Are Palestinian lives not worth saving?’: Palestine’s UN envoy
Riyad Mansour, the Palestinian representative at the United Nations, has delivered an impassioned plea for action as the starvation crisis engulfs the Gaza Strip.
“Israel has ravaged Gaza. It has destroyed nearly everything in that narrow strip of Palestinian land. But nearly 2 million human beings remain, including 1 million children. They must be saved,” Mansour said during a UN Security Council meeting in New York.
He said what’s unfolding in Gaza was “predictable, premeditated and planned”, but has been allowed to happen because of the impunity Israel enjoys.
“Every day now, we are receiving heart-wrenching messages from Gaza, with a few words: ‘I am hungry … There is no food for my family. We are dying. Help us’,” Mansour said.
“What should we tell them? What should the Security Council tell them? That the whole world is against this starvation policy and yet, it is worsening? That no one wants to see people in Gaza starving, and yet, the world watches on as they die of hunger and thirst?”
He added, “Are Palestinian lives not worth saving, or does Israeli supremacy extend as far as conferring upon Israel a right of life and death over the Palestinian people as a whole?”
Over 20 percent of pregnant, breastfeeding women malnourished in Gaza: WHO chief
The rate of acute malnutrition in Gaza exceeds 10 percent of the population, while more than 20 percent of pregnant and breastfeeding women who have been screened are malnourished – “often severely”, according to the World Health Organization’s Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus.
Speaking at a press briefing, Tedros highlighted that “mass starvation” of a large proportion of Gaza’s population is “man-made”. “This is because of the blockade – more than 80 days of blockade straight. There is an opening now, but it’s not enough, it’s just a trickle, and people are starving,” he said.
Gaza hospitals have become ‘trauma centres’ for those injured seeking aid: WHO
Dr Rik Peeperkorn, the WHO’s representative for occupied Palestinian territory, has spoken out amid the vast food shortage and more than 1,000 people killed in Gaza while seeking food at the deadly GHF distribution points.
The attacks on aid seekers have turned the few remaining hospitals “into massive trauma wards”, he said.
“Mainly young boys and men shot in the head, the neck, the abdomen, the chest, the knees – horrific scenes,” Peeperkorn said. “There’s a way to stop this. The markets need to be flooded with food – you will stop the mass casualty incidents, the prices would go down, and people would have access to food.”
The food scarcity is so extreme that people can’t do their work, said Peeperkorn, including journalists, teachers, and even their own staff. “Everyone is looking for food,” he said. “We even see it with our own staff … We struggle with access to water, access to food.”
AJC says it is ‘unacceptable’ for US official to imply starvation is legitimate tactic in Gaza
The American Jewish Committee (AJC), a prominent advocacy organisation, has responded to US Representative Randy Fine’s post on X in which he said, “Release the hostages. Until then, starve away”.
“Implying that starvation is a legitimate tactic is unacceptable”, the AJC said, adding, “All those in need of humanitarian aid should receive it promptly and safely”.
More than 100 aid organisations and human rights groups warned on Wednesday that ‘mass starvation’ was spreading in Gaza
