattouh emphasized that what Gaza is witnessing is not a sudden disaster but a deliberate project aimed at forcibly displacing the population and pushing them into the unknown, as part of the far-right’s plans that view the existence of Palestinians as an obstacle to be removed. He also condemned the continued silence and inaction of the international community.
The President of the Palestinian National Council stressed that the time has come to declare Gaza an internationally recognized disaster zone, followed by immediate international intervention under the supervision of the United Nations to save what remains of the Palestinian people there, who are being killed daily by missiles, starvation, or abandonment.
He affirmed that the responsibility to protect Palestinian civilians is no longer merely a moral obligation, but a legal and binding duty under the rules of international humanitarian law and the United Nations Charter.
