The UN has declared that Israeli constraints on humanitarian aid into Gaza could amount to the war crime of purposeful starvation, while the White House has advocated for unrestricted entry to the coastal strip.
Amid rising and catastrophic hunger in portions of Gaza, as well as official UN data for hunger levels that are the worst observed under the present classification system, the Biden administration said it was “deeply concerned” after receiving a report concerning probable famine.
Volker Turk, the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, has stated that Israeli limitations on humanitarian access may amount to “starvation as a method of war”.
His remarks come after the UN Secretary General described food shortages as “entirely man-made” on Monday, and an Integrated Food Security Phase Classification (IPC) study, the worldwide standard for quantifying food crises, warned of impending famine in the territory’s north.
“The extent of Israel’s continued restrictions on 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,” he said.
While aid agencies accuse Israel for the blockade of Gaza, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s government claims it is facilitating supplies and that the UN and relief organisations are to blame for any issues with amount and pace of delivery.
“Israel, as the occupying power, has the obligation to ensure the provision of food and medical care to the population commensurate with their needs, as well as to facilitate the work of humanitarian organisations to deliver that assistance,” Turk said through spokesperson Jeremy Laurence, describing the crisis as “human-made” and preventable.
“Everyone, especially those with influence, must insist that Israel acts to facilitate the unimpeded entry and distribution of needed humanitarian assistance and commercial goods to end starvation and avert all risk of famine.”
The flow of supplies into Gaza has been a source of contention between the Biden administration and Netanyahu, with the US and other countries airdropping goods and working to develop a sea channel through Cyprus.
Officials and experts, however, believe that land routes into Gaza, controlled by Israel, are still the most effective means to provide supplies to Palestinians besieged by months of terrible conflict.
Oxfam America and Human Rights Watch, echoing the UN, delivered a memorandum to the Biden administration documenting alleged Israeli violations of international humanitarian law, including assistance obstructing, and urging the suspension of US weaponry supply to Israel.
In response to the Biden administration’s new National Security Policy Document (NSM-20), which requires recipients of US weaponry to act in accordance with international law, the two groups stated that Israel’s “assurances” of acting within international law “are not credible.”
On March 15, 2024, Palestinians in Rafah, Gaza, queued to receive food donated by charity agencies.
‘Catastrophic levels of hunger’ in Gaza indicate an impending famine, according to the relief alliance.
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accusations that Israel is “systematically prevent[ing] aid” from being delivered to “the roughly 300,000 Palestinians who remain in northern Gaza, where the threat of starvation is most acute” .
The letter also stated that in the first six weeks of this year, “over half of the planned humanitarian aid missions to northern Gaza were obstructed by Israeli authorities”.
The documents accuse Israel of a deliberate policy of starving, adding: “International humanitarian law prohibits parties to a conflict from deliberately causing ‘the population to suffer hunger, particularly by depriving it of its sources of food or supplies’.”
The UN secretary general, António Guterres, has urged for an emergency humanitarian truce to allow aid into Gaza.
“Palestinians in Gaza are enduring horrifying levels of hunger and suffering,” Guterres said in New York on Monday, characterising the IPC report as a “appalling indictment of conditions on the ground for civilians”.