LAST UPDATE | 28 Mar
THE UNITED NATIONS Human Rights Chief has said that the starvation experienced by Palestinians and Gaza could amount to a war crime.
It comes as Israel has put restrictions on life-saving aid being delivered to besieged areas.
Volker Türk told the BBC that it is “plausible” that the IDF is using starvation as a weapon of war.
The UN says its workers have been given mixed messages at checkpoints, comparing delivering aid to Gaza to “navigating a brutal obstacle course”.
“All of my humanitarian colleagues keep telling us that there is a lot of red tape. There are obstacles. There are hindrances… Israel is to blame in a significant way,” said Türk.
“I can only say the facts speak for themselves… I understand that this needs to be controlled, but it cannot take days for it to be done.
“When you put all kinds of requirements on the table that are unreasonable in an emergency… that brings up the question, with all the restrictions that we currently see, whether there is a plausible claim to be made that starvation is, or may be used as, a weapon of war.”
Hamas has called on the United States to stop its airdrop deliveries of aid into the region, after nearly 20 people died trying to get to parachutes carrying aid.
Twelve people drowned trying to wade into the sea to get aid packages that went astray, according to the Hamas government and the Swiss-based Euro-Med Human Rights Monitor.
Six people, amid the dunes and rubble on Monday, were killed in stampedes, the same sources said.
James Elder, a UNICEF spokesperson on a mission in Gaza has said he and his team are attempting to deliver vaccines and other medical supplies to women and children in the region.
In a video posted to his Instagram this week, Elder detailed that the team of United Nations aid workers have been given mixed messages at Israeli checkpoints, when attempting to move north in to Gaza.
“Truth matters. Life saving aid matters,” he said.
The Palestinian Authority (PA) has announced the formation of a new Cabinet as it faces international pressure to reform.
President Mahmoud Abbas, who has led the PA for nearly two decades and remains in overall control, announced the new government in a presidential decree today.
None of the incoming ministers are well-known figures.
Abbas asked Mohammad Mustafa, a long-time adviser, to be prime minister earlier this month.
Mustafa, a politically independent US-educated economist, had vowed to form a technocratic government and create an independent trust fund to help rebuild Gaza. He will also serve as foreign minister.
Interior minister Ziad Hab al-Rih is a member of Abbas’ secular Fatah movement and held the same portfolio in the previous government.
The interior ministry oversees the security forces.
The incoming minister for Jerusalem affairs, Ashraf al-Awar, registered to run as a Fatah candidate in elections in 2021 that were indefinitely delayed.
At least five of the incoming 23 ministers are from Gaza, but it was not immediately clear if they are still in the territory.
The PA administers parts of the Israeli-occupied West Bank. Its forces were driven from Gaza when Hamas seized power in 2007, and it has no power there.
It has little popular support or legitimacy among Palestinians, in part because it has not held elections in 18 years.
Its policy of co-operating with Israel on security matters is extremely unpopular and has led many Palestinians to view it as a subcontractor of the occupation.
Opinion polls in recent years have consistently found that a vast majority of Palestinians want the 88-year-old Abbas to resign.
The United States has called for a revitalised PA to administer Gaza ahead of eventual statehood.
Israel has rejected that idea, saying it will maintain open-ended security control over Gaza and partner with Palestinians who are not affiliated with the PA or Hamas.
It is unclear who in Gaza would be willing to take on such a role.
Hamas has rejected the formation of the new government as illegitimate, calling instead for all Palestinian factions, including Fatah, to form a power-sharing government ahead of national elections.
It has warned Palestinians in Gaza against co-operating with Israel to administer the territory, saying anyone who does will be treated as a collaborator, which is understood as a death threat.
Israeli forces, meanwhile, pounded besieged Gaza yesterday and fought Hamas around several hospitals despite a UN Security Council demand for a ceasefire.
In a statement, Medécins Sans Frontieres (MSF) said an airstrike hit a greenhouse near Al Shaboura clinic, a MSF/Doctors Without Borders-supported facility in Rafah.
“Several people reportedly were killed in the attack. No MSF staff or patients were hurt.
“This is yet another example of the failure to respect the recent UN Security Council-approved resolution passed on March 25 for a ceasefire.”
The UN’s Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs has called on the Israeli government for drop the restrictions it has placed on the aid coming into Gaza.
Foreign Affairs Minister Micheál Martin yesterday confirmed that Ireland will intervene in South Africa’s genocide case against Israel at the International Court of Justice.
The decision follows analysis of legal and policy issues arising in the case, as well as consultation with South Africa.
Speaking on Virgin Media’s Tonight Show last night, Fianna Fáil MEP Barry Andrews stopped short of accusing Israel of genocide, but said that he “personally” believes that “it looks like genocide”.
“I do respect the International Court of Justice to make that decision,” he said.
With reporting by AFP and Press Association
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