United Nations human rights chief Volker Turk warned Tuesday that Israel’s “extensive restrictions” on aid entering war-ravaged Gaza, coupled with the ongoing war against the Hamas terrorist organization, could amount to using starvation as a “weapon of war,” which would be a “war crime.”
In a statement rejected by Israel, Turk blamed Israel for rampant hunger and looming famine in Gaza, saying that “the situation of hunger, starvation and famine is a result of Israel’s extensive restrictions on the entry and distribution of humanitarian aid and commercial goods.”
It was also linked to the “displacement of most of the population, as well as the destruction of crucial civilian infrastructure,” he 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.”
His spokesman Jeremy Laurence told reporters in Geneva that the final determination of whether “starvation is being used as a weapon of war” would be determined by a court.
The comments follow a UN-backed report on Monday saying famine is likely by May without an end to fighting in the more than five-month war between Israel and Hamas in the Palestinian enclave of 2.3 million people.
The devastating war — started on October 7 when the Hamas terror group launched a shock assault on Israel’s southern communities — has, according to the assessment, left roughly half of Gazans, or around 1.1 million people, experiencing “catastrophic” hunger.
Hamas slaughtered some 1,200 people in southern Israel, most of them civilians, amid acts of wholesale brutality. An additional 253 people were seized as hostages, of whom 130 remain in Gaza, including at least 33 who are no longer alive.
In response to the massacre, Israel launched an aerial offensive and ground campaign, vowing to eradicate the terror group that has ruled the Gaza Strip since 2007 and to release the hostages.
The Hamas-run health ministry has said that more than 31,800 people have been killed since October 7, figures that cannot be independently verified and do not differentiate between civilians and combatants, of whom Israel says it has killed more than 13,000. An additional 1,000 terror operatives were said to have been killed inside Israel on and immediately after October 7.
Jens Laerke, spokesman for the UN humanitarian agency OCHA, pointed to the difficulty of clearly determining if the strict criteria have been met to declare a famine.
“The famine thresholds may already be the case in northern Gaza,” he told reporters, highlighting reports that for weeks people had already been reduced to eating bird seed, animal fodder, wild grass and weeds.
“There is literally nothing left,” he said.
Looking ahead, he warned that without more aid, Gaza could soon be looking at “more than 200 people dying from starvation per day.”
Israel, which checks all trucks entering Gaza, has been under increasing pressure from aid agencies to allow more aid into the territory. It has blamed the UN for not delivering supplies fast enough after they are cleared, and for leading to a general fall-off in deliveries. It also accuses Hamas of stealing aid deliveries for itself, depriving civilians of resources.
Humanitarian aid operations have intensified in recent weeks, including airdrops and efforts for a maritime humanitarian corridor from Cyprus, but the UN and other aid agencies warn that these are insufficient to meet the desperate needs in Gaza, particularly in the hard-to-reach north.
Already, health workers are seeing “newborn babies simply dying because of their too-low birthweight” and “children that are at the… brink of death through starvation,” World Health Organization spokeswoman Margaret Harris said.
She noted that malnutrition had been basically “nonexistent” in Gaza before the war.
The crisis was “entirely manmade,” she claimed, denouncing the lack of safe access to bring in the aid needed to meet the towering needs.
Turk said that “the clock is ticking.”
“Everyone, especially those with influence, must insist that Israel acts to facilitate the unimpeded entry and distribution of needed humanitarian assistance and commercial goods to end starvation and avert all risk of famine,” he said.
He also demanded “an immediate ceasefire, as well as the unconditional release of Israeli hostages still held in Gaza.”
Israel’s diplomatic mission in Geneva rejected Turk’s statement, insisting that he was seeking “once again to blame Israel for the situation and completely absolve the responsibility of the UN and Hamas.”
“Despite the rockets, the holding of our hostages, the acts of pure evil on October 7, Israel is committed to facilitating humanitarian aid into Gaza,” it said, insisting that “Israel is at war with Hamas, not the Palestinian people.”
The country, it said, was “doing everything it can to flood Gaza with aid, including by land, air and sea.”
It added, “The UN must also step up.”