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UN calls Israeli claims that there is sufficient food in Gaza ‘ridiculous’
The United Nations has dismissed Israeli claims that there is enough food in the Gaza Strip, calling the assertions “ridiculous” as humanitarian supplies run dangerously low.
“As far as the UN [is] concerned, that’s ridiculous,” spokesperson Stephane Dujarric said at a news conference.
“We are at the tail end of our supplies that came in through the humanitarian route. … You know, the WFP doesn’t close its bakeries for fun.”
Dujarric also refuted claims by Israeli officials that Hamas had seized humanitarian supplies that entered during the six-week ceasefire.
“The UN has kept a chain of custody, and a very good chain of custody, on all the aid it delivered,” he said.
“[During the ceasefire,] we saw humanitarian aid flood Gaza. We saw markets come back to life. We saw prices going down. We saw hostages released. We saw Palestinian detainees released. We need to go back to that.”
‘Deeply disturbing’ Israeli killings of Gaza aid workers must be investigated, UN says
The UN rights chief has condemned an Israeli army attack last week on an emergency services convoy in Gaza that killed 15 medical personnel, and he has demanded an investigation.
“I condemn the attack by the Israeli army on a medical and emergency convoy on 23 March resulting in the killing of 15 medical personnel and humanitarian workers in Gaza,” UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Volker Turk said in a statement.
“The subsequent discovery of their bodies eight days later in Rafah, buried near their clearly marked destroyed vehicles, is deeply disturbing,” he added.
“This raises significant questions with regard to the conduct of the Israeli army during and in the aftermath of the incident.”
The UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs told the AFP news agency that “available information indicates that the first team was killed by Israeli forces on March 23 and that other emergency and aid crews were struck one after another over several hours as they searched for their missing colleagues”.
Israel blocking flour to ‘entrench starvation’: Gaza Gov’t Media Office
The Government Media Office in Gaza says that by preventing the entry of flour into the Gaza Strip, Israel has caused “the complete shutdown of all bakeries and deepened the famine crisis” in the enclave.
“This criminal action aims to complete the chapters of genocide and ethnic cleansing practiced by the occupation against our Palestinian people through systematic starvation policies and the deprivation of citizens of their most basic human rights,” the office said in a statement.
It said it held Israel and the US – which provides billions of dollars in military aid as well as staunch diplomatic support to Israel – responsible for the situation.
“We call on the international community, the United Nations, and human rights and humanitarian organizations to urgently and immediately intervene to stop this crime and pressure the occupation to allow the unconditional entry of humanitarian aid and flour, and to stop the use of food and fuel as tools for political blackmail and collective punishment,” the office said.
