GAZA CITY, Palestine / ISTANBUL

The Palestinian group Hamas on Tuesday denounced Israel’s closure of border crossings in Gaza for over 50 consecutive days, warning that famine and health crises could spread throughout the war-torn enclave.

“The Gaza Strip is facing an unprecedented humanitarian catastrophe and a severe shortage of all basic necessities of life, including food, water, fuel, medicine, and essential vaccines for children, which is pushing the population towards famine and a health disaster that is worsening day after day,” the group said in a statement.

Hamas said the Israeli army continues its “brutal massacres that innocent civilians have been exposed to on a daily basis in residential neighborhoods, shelter centers, and tents, and the systematic destruction of hospitals and civilian facilities.”

The statement underlined that Israel’s use of starvation as a weapon constitutes “a war crime and violation of all international and humanitarian resolutions.”

The group said the continuation of the Israeli blockade indicates “the failure of the international system politically, morally, and from a humanitarian perspective” and renewed its call on the international community to pile pressure on Netanyahu and his government to open the crossings for an immediate entry of the essential supplies.

Earlier on Tuesday, the UN humanitarian office (OCHA) spokesperson Jens Laerke said the Gaza Strip has reached “the worst humanitarian situation we have seen throughout the war in Gaza.”

Since March 2, Israel has closed Gaza’s crossings, blocking essential supplies from entering the enclave despite multiple reports of famine in the war-devastated territory.

In a separate statement, Hamas condemned Israeli warplanes’ targeting “the headquarters of the municipalities and the heavy equipment that have been used for rescue operations and the removal of the debris, including bulldozers and the machinery.”

Early Tuesday, the Israeli army shelled the Nazlat Jabalia Municipality headquarters and the heavy equipment inside the building in the northern Gaza Strip, a municipal employee told Anadolu on condition of anonymity, as he was not authorized to talk to the media.

Hamas said that these assaults came as part of “Israel’s fascist occupation policy to deepen the suffering of our people in the Gaza Strip and to destroy the means and components of civilians’ lives.”

Among the bombed heavy equipment, nine bulldozers were brought from Egypt under the ceasefire agreement, Hamas said.

“Crimes of the systematic destruction of means of life and civilian facilities in the Gaza Strip will not succeed in pushing our people to surrender to the malicious displacement plans,” the group said.

The Israeli army resumed its assault on Gaza on March 18, shattering a Jan. 19 ceasefire and prisoner exchange agreement.

Israel has killed more than 51,200 Palestinians in the enclave since October 2023, most of them women and children.

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.