Foreign Minister Riad Maliki of the Palestinian Authority says Israel has been using famine as a weapon of war against the people in the besieged Gaza Strip.
“While we are meeting now, 2.3 million Palestinians in Gaza are being subjected to massacre and deprivation, becoming victims of disease, pandemic, hunger and thirst.”
Maliki was addressing an annual high-level panel discussion on human rights at the UN Human Rights Council in Geneva on Monday.
He said the regime has been violating international law “with its aggression against our people in [the] Gaza Strip, its genocidal war, and its crimes against the inalienable rights of the Palestinian people.”
The Palestinian diplomat said Israel has been committing “genocide” and “crimes against the inalienable rights of the Palestinian people” during its almost five-month-old savage hostilities Gaza.
Famine stalking Gaza
The remarks came after the head of the United Nations agency for Palestinian refugees (UNRWA) said famine is stalking Gaza.
UNWRA Commissioner-General Philippe Lazzarini warned about “looming famine” in a message on social media on Sunday, saying humanitarian aid has not reached people in northern Gaza for more than a month.
“The last time UNRWA was able to deliver food aid to northern Gaza was on January 23.”
He said calls by aid agencies to allow food distribution in Gaza “have fallen on deaf ears.”
At least 500,000 people are facing famine in Gaza, while the entire 2.3 million population of the besieged territory is experiencing acute food shortage, according to figures from the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA).
One in six children under age two — 15.6 percent — is acutely malnourished in northern Gaza, according to nutrition screenings conducted at shelters and health centers in January.
Reports said a 2-month-old Palestinian boy died of starvation at Shifa Hospital in Gaza City on Friday.
The infant, Mahmoud Fattouh, “seemed to be taking his last breath,” when he was rushed to the hospital in her mother’s arms, said one of the paramedics at the hospital. “The baby has not been fed any milk for days, as baby milk is totally absent in Gaza.”
