Israeli aid restrictions to Gaza may be war crime: UN rights chief

By Al Mayadeen English
Source: Agencies
19 Mar 2024 22:51
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The UN High Commissioner for Human Rights emphasizes the urgent need for states to pressure "Israel" to facilitate aid delivery.

Humanitarian aid is airdropped to Palestinians in Gaza City, Gaza Strip, on Sunday, March 17, 2024. (AP)

Following a UN-backed report on Monday saying famine is likely to happen by May if the war on Gaza does not end, the United Nations human rights chief said on Tuesday that "Israel's" restrictions on humanitarian aid for Gaza may amount to a starvation tactic that could be a war crime.

"The extent of Israel's continued restrictions on the entry of aid into Gaza, together with the manner in which it continues to conduct hostilities, may amount to the use of starvation as a method of war, which is a war crime," proclaimed Volker Turk, the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, on Tuesday.

Moreover, Turk stated that "Israel" has a responsibility to guarantee access to food and medical assistance for the Palestinian people in the Gaza Strip.

"There needs to be full restoration of essential services, including the supply of food, water, electricity, and fuel," Turk said, adding that this is a "human-made" crisis that can be brought to an end, urging states to pressure the Israeli occupation to facilitate aid delivery into the Strip.

In response to Turk's statement, the Israeli occupation's diplomatic mission in Geneva claimed "Israel is doing everything it can to flood Gaza with aid, including by land air, and sea. The U.N. must also step up."

Gaza on the brink of famine, UN-backed report warns

A UN-endorsed report released on Monday warned that famine is expected to spread in the northern region of the Gaza Strip any time between now and May.

This dire prediction follows over five months of Israeli aggression that has devastated the Palestinian territory, resulting in thousands of casualties and severe disruptions to supply chains.

The report, conducted by the Integrated Food Security Phase Classification (IPC), reveals that across the entirety of the besieged enclave, approximately 1.1 million individuals, equivalent to half of the population, are now confronting "catastrophic hunger".

"Famine is now projected and imminent in the North Gaza and Gaza Governorates and is expected to become manifest during the projection period from mid-March 2024 to May 2024," it said.

The evaluation conducted by the UN-endorsed initiative, a metric utilized by UN agencies, regional organizations, and humanitarian aid groups, coincided with international calls urging "Israel" to permit increased humanitarian assistance into the enclave, which is home to 2.3 million people. Approximately 300,000 people in the northern region are isolated due to the ongoing aggression.

The last report on Gaza issued by the IPC, in December, indicated a record level of hunger, with nearly double the number of people now deemed at risk of famine. This assessment comes as the EU accuses "Israel" of the use of starvation as a weapon of war.

"From mid-March to mid-July, in the most likely scenario and under the assumption of an escalation of the conflict including a ground offensive in Rafah (city), half of the population of the Gaza Strip (1.11 million people) is expected to face catastrophic conditions," the IPC said.

"The actions needed to prevent famine require an immediate political decision for a ceasefire together with a significant and immediate increase in humanitarian and commercial access to the entire population of Gaza," it added.