GAZA, (Palestine Foundation Information Center), The Government Media Office (GMO) in the Gaza Strip said that campaigns carried out by crews from the ministry of national economy to destroy food products are part of routine regulatory efforts aimed at protecting citizens from spoiled and unfit food items.
On Monday, GMO director general Ismail al-Thawabta categorically rejected Israeli claims that there is a surplus of food supplies in Gaza or that famine conditions do not exist in the besieged and war-ravaged territory.
Thawabta described the Israeli occupation regime’s use of footage showing the destruction of certain goods to portray Gaza markets as filled with supplies as “blatant media disinformation” and an attempt to evade its legal and moral responsibility.
Thawabta said such Israeli claims are intended to hide a systematic starvation policy affecting Gaza’s 2.4 million residents, who suffer from severe food insecurity.
The GMO head explained that the food supplies being destroyed are primarily shipments that spoiled as a result of Israeli practices, saying that prolonged delays of aid and commercial trucks at border crossings under direct sunlight and in unsanitary conditions, coupled with ongoing restrictions on fuel needed to operate cold storage facilities, caused many food supplies to spoil and expire before reaching consumers.
He emphasized that consumer protection teams from the Ministry of National Economy continue to monitor local markets, inspect goods, and prevent the sale of expired or spoiled items.
He warned that allowing such products to be sold could lead to a public health crisis and widespread food poisoning amid the worsening humanitarian and medical situation in the Gaza Strip.
“The destruction of spoiled food supplies highlights the devastating consequences of the Israeli blockade and the worsening humanitarian crisis in Gaza, rather than any abundance of food,” Thawabta underlined.
