Seventeen international human rights and legal organizations expressed their deep shock at the statements made by the U.S. envoy to the Middle East, Steve Witkoff, who denied the existence of famine in the Gaza Strip. They considered his remarks to be a deliberate denial of a catastrophic reality supported by evidence and international testimonies. The organizations called on the United Nations and the Security Council to send an urgent international investigation committee to Gaza and to form an independent legal committee under the supervision of the International Court of Justice to investigate the systematic starvation policy against more than two million civilians in the region.

The organizations confirmed that Witkoff's statements ignore documented human rights reports and contradict data from UN organizations that confirmed deaths due to hunger, which reached 159 victims, including 90 children. Witkoff claimed during his meeting with the families of Israeli prisoners in Tel Aviv on Saturday that there is no famine in Gaza, stating: "There is hardship and shortage, but there is no hunger."

This statement came after his visit to a distribution center for aid in Rafah, in the southern part of the Strip, which is affiliated with the U.S. and Israeli-supported Gaza Humanitarian Foundation, operating outside UN oversight. The organizations demanded that the international community pressure Israel to allow journalists into Gaza, after what they described as "the longest media blackout on a conflict area in modern times," aimed at concealing crimes of genocide and mass starvation.

They pointed out that the effects of famine were clearly visible in video recordings of Israeli prisoners inside Gaza, who showed signs of hunger and malnutrition, reflecting the widening crisis and its reach to everyone. Earlier, the Palestinian Ministry of Health in Gaza announced that the number of deaths due to the starvation policy since October 7, 2023, had risen to 180 Palestinians, including 93 children, after five people died within 24 hours due to malnutrition.

The government media office also mentioned that Israel allowed the entry of 674 aid trucks since July 27, which is about 14% of the daily minimum required for the region, which is 600 trucks. The organizations warned that the international silence regarding the humanitarian disaster amounts to complicity, demanding urgent action to stop the crime of starvation and hold those responsible accountable.

The list of signatories to the statement included international human rights and media organizations, including the Al-Dameer Network, the Arab Council, Human Rights Monitor, and human rights institutions in Geneva, London, Istanbul, and Paris. They confirmed that the continued siege and media blackout aim to conceal genocide crimes, and that the effects of famine are evident in the recordings of the prisoners, with the humanitarian situation deteriorating at an unprecedented rate.

The World Food Program warned that one-third of Gaza's population has not eaten for days, describing the humanitarian situation in the region as unprecedented in terms of levels of hunger and despair. Despite the accumulation of aid at the entrances to the region, Israel continues to prevent its entry or control its distribution outside UN oversight, while firing on civilians gathering for food, resulting in the deaths of more than one thousand five hundred Palestinians and injuries to more than ten thousand since May 27, 2023.

Since the onset of genocide on October 7, 2023, Israel, with U.S. support, has continued to impose a comprehensive siege, closing all crossings to aid, leading to the spread of famine and reaching catastrophic levels, resulting in more than 210,000 martyrs and wounded, in addition to hundreds of thousands of displaced and missing persons, with a serious deterioration in the humanitarian situation.