Israel Destroying Gaza's Food System in 'Starvation' Tactic, UN Expert Says

TEMPO.CO, Geneva - A U.N. expert said on Thursday, March 7, that Israel was destroying Gaza's food system as part of a broader "starvation campaign" in its offensive in Palestine and berated a U.N. human rights body for not doing more.

"The images of starvation in Gaza are unbearable and you are doing nothing," Michael Fakhri, U.N. Special Rapporteur on the Right to Food, said in a speech to the U.N. Human Rights Council.

Aid officials have warned of looming famine five months into the campaign against the Islamist Palestinian group, while hospitals in the isolated northern part of the enclave say children have started dying from malnutrition.

Fakhri told the council that Israel was "destroying the food system in Gaza".

"Israel has mounted a starvation campaign against the Palestinian people in Gaza," he added, saying that included targeting small-scale fishermen.

Several other countries have criticized Israel for the growing hunger in the enclave, including Egypt and Iraq.

Yeela Cytrin, a legal adviser at the Israeli mission to the U.N., called the allegations against it a "blatant lie".

"Israel utterly rejects allegations that it is using starvation as a tool of war," she told the council and then walked out in protest.

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