Palestinian top diplomat accuses Israel of starving Gaza residents, Israeli officials reject allegations

(Patria) - Palestinian Foreign Minister Riyad al-Maliki accused Israel of using starvation as a weapon against about one million residents of Gaza, which an Israeli official rejected, reported Reuters.

The UN World Food Programme says half of Gaza's 2.3 million population is starving because the expansion of the Israeli military offensive into the southern part of the Gaza Strip has cut people off from food, medicine and fuel. Israel said it allows aid to Gaza via the Rafah crossing and signaled that the Kerem Shalom crossing could soon reopen to help deliver aid.

“As we speak, at least one million Palestinians in the Gaza Strip, half of them children, are starving, not because of a natural disaster or a lack of generous aid waiting at the border,” al-Maliki said at a UN event marking the 75th anniversary of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights.

“No, they are dying of hunger because Israel is deliberately using starvation as a weapon of war against the people it has occupied,” he added.

In response, an Israeli official told Reuters in Jerusalem: “This is, of course, obscene... a blood libel, a deceptive level of accusations.” Israel has encouraged increased food deliveries to Gaza from Egypt, the official added, blaming a bottleneck at that border.

In Geneva, al-Maliki said: “We are living through this dystopian reality that excludes Palestinians from the basic, most fundamental rights granted to all human beings.” He described this as a “complete international failure” to protect Palestinians.

In comments to reporters, Israel's ambassador to the UN in Geneva, Meirav Eilon Shahar, criticized al-Maliki's address for not mentioning Hamas and its attacks on Israel.

“Nothing about October 7, nothing about the crimes committed by Hamas,” she said, speaking alongside the mother of American-Israeli hostage Hersh Goldberg Polin.

At least 18,205 people have been killed and nearly 50,000 wounded in Israel's retaliatory offensive, according to the Gaza Health Ministry, which says many thousands more dead are uncounted beneath the rubble or beyond the reach of ambulances.