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Mass starvation in Gaza: Israel blames Hamas as global outcry grows

Mass starvation in Gaza: Israel blames Hamas as global outcry grows

Israel has hit back at growing international criticism that it was behind chronic food shortages in Gaza, instead accusing Hamas of deliberately creating a humanitarian crisis in the Palestinian territory.
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More than 100 aid and human rights groups said earlier Wednesday that
'mass starvation' was spreading in the Gaza Strip, while France warned of a growing 'risk of famine' caused by 'the blockade imposed by Israel'.
The head of the World Health Organization also weighed in, saying that a 'large proportion of the population of Gaza is starving'.
'I don't know what you would call it other than mass starvation - and it's man-made,' Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus told reporters.
A malnourished two-year-old Palestinian boy in Gaza. Photo: AFP
But an Israeli government spokesman, David Mencer, said there was 'no famine caused by Israel. There is a man-made shortage engineered by Hamas'.
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