United Nations rights experts have declared in a statement that Israel’s intentional and targeted starvation campaign against the Palestinian people is a form of genocidal violence and has resulted in famine across all of Gaza.
The UN has not officially declared a famine in the Gaza Strip.
However, the 10 experts, including the UN Special Rapporteur on the Right to Food, Michael Fakhri, insisted tht there is no denying famine is under way.
“Thirty-four Palestinians have died from malnutrition since October 7, the majority being children,” said the experts.
The experts also noted that the deaths of a baby “barely six months old”, a nine-year-old boy and a thirteen-year-old boy since May 30 showed “there is no doubt that famine has spread from northern Gaza into central and southern Gaza.”
The experts decried that the world had not done more to avert this disaster.
Balakrishnan Rajagopal, UN special rapporteur on the right to adequate housing, said that there is “famine across the whole of Gaza. All houses destroyed, food systems destroyed and healthcare destroyed. And kids are dying. Is there any humanity left?”
He made his comments in a post on X in response to the statement by a group of independent experts, himself included.
As expected, Israel condemned the report made by the UN experts.
“Mr Fakhri and many so-called experts who joined [him] are as much accustomed to spreading misinformation as they are to supporting Hamas propaganda and shielding the terrorist organisation from scrutiny,” Israel’s mission to the UN in Geneva said.
Meanwhile, Several US officials, who spoke on condition of anonymity, disclosed that the pier built by the American military to bring humanitarian aid to Gaza will be reinstalled on the beach to be used for several days, but then the plan is to pull it out permanently.
It would deal the final blow to a multimillion-dollar project long plagued by bad weather, security uncertainties and difficulties getting food into the hands of starving Palestinians.
The officials said that the goal is to clear whatever aid has piled up and get it to the secure area on the beach.
Once that has been done, the army will dismantle the pier and depart.
Israel’s Attacks Intended To Sabotage Ceasefire Prospects
In the midst of all these, Israel has not halted its attacks on Gaza, dragging revived ceasefire talks into the mud.
An Israeli attack struck the vicinity of the al-Awda school in Abasan near the southern city of Khan Younis.
Israel has acknowledged carrying out three other attacks since Saturday on Gaza schools used as displacement shelters.
Mouin Rabbani, a Middle East Analyst and Co-editor of an online publication, opined that Israel is not interested in a ceasefire in Gaza.
“No leadership likes to preside over military failure, and certainly, not Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu who … will now be remembered most of all for his failures on October 7th, and his failures in the year thereafter to achieve anything of military significance.”
Mouin Rabbani
Rabbani noted that while Israel claims increased attacks in Gaza are designed to increase pressure on Hamas to agree to a deal, it is, in fact, “meant to sabotage the prospects of a deal without having to take direct responsibility.”
He asserted that among Israel’s objectives is to “kill massive numbers of people, in this case, taking out its rage against the civilian population because it’s unable to get to the leaders of the Hamas movements and other factions.”
While the US remains a key mediating partner in the indirect negotiations, Rabbani said that it is “very difficult for Americans to achieve their objective when they’re constantly allowing Israel to undermine it.”
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