By Jomaa Younis and Rania Abu Shamala
ISTANBUL (AA) - The Grand Imam of Al-Azhar in Egypt, the highest seat of Sunni Muslim learning, issued an urgent global appeal Tuesday to save Palestinians in the Gaza Strip from a deadly famine.
Sheikh Ahmed Al-Tayeb pleaded for the conscience of the world to act immediately to halt the Israeli genocide that has persisted for nearly 22 months.
“The human conscience is on trial,” he said, amid the continued killing of Palestinians in Gaza, and warned that anyone who supports Israel with weapons or backs it with political decisions is a direct partner in the crime.
“We raise our anguished cry and our wounded appeal to awaken the conscience of the free, the wise, and the just around the world—to save the people of Gaza from a famine imposed by the (Israeli) occupation with unprecedented force and brutality, in scene the likes of which history has never known,” said Al-Tyeb.
He stressed that “the occupation is deliberately starving the people of Gaza, who are searching for a morsel of bread or a sip of water, and it is targeting with gunfire the shelters of the displaced and the aid distribution centers.”
Al-Tayeb said that “anyone who supports the Israeli entity with weapons, or encourages it through resolutions or hypocritical words, is complicit in this genocide.”
At least 15 people, including four children, died of malnutrition and starvation in Gaza in the last 24 hours, Gaza’s Health Ministry said Tuesday.
The latest fatalities brought the number of deaths from malnutrition to 101, with 80 of them children, since October 2023.
Palestinian officials and rights groups have warned of a rising death toll from hunger, particularly among vulnerable groups such as children, the sick and the elderly.
Gaza is enduring one of the worst humanitarian crises in its history, with famine spreading across the enclave amid a genocide by Israel since Oct. 7, 2023.
Since March 2, Israel has sealed all border crossings, blocking the entry of food and medical aid. As a result, acute malnutrition symptoms have appeared among children and chronically ill patients.
Israel has killed more than 59,000 Palestinians, most of them women and children, in the Gaza Strip since late 2023. The military campaign has devastated the enclave, collapsed the health system, and led to severe food shortages.
Last November, the International Criminal Court issued arrest warrants for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and his former Defense Minister Yoav Gallant for war crimes and crimes against humanity in Gaza.
Israel also faces a genocide case at the International Court of Justice for its war on the enclave.