LAST UPDATE | 19 Mar

ISRAEL’S CONTINUED RESTRICTIONS on the provision of aid into Gaza could amount to starvation being used as a “weapon of war”, amounting to a “war crime”, the UN’s Human Rights Commissioner has said.

The High Commissioner for Human Rights Volker Turk has said the growing situation of hunger and the risk of famine in Gaza is as a result of Israeli operations in the region which place extensive restrictions on vital humanitarian aid crossing checkpoints.

In a statement, which was slammed by Israeli officials today, Turk said: ”The extent of Israel’s continued restrictions on the 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.”

Earlier, Tánaiste Micheál Martin has said he is “horrified” by a UN report that says half of the population in the besieged Gaza Strip are facing imminent famine and blamed Israel for restricting the entry of food and water. 

In a post on X (Twitter), Martin said, “This is entirely man-made. Israel bears responsibility for restrictions on food, water and health supplies. These must be lifted immediately; a huge increase in aid is needed.”

A World Food Programme (WFP) report published yesterday said: “In Gaza’s two northern governorates, where around 300,000 people remain trapped, famine is expected to arrive between now and May.”

“1.1 million people in Gaza have completely exhausted their food supplies and coping capacities and are struggling with catastrophic hunger and starvation,” the report said. 

UN Chief Antonio Guterres said: “The imminent famine in the northern part of Gaza is an entirely manmade disaster. I repeat my call for an immediate humanitarian ceasefire. We must act now to prevent the unthinkable, the unacceptable, the unjustifiable.”

President Michael D Higgins has today called for a fact-finding mission to take place in the region.

President Higgins said, no matter what “side” of the conflict the world chooses to be, it is the interests of the most basic humanity and all in the international community that the full facts are established.

‘This famine is entirely man-made’

Accusations that Israel is deliberately starving the people of Gaza have become more common in the international diplomatic arena in recent weeks.

Last week the European Union’s chief diplomat, Josep Borrell, went further than Turk, directly accusing Israel of using starvation as a weapon of war. 

Yesterday Borrell reiterated the accusation, saying: “Yes, starvation is used as a weapon of war, let’s say that. This famine is not a natural disaster, it’s not a flood, it’s not an earthquake, it’s entirely man-made”. 

“It’s not a question of logistics,” he said. “The support is there, waiting. Trucks are stopped, people are dying, while land crossings are artificially closed.”

Speaking at the EU Foreign Affairs Council yesterday, Borrell said: 

“Gaza was before the war the greatest open-air prison. Today, it is the greatest open-air graveyard. A graveyard for tens of thousands of people, and also a graveyard for many of the most important principles of humanitarian law.”

Asked about the use of such strong language, Borrell told reporters that he sees public opinion shifting “more and more” and cited the example of high-ranking US Democrat Chuck Schumer’s call for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to be replaced and to comments by German Chancellor Olaf Scholz.

“As you have seen, Chancellor Scholz, saying that Europeans cannot sit and watch how Palestinian people are starving.”  

He said there is “food for months accumulated in the stocks” on the Egyptian side of the border with Gaza.

“While on the other side of the side of the border people are dying of hunger.”

Israeli officials have rejected the accusation and repeatedly claimed its military has been allowing food and other necessities to enter. 

However, UN agencies and humanitarian NGOs have refuted those claims and said that Israeli inspections of trucks are hindering the entry of desperately needed aid. In some cases, entire convoys have been turned back at the border.

Last week Phillipe Lazzarini, who heads the UN’s Palestinian refugee agency UNRWA, said that a truck filled with supplies was turned back by Israeli forces because it contained medical scissors. 

Other agencies have reported their trucks being turned away for carrying similarly innocuous items. 

The WFP said a 14-truck food convoy waited at the Wadi Gaza checkpoint for three hours before being turned away by the Israeli army on 5 March.

It was the first convoy the UN agency attempted since it halted deliveries to the north of Gaza on 20 February, after its convoy of trucks faced gunfire and looting.

Today, the EU’s aid and crisis management commissioner, Janez Lenarčič said in a post on X that the bloc had sent 46 tonnes of aid to Egypt destined for Gaza. 

“We stay committed to support Palestinians in need but what our partners on the ground need is full access to reach the whole population,” he said.

Israel’s siege, bombardment and invasion of the Gaza Strip has killed more than 31,726 people since early October, mostly women and children. 

Includes reporting by Muiris O’Cearbhaill and © AFP 2024