A senior UN leader responsible for humanitarian relief has said Israel is “deliberately and unashamedly” imposing inhumane conditions on Palestinians and called on the UN Security Council to take action “to prevent genocide” in Gaza.
Tom Fletcher, the UN Under-Secretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs, said Israel must lift its aid blockade on Gaza, where its offensive has killed tens of thousands of people and reduced much of the territory to rubble. Israel has prevented any food or aid entering Gaza for more than two months. The UN says around half a million people in Gaza are at "critical risk of famine".
"For those killed and those whose voices are silenced: what more evidence do you need now?", Mr Fletcher asked the Security Council. "Will you act, decisively, to prevent genocide and to ensure respect for international humanitarian law?" Mr Fletcher said UN agencies had "life-saving supplies" ready to deliver at the borders but were denied access by Israel.
He decribed a new Israel plan to deliver some aid as "a cynical sideshow." "It makes starvation a bargaining chip," Fletcher said. "A deliberate distraction. A fig leaf for further violence and displacement. If any of this still matters, have no part in it."
In a joint statement, five European members of the UN Security Council said that they were "deeply concerned" at the Israeli plan "which the UN has said would not meet humanitarian principles."
The statement, by France, Britain, Slovenia, Greece and Denmark said: “humanitarian aid must never be used as a political tool or a military tactic.”
Israel launched its assault on Gaza after Hamas killed almost 1,200 people in its attacks of October 7th 2023 in which it took hundreds of people hostage.
Israel’s ambassador to the UN, Danny Danon, rejected the UN allegations against his government as "baseless and outrageous accusations."
Sophie Raworth presents BBC News at Ten reporting by Fergal Keane and Jeremy Bowen.
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