Report: Israel Carrying out Starvation Campaign Against Palestinians in Gaza Strip

A UN expert has accused Israel of conducting a "starvation campaign" against Palestinians in the Gaza Strip. The expert, Michael Fakhri, the UN Special Rapporteur on the Right to Food, presented a report to the UN General Assembly, stating that since the Israeli military aggression against Gaza began in early October of the previous year, the flow of food, medicine, and other humanitarian supplies has been severely restricted. 

Fakhri stressed that by December, Palestinians in Gaza made up 80 percent of the people in the world experiencing famine or catastrophic hunger. He further noted that never in post-war history had a population been made to go hungry so quickly and completely as was the case for the 2.3 million Palestinians living in Gaza.

He also highlighted that reports of the destruction of Gaza’s food system have been received since the Israeli aggression began, with documentation provided by the UN Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) and other sources. Fakhri emphasized that Israel used humanitarian aid as a political and military weapon to harm and kill the Palestinian people in Gaza. 

Furthermore, Fakhri pointed out that Israel has been employing “the full range of techniques of hunger and starvation against the Palestinians, perfecting the degree of control, suffering, and death that it can cause through food systems” since the establishment of the illegal occupying entity 76 years ago. 

Meanwhile, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has rejected the allegations, calling the claims that Israel is restricting humanitarian aid “outrageously false".