UN professionals say Gaza youth killed in Israeli “targeted starvation campaign”

geneva – UN rights professionals on Tuesday accused Israel of waging a “targeted starvation campaign” that has resulted in the deaths of youth 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 professionals said in a commentary.

The United Nations has not officially declared famine in the Gaza Strip, but experts, including Michael Fakhry, the UN Special Envoy for the Right to Food, stressed that it is wrong to deny that famine conditions exist in the Palestinian territory.

“Thirty-four Palestinians have died of malnutrition since October 7, the majority of whom are children,” said professionals appointed through the UN Human Rights Council.

His comments were immediately condemned by the Israel Project at the United Nations in Geneva, which charged that “Mr. Fakhri, and many of the so-called ‘experts’ who attended his statement, are as addicted to spreading misinformation as That they are there to support Hamas and protect the terrorist organization from investigation.”

Israeli leaders and military commanders have consistently blamed the humanitarian conflict in Gaza on the enclave’s longtime rulers Hamas, who instigated the conflict. ongoing battle With their notable terrorist attack on Israel on 7 October. The militants killed about 1,200 families and shot about 240 other hostages in that attack.

About 80 hostages held in Gaza are believed to be still alive and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has said the goal of his country’s fight with Hamas is to break up the gang and free the hostages.

The Hamas-run Gaza health ministry says more than 38,000 Palestinians have been killed in fighting in the densely populated coastal area.

UN professionals listed three children who recently died “from malnutrition”, after several others were said to have died of starvation in northern Gaza earlier this year.

He noted, “Fayez Ataya, who was barely six months old, died on May 30, 2024, and 13-year-old Abdulkader al-Serhi died on June 1, 2024, at Al-Aqsa Hospital in Deir al-Balah.” Went.”

He reported that 9-year-old Ahmed Abu Rida died just two days later “in a tent sheltering his displaced family in al-Mawasi, Khan Yunis.”

“With these children dying from hunger despite medical treatment in central Gaza, there is no doubt that famine has spread from northern Gaza to central and southern Gaza,” he said.

Professionals condemned the ground for not making any additional efforts to avert the emergency.

“When a two-month-old baby and a 10-year-old Yazan al-Kafarneh died of hunger on February 24 and March 4, respectively, it confirmed that famine is prevalent in northern Gaza,” he said. “The entire world should have intervened earlier to stop Israel’s genocidal starvation campaign and stop these deaths… Inaction is complicity.”

Gaza has faced a dire humanitarian situation since the war broke out and the UN has been concerned for months by the threat of famine, especially in the north, but has not been officially declared. A declaration of famine no longer raises any prison implications, although it may help influence global support for the affected society.

The Israeli enterprise highlighted on Tuesday that actual assessments through the Integrated Food Security Section Classification (IPC) partnership showed that backup access has not led to famine in Gaza despite little progress.

It noted, “Israel has continuously increased its coordination and assistance in the delivery of humanitarian aid in the Gaza Strip,” claiming Hamas has “deliberately stolen and hidden aid from civilians.”

The US government has pressed Israel for months to surge a wave of backup into Gaza, and the Biden leadership has tasked the military with building a temporary pier on the Mediterranean coast of the range to receive additional food and alternative essential supplies.

The wharf has been a $230 million venture coping with logically demanding situations And Not controlled in any way to provide convenience Significant amounts of backup are arriving in Gaza. It was always described by US officials as an additional measure, with the acknowledgment that Gaza’s land borders, managed by Israel, are the only way to get adequate backup into the enclave.

Aid businesses have accused Israel of restricting the wave of backups into Gaza and increasing bureaucratic barriers to movement across the war-torn border. Israel rejected those accusations and said Hamas was hindering humanitarian operations in Gaza.