Ongoing famine in Gaza alerts UN

UNITED NATIONS, Feb. 27 (Xinhua) -- The permanent observer of the State of Palestine to the United Nations, Riyad Mansour, on Tuesday told the Security Council that Gaza is currently experiencing a famine, which worsens daily due to the ongoing "criminal aggression" by Israel.

"We must stop for a moment and consider what this truly means," Mansour addressed the Security Council meeting on the protection of civilians in armed conflicts.

"What it means to forage for food in the rubble, sand, and trash, to eat animal feed or food ravaged by rats," he said.

Mansour accused Israel of being the "architect of this human and humanitarian catastrophe," intentionally designed to collectively punish the 2.3 million Palestinians living in Gaza.

He expressed his dismay at the international community's inaction, stating that "this catastrophic famine and genocide has been allowed to happen at all and continue for this long, brings shame on all of us, not least this Security Council."

Highlighting the deliberate strategy by Israel, Mansour referenced statements made by top Israeli officials in October 2023, which indicated the use of food as a weapon to pressure the Palestinian population.

These policies, according to Israeli leaders, were intended to degrade humanitarian conditions further and trigger a mass departure from Gaza, a move they termed "voluntary migration" to eliminate a "demographic threat."

Mansour called on the Security Council to fulfill its duties in addressing the crisis. He outlined three urgent actions needed to rectify the dire situation: an immediate ceasefire to stop the Israeli aggression, the fast and unrestricted distribution of humanitarian aid across Gaza, and the implementation of accountability measures for the war crimes and crimes against humanity committed by Israel.