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Israel using 'starvation as a war arm’ in Gaza, warns top EU official at UNSC

Wednesday, 13 March 2024 10:11 AM [ Last Update: Wednesday, 13 March 2024 10:31 AM ]

EU's chief diplomat Josep Borrell addresses a UNSC meeting at the United Nations headquarters in New York, on March 12, 2024.

European Union foreign policy chief Josep Borrell has voiced deep concern over the humanitarian situation in the Gaza Strip, saying the Israeli regime is using starvation as a weapon of war in the besieged territory.

Borrell made the remarks in an address to the UN Security Council on Wednesday, while condemning as a “man-made disaster” the ongoing food crisis in the Gaza Strip.

“This humanitarian crisis (is) not a natural disaster, is not a flood, is not an earthquake, it is man-made,” he said, adding that aid deliveries via road are “being artificially closed, and starvation is being used as a war arm.”

The EU's top diplomat went on to say that the situation in Gaza is “unbearable,” adding that “the very survival of the Palestinian population is at stake” and there is a wide-scale and systematic destruction in the blockaded territory.

Borrell further described UN bodies, such as the Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA), World Food Programme (WFP), and the UN agency assisting Palestine refugees (UNRWA), as the “last lifelines” for many people.

UN food agency warns Gaza at risk of famine after weeks-long Israeli bombardment

UN food agency warns of severe food shortages, supplies insufficient to address dangerous hunger levels in Gaza Strip

The latest remarks were Borrell’s strongest comments against Israel during the war in Gaza so far.

Israel launched the war on Gaza on October 7 after the Palestinian resistance movement Hamas waged the surprise Operation Al-Aqsa Storm against the occupying entity in response to the Israeli regime's decades-long campaign of bloodletting and devastation against Palestinians.

Since the start of the offensive, the Tel Aviv regime has killed more than 31,000 Palestinians and injured more than 72,000 others.

The Tel Aviv regime has imposed a “complete siege” on the territory, cutting off fuel, electricity, food and water to the more than two million Palestinians living there.

Humanitarian officials have already issued a dire warning, stating that unless a ceasefire is implemented and aid is significantly increased, the toll of malnutrition and disease will rise, leading to an alarming loss of civilian lives.

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