UN warns of genocide in Gaza, slams 'Israel' for starvation tactics

By Al Mayadeen English
Source: Agencies
Today 06:40
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UN relief chief Tom Fletcher warns of genocide in Gaza, slams "Israel" for using starvation as a weapon, and urges Security Council action.

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Tom Fletcher, United Nations Under-Secretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs and Emergency Relief Coordinator, speaks with the media as he arrives for the 9th international conference in Brussels, on March 17, 2025. (AP)

United Nations relief chief Tom Fletcher on Tuesday issued a grave warning to the UN Security Council, urging it to take immediate steps "to prevent genocide" in Gaza. Fletcher, who serves as the UN Under-Secretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs, strongly condemned the Israeli occupation for the deliberate imposition of “inhumane conditions” on Palestinians in the besieged territory.

"For those killed and those whose voices are silenced: what more evidence do you need now?" he asked during his remarks. "Will you act -- decisively -- to prevent genocide and to ensure respect for international humanitarian law?"

Fletcher emphasized the urgency of lifting the Israeli blockade that has cut off the flow of humanitarian aid into Gaza, where more than 52,000 Palestinians have been killed and hundreds of thousands displaced.

'Israel' uses starvation as a weapon

Fletcher condemned the calculated effort by "Israel" to deprive Palestinians of essential needs. “It makes starvation a bargaining chip,” he said, calling the Israeli criteria for allowing aid entry "a cynical sideshow" and “a fig leaf for further violence and displacement.”

He reported that UN agencies have critical, life-saving supplies stationed at Gaza’s borders, yet access continues to be denied. He stressed that the proposed Israeli mechanism for aid deliveries was not only opaque but also exclusionary.

According to him, the plan "practically excludes many, including people with disabilities, women, children, the elderly, and the wounded."

European UN members back humanitarian concerns

In a joint statement, five European members of the UN Security Council, France, Britain, Slovenia, Greece, and Denmark, voiced their alarm over "Israel’s" proposed aid framework, stating that it fails to meet basic humanitarian standards.

"Humanitarian aid must never be used as a political tool or a military tactic," their statement read, aligning with Fletcher’s stance that the current system undermines international law and humanitarian principles.

Fletcher warned that by the time the International Court of Justice (ICJ) concludes its deliberation on whether the Israeli occupation’s actions constitute genocide, "it will be too late." He described the devastation unfolding across Gaza: “death, injury, destruction, hunger, disease, torture, other cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment, repeated displacement, on a large scale.”

He highlighted systematic efforts to obstruct aid and dismantle Palestinian life, citing extensive damage to civilian infrastructure, including schools, roads, hospitals, and homes.

"I can tell you from having visited what's left of Gaza's medical system that death on this scale has a sound and a smell that does not leave you," Fletcher said. "As one nurse described it: 'children scream as we peel burnt fabric from their skin.'"

UN official holds Security Council accountable

Fletcher criticized the UN Security Council for what he sees as a failure to prevent the unfolding catastrophe, suggesting that history would not look kindly on inaction.

"For those who will not survive what we fear is coming -- in plain sight -- it will be no consolation to know that future generations will hold us in this chamber to account," he said. "But they will. And, if we have not seriously done 'all we could,' we should fear that judgment."

Meanwhile, the Israeli occupation’s military operations continued on Tuesday with renewed strikes near hospitals in southern Gaza, killing at least 28 Palestinians, according to civil defense reports. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu announced plans to re-enter Gaza "with full force" following the breakdown of a temporary ceasefire.

The war, which began after a Hamas-led attack in October 2023 that killed 1,218 people, has since triggered one of the most severe humanitarian crises in recent history, with starvation and displacement becoming defining features of the ongoing siege.