Gaza starvation could amount to war crime, UN human rights chief tells BBC

The UN’s most senior human rights official, Volker Türk, said Israel bore significant blame. He said there was a plausible case that Israel was using starvation as a weapon of war in Gaza. Israel’s economy minister, Nir Barkat, dismissed his warnings as ’total nonsense’ Israel says the UN fails to distribute whatever is left once Hamas has helped itself. But a long line of lorries loaded with aid supplies is backing up on the Egyptian side of the border with Rafah.

They can only enter Gaza through Israel, after a complex and bureaucratic series of checks. Mr Türk condemned the Hamas attacks on Israeli civilians and soldiers on 7 October. But he also said that no side in the war should evade accountability for its actions. Evidence has emerged that Israel was slowing down or withholding the delivery of aid, he said.

He said: “I can only say the facts speak for themselves” The study is the latest report from a respected international network, the Integrated Food Security Phase Classification. It provides governments, the UN and aid agencies with apolitical data to measure the scale of hunger. It prompted more warnings from Israel and its allies that it should change the way it is fighting the war against Hamas. 1.

1 million people, half of Gaza, experience catastrophic food insecurity. Famine could come at any time in the next eight weeks or so if there was no ceasefire and relief aid did not pour into the Gaza Strip. Palestinian parents who had brought sick and hungry children to one of the few hospitals still operating in Gaza after Israel’s onslaught. The evidence of Gaza’s humanitarian catastrophe is overwhelming.

Our pictures from the hospital showed children with swollen joints, wasted limbs and dermatitis, all classic symptoms of acute malnutrition. Most of just over one million Gazans considered to be in acute need will not have that option. Israel has ignored the UN Security Council resolution demanding an immediate ceasefire. The UN high commissioner for human rights had a succinct response to stinging criticism from Israel.

We are going to finish the war. We’ll do everything we can to kill the Hamas terrorists and to minimise collateral damage as much as we can," he said.