UN experts accuse Israel of 'targeted starvation campaign' in Gaza

WHO detected 60 cases of severe acute malnutrition, also known as severe wasting, last week at the Kamal Adwan paediatric hospital

Bahaa Al Nimr, 19, who suffers from cerebral palsy and malnutrition, is cared for by his mother Sahar at their home in the Sheikh Radwan neighbourhood in the north of Gaza city. AFP

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UN rights experts have accused Israel of carrying out a “targeted starvation campaign” that has left “no doubt that famine has spread” across the entire Gaza strip.

“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,” 10 independent United Nations experts said in a statement on Tuesday.

The UN has not officially declared a famine in the Gaza Strip but the experts, including the UN special rapporteur on the right to food Michael Fakhri, insisted there was no denying famine was under way.

“Thirty-four Palestinians have died from malnutrition since October 7, the majority being children,” said the experts, who are appointed by the UN Human Rights Council, but who do not speak on behalf of the United Nations.

Palestinian baby girl Wateen Al Adasi, who developed a skin condition due to malnutrition, rests at the Kamal Adwan hospital in Beit Lahia in the northern Gaza Strip. AFP

Israel's mission to the UN in Geneva slammed the statement, charging that “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”.

The UN experts, meanwhile, listed three children who had recently died “from malnutrition”, after a number of others were said to have starved to death in northern Gaza earlier this year.

Six-month-old Fayez Ataya and 13-year-old Abdulqader Al Serhi died on May 30 and June 1 at Gaza's Al Aqsa Hospital, while nine-year-old Ahmad Abu Reida died on June 3 in the tent sheltering his displaced family in Khan Younis, they said.

“With the death of these children from starvation despite medical treatment in central Gaza, there is no doubt that famine has spread from northern Gaza into central and southern Gaza,” they said.

The experts decried that the world had not done more to avert this disaster.

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“When a two-month-old baby and 10-year-old Yazan Al Kafarneh died of hunger on 24 February and 4 March respectively, this confirmed that famine had struck northern Gaza,” they said.

“The whole world should have intervened earlier to stop Israel's genocidal starvation campaign and prevented these deaths.”

“Inaction is complicity.”

Gaza has been facing a deep humanitarian crisis since the war erupted following Hamas's October 7 attack on southern Israel that resulted in the deaths of 1,195 people, mostly civilians, according to an AFP tally based on Israeli figures.

In response, Israel has carried out a military offensive that has killed at least 38,243 people in Gaza, also mostly civilians, according to the health ministry in the Hamas-ruled territory.

The World Health Organisation said on Tuesday that 60 cases of severe acute malnutrition, also known as severe wasting – the most deadly form of malnutrition – had been detected last week at the Kamal Adwan paediatric hospital in the north of the Strip.

The UN has long been warning of looming famine, especially in the north, but one has not been officially declared.

The Israeli mission highlighted on Tuesday that the latest assessment by the Integrated Food Security Phase Classification (IPC) partnership determined that famine had not materialised after aid access improved somewhat.

“Israel has continuously scaled up its co-ordination and assistance in the delivery of humanitarian aid across the Gaza Strip,” it said, claiming Hamas “intentionally steal and hide aid from civilians”.

Hamas authorities meanwhile issued a statement describing a “humanitarian catastrophe and escalating famine”.

They accused “the terrorist Israeli government” of continuing “its policy of starvation”, and “preventing the entry of food aid lorries for the 64th consecutive day”.

“Continued starvation warfare threatens a humanitarian disaster and further loss of innocent children,” that statement warned.