Restrictions imposed by Israel on humanitarian aid to Gaza may amount to a tactic of provoking famine, which would constitute a war crime, United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights Volker Türk said on Tuesday. The harsh assessment came after a U.N.-backed report said Monday that if nothing changes and fighting stops, famine is likely to spread across the Palestinian enclave of 2.3 million people.
"The extent of Israel's continued restrictions on the entry of aid into Gaza, coupled with the manner in which it continues to conduct hostilities, may amount to the use of famine as a method of warfare, which constitutes a war crime," Turk stated. While aid agencies blame Israel for blockading Gaza, Prime Minister Beniamin Netanyahu's government says it is facilitating aid and that the United Nations and humanitarian groups are to blame for any problems over the quantity and pace of delivery. .
"Israel, as an occupying power, has the obligation to guarantee the supply of food and medical care to the population in accordance with their needs and to facilitate the work of humanitarian organizations to provide this aid," Turk declared through his spokesman. Jeremy Laurence.
The World Health Organization (WHO) released a report on Monday from the Alliance for Integrated Food Safety Phase Classification (CIP), which concludes that famine “is imminent” in the Gaza Strip and half of its population (1.11 million people) are expected to soon face "catastrophic" conditions. “Famine is expected to occur any time between now and May 2024 in the northern governorates,” the report concluded. Turk recalled that the crisis is "caused by humans" and is "totally avoidable."
Meanwhile, the humanitarian aid that arrived on Friday in the Gaza Strip, with the ship of the Catalan NGO Open Arms, the first ship that sailed an open maritime corridor from Cyprus, was transported this Tuesday morning by the World Program of UN food in the north of the Palestinian territory, reported World Central Kitchen (WCK), the American NGO led by Spanish chef José Andrés that organized the trip.
The assault on the Al Shifa Hospital by the Israeli army with snipers and tanks continues this Tuesday, a day after breaking into the hospital complex in Gaza City at dawn, where there were at least 30,000 people, including displaced people, patients and medical staff. According to a military statement, soldiers killed more than 50 suspected Hamas fighters in the siege - the fourth to occur during this war -, where they also detained about 180 people.
One of those arrested was the correspondent for the Qatari news channel Al Jazeera, who was held for 12 hours, the first hour naked under winter temperatures, according to his own account to the network. Journalist Ismail al Ghoul explained to Al Jazeera, after his release, that "Israeli forces stormed the Shifa hospital at dawn amid intense armed clashes" and that they destroyed equipment and began "to arrest journalists gathered in a room." used by the media.
According to Ghoul, they were also "stripped of their clothes" and arrested in a room within the medical facility, "lying face down, blindfolded and with their hands tied." The whereabouts of some members of his team have not yet been confirmed by the network.
"These attacks serve as an intimidation tactic against journalists to dissuade them from reporting on the horrible crimes committed by the (Israeli) occupation forces against innocent civilians in Gaza," Al Jazeera denounced hours earlier in a statement demanding their immediate release. .
