UN human rights experts on Tuesday accused Israel of carrying out a “targeted starvation campaign” resulting in the deaths of children in Gaza.
“We declare that Israel’s deliberate and targeted starvation campaign against the Palestinian people constitutes a form of genocidal violence and has resulted in famine throughout Gaza,” 10 independent UN experts said in a statement.
The United Nations has not officially declared a famine in the Gaza Strip.
But experts, including the UN Special Rapporteur on the right to food, Michel Fakhry, stressed that it could not be denied that a famine situation existed.
Experts appointed by the United Nations Human Rights Council said that “34 Palestinians have died from malnutrition since 7 October, most of them children.” These experts do not speak on behalf of the United Nations, but experts appointed by the United Nations Human Rights Council said that “34 Palestinians have died from malnutrition since 7 October, most of them children.”
His statement was immediately condemned by Israel’s mission to the United Nations in Geneva, which accused “Mr. Fakhri and many of the so-called ‘experts’ involved in his statement are equally accustomed to spreading misinformation, supporting Hamas’ propaganda and protecting the terrorist organization from scrutiny.”
Meanwhile UN experts listed three children who recently died from “malnutrition”, while several others were said to have died of hunger in northern Gaza earlier this year.
“Fayez Ataya, who was barely six months old, died on May 30, 2024, and 13-year-old Abdulqader al-Serhi died on June 1, 2024, at al-Aqsa Hospital in Deir al-Balah,” he said.
He said nine-year-old Ahmed Abu Rida died two days later “in a tent set up for his displaced family in al-Mawasi, Khan Younis”.
“The deaths of these children from hunger despite medical treatment in central Gaza leave no doubt that the famine has spread from northern Gaza to central and southern Gaza,” he said.
Experts regretted that the world did not make more efforts to prevent this disaster.
“When a two-month-old baby and 10-year-old Yazan al-Kafarneh died of hunger on 24 February and 4 March respectively, it confirmed that there was a famine in northern Gaza,” he said.
“The whole world should have intervened earlier to stop Israel’s genocidal starvation campaign and prevent these deaths.”
“Inaction is complicity.”
Gaza has been facing a deepening humanitarian crisis since the war began on October 7 following a Hamas attack on southern Israel that resulted in the deaths of 1,195 people, mostly civilians, according to an AFP count based on Israeli figures.
Israel has responded with a military offensive that has killed at least 38,243 people in Gaza, most of them civilians, according to the Hamas-ruled territory’s health ministry.
The United Nations has been warning of a famine in Gaza for months, particularly in the north, but no official declaration has been made.
The Israeli mission highlighted on Tuesday that the latest assessment carried out by the Integrated Food Security Phase Classification (IPC) partnership determined that famine conditions have not yet arisen despite some improvements in access to aid.
It said “Israel has steadily increased its coordination and assistance in delivering humanitarian aid to the Gaza Strip”, adding that Hamas “deliberately steals and conceals aid from civilians”.
(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)
