The Palestinian Non-Governmental Organizations Network (PNGO) says that the risk of death from starvation threatens about half a million citizens in Gaza City and northern Gaza, who remained and refused to leave their homes despite the destruction and devastation caused by the Israeli bombing, Al Jazeera reports.

In a press statement today, the PNGO said that Palestinians, especially in the northern Gaza Strip, are living in catastrophic and inhumane conditions after they ran out of basic food supplies.

“The network holds the international community fully responsible for this crisis resulting from the occupation war and its siege imposed on our people,” the statement said.

It added that the siege imposed by Israel as well as the prevention of the entry of humanitarian relief is part of a “deliberate war crime” committed within the framework of starvation policies against defenceless civilians, and an attempt to force citizens to leave their homes.