In a joint statement, the organizations called on the United Nations and the UN Security Council to dispatch an urgent international investigation committee to Gaza and to form an independent legal commission under the supervision of the International Court of Justice to investigate the "systematic starvation policy" against more than two million civilians in the Strip.
The organizations emphasized that Witkov's statements "ignore documented international and human rights reports and contradict data issued by UN organizations, which confirmed that 159 deaths due to starvation occurred, including 90 children."
During his meeting with the families of Israeli detainees in Tel Aviv on Saturday, Witkov claimed that there was no famine in the Gaza Strip, saying, "There is hardship and shortages, but there is no hunger."
This statement came one day after his visit to an aid distribution center in the city of Rafah, south of the Gaza Strip. The center is affiliated with the so-called "Gaza Humanitarian Foundation," which operates with US and Israeli support and outside UN supervision.
The international organizations that signed the statement called on the international community to "immediately pressure" Israel to allow international journalists into the Gaza Strip, following what they described as "the longest media blackout imposed on a conflict zone in modern times." They argued that this media blackout aims to "conceal the crimes of genocide and mass starvation."
She said, "The effects of famine were clearly evident in video recordings of Israeli prisoners inside Gaza, who showed signs of hunger and malnutrition, reflecting the extent of the crisis and its impact on everyone without exception."
On Monday, the Palestinian Ministry of Health in Gaza announced that the death toll from Israel's starvation policy since October 7, 2023, had risen to 180 Palestinians, including 93 children, after five people died within 24 hours as a result of malnutrition.
The Government Media Office also stated that Israel has allowed the entry of only 674 aid trucks since July 27, representing approximately 14% of the Gaza Strip's minimum daily need, estimated at approximately 600 trucks.
The organizations warned that "the continued international silence regarding this humanitarian catastrophe amounts to complicity," calling for immediate international action to halt the crime of mass starvation and hold accountable those responsible and those covering it up.
The statement was signed by: Dameer Network, Arab Council, Free Voice for Human Rights (France), Al-Shehab for Human Rights (London), Al-Karama for Human Rights (Geneva), Association of Victims of Torture (Geneva), Adalah Foundation (Istanbul), AFDI International (Belgium), Tawasul for Human Rights (The Hague), Human Rights Monitor (London), CEDAR for Human Rights (Lebanon), Solidarity for Human Rights (Geneva), Egyptian Rights Council (Geneva), Arab Center for Media Freedom, Egyptian Coordination for Rights and Freedoms, Hurriyat Center for Political and Strategic Studies, and Najda for Human Rights.
Recently, the World Food Programme warned that "a third of Gaza's population has not eaten for several days," describing the humanitarian situation in the Strip as "unprecedented in levels of hunger and despair."
Despite the backlog of aid trucks at the entrances to Gaza, Israel continues to prevent their entry or control their distribution outside of UN supervision.
In many cases, Israeli forces have fired on civilians gathering for food, killing 1,516 Palestinians and wounding more than 10,067 others since May 27, according to the Gaza Health Ministry on Monday.
Since the genocide began on October 7, 2023, Israel has been simultaneously committing a starvation crime against the Palestinians of gaza . On March 2, it tightened its measures by closing all crossings to humanitarian, relief, and medical aid, causing famine to spread and reach "catastrophic" levels.
The genocide, with American support, left more than 210,000 Palestinians dead or wounded, most of them children and women, and more than 9,000 missing, in addition to hundreds of thousands of displaced persons and a famine that claimed the lives of many.
