GENEVA: The UN said Tuesday that Israel's severe restrictions on aid into war-ravaged Gaza coupled with its military offensive could amount to using starvation as a "weapon of war", which would be a "war crime".
United Nations human rights chief Volker Turk denounced the rampant hunger and looming famine in Gaza.
Turk said that "the situation of hunger, starvation and famine is a result of Israel's extensive restrictions on the entry and distribution of humanitarian aid and commercial goods".
It was also linked to the "displacement of most of the population, as well as the destruction of crucial civilian infrastructure", he said.
"The extent of Israel's continued restrictions on the entry of aid into Gaza, together with the manner in which it continues to conduct hostilities, may amount to the use of starvation as a method of war, which is a war crime."
His spokesman, Jeremy Laurence, told reporters in Geneva that the final determination of whether "starvation is being used as a weapon of war" would be determined by a court.
The comments came after a UN-backed food security assessment determined that the war-torn Palestinian territory is facing imminent famine.
The devastating war since October 7 has left roughly half of Gazans -- around 1.1 million people -- experiencing "catastrophic" hunger, the assessment warned.
Without a surge of aid, famine would hit the 300,000 people in Gaza's war-battered north by May, it said.
Israel's retaliatory offensive has killed more than 31,800 people, most of them women and children, according to Gaza's health ministry.
Jens Laerke, spokesman for the UN humanitarian agency OCHA, pointed to the difficulty of clearly determining if the strict criteria have been met to declare a famine.
"The famine thresholds may already be the case in northern Gaza," he told reporters, highlighting that for weeks people had already been reduced to eating bird seed, animal fodder, wild grass and weeds.
Looking ahead, he warned that without more aid, Gaza could soon be looking at "more than 200 people dying from starvation per day".
Turk said that "the clock is ticking". "Everyone, especially those with influence, must insist that Israel acts to facilitate the unimpeded entry and distribution of needed humanitarian assistance and commercial goods to end starvation and avert all risk of famine."
He demanded "an immediate ceasefire, as well as the unconditional release of Israeli captive still held in Gaza".
Israel's diplomatic mission in Geneva rejected Turk's statement, insisting that he was seeking "once again to blame Israel for the situation and completely absolve the responsibility of the UN". — AFP
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