TEHRAN – Health Minister Mohammad-Reza Zafarqandi has called on the global community to make an immediate intervention to end the humanitarian crises in Gaza and help rescue civilians.

In an open letter addressing international bodies, Zafarqandi expressed deep sorrow over the catastrophic situation in Gaza, highlighting that the scope of violence, which is primarily targeting women and children, has gone beyond critical levels, IRNA reported.

Referring to the collapse of the public health system in Gaza, he described the situation as ‘the deliberate destruction of the very essence of human life’ and called on the global community to respond immediately and effectively to what he called ‘ongoing collective punishment, ethnic cleansing, and genocide’. 

The official went on to say that infants are dying in their mothers’ arms from hunger and thirst; according to the latest reports, more than thirty-two percent of children under the age of two are suffering from severe malnutrition.

Condemning Zionist regime’s measures, Zafarqandi asked the global community to take prompt actions to establish field hospitals, dispatching relief teams to address food crisis in cooperation with their international partners, lifting blockade and paving the way for the delivery of the UN humanitarian aid including food and medicines, as well as allocating emergency financial and logistic resources within the next 48 hours to end the humanitarian catastrophe in Gaza.

This is not a request letter, but a human, ethical, and professional responsibility, the official said, underlining that any hour delay costs innocent lives.

Erasing Gaza via starvation

Israel’s relentless military assault on Gaza continues to leave a trail of death, destruction, and starvation, as the global community remains largely passive in the face of what many now describe as a deliberate campaign of extermination.

On Monday, July 21, Israeli strikes killed dozens more Palestinians, according to medical sources. Just a day earlier, Israeli troops slaughtered more than 100 Palestinians across the besieged strip — including 92 unarmed civilians who were shot dead while desperately seeking food near the Zikim crossing in northern Gaza and at aid distribution points in Rafah and Khan Younis.

The humanitarian crisis has reached catastrophic levels under Israel’s suffocating siege, which has pushed Gaza to the edge of famine. With vital crossings sealed and aid severely restricted, Gaza’s 2.3 million residents face starvation in real time.

The UNRWA has sounded the alarm, revealing it is receiving “desperate messages of starvation” from inside Gaza — including from its own staff. In a post on X, the agency wrote: “Food prices have increased 40-fold. Meanwhile, just outside Gaza, stockpiled in warehouses, UNRWA has enough food for the entire population for over three months.”

Calling the crisis “manmade,” UNRWA demanded urgent intervention: “The suffering in Gaza is manmade and must be stopped. Lift the siege and let aid in safely and at scale.”

The WFP echoed these warnings. Antoine Renard, WFP’s representative for Palestine, told Al Jazeera from occupied East Jerusalem (al-Quds): “You have a level of despair that people are ready to risk their lives just to reach any of the assistance actually coming into Gaza. Just to give you an idea, [the price of] 1kg of flour is currently $100.”

Renard added that many families are going days without food, surviving on meals every third day. He noted that only a “very limited” number of charity kitchens are still operating, with malnutrition soaring and fainting among civilians becoming increasingly common.

“[There’s a] soaring number of people facing malnutrition, and we can really see that the situation is really getting to levels that we’ve never seen ever before.”

MT/MG