Israel’s Blocking of Aid to Gaza Is ‘Cruel Collective Punishment,’ Says UN Relief Chief

Gaza (Quds News Network)- The United Nations has urged Israel to lift its blockade on humanitarian aid to the Gaza Strip, describing it as a “cruel collective punishment” as the blockade enters its third month.

“International law is unequivocal: as the occupying power, Israel must allow humanitarian support in. Aid, and the civilian lives it saves, should never be a bargaining chip,” Tom Fletcher, the UN’s under-secretary-general for humanitarian affairs, said in a statement.

He said blocking aid starves civilians and leaves them without basic medical support, adding that it strips them of dignity and hope and “inflicts a cruel collective punishment. Blocking aid kills.

“The humanitarian movement is independent, impartial and neutral. We believe that all civilians are equally worthy of protection,” said Fletcher, underlining that they remain ready to save as many lives as they can, despite the risks.

Dr. Munir al-Bursh, Director of Gaza’s Health Ministry, urged the UN on Thursday to formally declare a state of famine in the Palestinian enclave.

“We call on the United Nations to issue an official declaration of famine in Gaza, given that field indicators and medical and humanitarian data confirm that international conditions for this have been met,” he said.

According to al-Bursh:

• 91 percent of Palestinians in Gaza are facing a food crisis two months after Israel closed the crossings.
• 92 percent of children and breastfeeding mothers in Gaza suffer from severe malnutrition.
• 65 percent of Palestinians in the Gaza Strip do not have access to clean drinking water.

Since March 2, Israel has maintained the closure of Gaza’s main crossings, cutting off food, medical and humanitarian supplies, leading to an unprecedented deterioration of humanitarian conditions, according to reports by human rights organisations who have accused it of using starvation as a weapon of war against Palestinains.

Israel also resumed its genocide in Gaza on March 18, killed over 2,200 Palestinians and wounded more than 5,700—mostly children and women, according the Palestinian Health Ministry.

Jonathan Whittall, head of OCHA in Gaza, warned on Saturday that the Palestinian enclave is on the brink of “full-scale famine conditions”.

“The coming days in Gaza are going to be critical. Today, people are not surviving in Gaza. Those that aren’t being killed with bombs and bullets are slowly dying,” Whittall told journalists at a news conference in Gaza City.

“As humanitarians, we can see that aid is being weaponised through its denial,” he said. “There’s no justification for the denial of humanitarian assistance.”

Whittall also confirmed that the WFP’s stockpiles in Gaza are exhausted and said “there are no meaningful food distributions currently happening in” the Strip.