[News] Gaza is in ‘state of famine’ and Israel is using starvation as weapon of war, says Josep Borrell

[GL HERO SHIMA]

EU's Borrell: 'Israel is provoking famine' in Gaza

Israel is provoking famine in Gaza and using starvation as a weapon of war, the EU’s foreign policy chief Josep Borrell said on Monday.

“In Gaza we are no longer on the brink of famine, we are in a state of famine, affecting thousands of people,” Reuters reports Borrell said at the opening of a conference on humanitarian aid for Gaza in Brussels.

“This is unacceptable. Starvation is used as a weapon of war. Israel is provoking famine.”EU's Borrell: Gaza no longer 'open air prison', it has become 'open air graveyard'Lisa O'Carroll

Lisa O’Carroll, the Guardian’s Brussels correspondent, has more on those comments by Josep Borrell:

The EU’s chief diplomat Josep Borrell condemned Benjamin Netanyahu this morning for creating what he said was a “man made famine” in Gaza, and urged Israel to allow road deliveries of food immediately.

Arriving at a summit of foreign ministers in Brussels, he said European leaders have told the Israeli prime minister they cannot stand by and watch Palestinians starve to death.

In Gaza we are no longer on the brink of famine, we are in a state of famine affecting thousands of people.

Chancellor Sholz told Benjamin Netanyahu ‘we cannot stand by and watch Palestinians starve’. This famine is not a natural disaster. It is not a flaw. It is not an earthquake. It is entirely man-made.

Chancellor Scholz is saying Europeans cannot sit and watch Palestinian starving, when on the other side of the border there is food for months accumulated in stocks, while on the other side of the road there are people dying of hunger. This requires some action.

The EU, which funds much of the aid to Gaza, said the land border used to handle 500 tonnes of aid a day before the war. At present it was functioning at a level of 100 tonnes a day.

Borrell added: “Before the war, Gaza was the greatest open air prison. Today it is the greatest open air graveyard”.

Yesterday European Commission chief Ursula von der Leyen, one of Israel’s staunchest supporters in the EU said: “Gaza is facing famine and we cannot accept this.”

Oxfam: Israel controlling 'unpredictable and chaotic regime of approval, scanning and inspection' of humanitarian aid

Oxfam has accused Israel of controlling “an unpredictable and chaotic regime of approval, scanning and inspection” of humanitarian aid destined for the Gaza Strip.

In a new report, the NGO says “people living in Gaza will suffer mass death from disease and starvation far beyond the current 31,000 Palestinian war casualties unless Israel takes immediate steps to end its violations.”

The report claims that Israel is “leading a dysfunctional and undersized inspection system that keeps aid snarled up, subjected to onerous, repetitive and unpredictable bureaucratic procedures that are contributing to trucks being stranded in giant queues for 20 days on average.”

It adds that Israeli authorities are “routinely and arbitrarily rejecting items of aid as having ‘dual [military] use’”. Aid sent by the UK government that has been rejected, for example, included water filters and solar-powered lights.

It accuses Israel of having “cracked down on humanitarian missions, largely sealing off northern Gaza, and restricting international humanitarian workers’ access not only into Gaza, but Israel and the West Bank including East Jerusalem too.”

The report claims that in February there was a 44% reduction in the number of trucks allowed to enter Gaza compared to the month before.

Israel has repeatedly claimed that it could process more aid than is being delivered to Gaza, but that the UN, NGOs and other aid agencies are causing the hold-up through lack of supplies.

In January the International Court of Justice (ICJ) in The Hague ordered that “Israel must take immediate and effective measures to enable the provision of urgently needed basic services and humanitarian assistance to address the adverse conditions of life faced by Palestinians in the Gaza Strip.”

Sally Abi Khalil, Oxfam’s Middle East and North Africa Director, said

The ICJ order should have shocked Israeli leaders to change course, but since then conditions in Gaza have actually worsened. The fact that other governments have not challenged Israel hard enough, but instead turned to less effective methods like airdrops and maritime corridors is a huge red flag, signalling that Israel continues to deny the full potential of better ways to deliver more aid.In an operational update, Israel’s military has said that it “struck a Hezbollah military structure and an observation post” in Ramyeh inside Lebanon. The village is situated just north of the UN-drawn blue line that separates Israel and Lebanon.

https://www.theguardian.com/world/live/2024/mar/18/middle-east-crisis-live-israel-gaza-palestine-al-shifa-live-updates