BBC HomepageSkip to contentAccessibility HelpYour accountNotificationsHomeNewsSportWeatheriPlayerSoundsBitesizeMore menuMore menuSearch BBCHomeNewsSportWeatheriPlayerSoundsBitesizeCBBCCBeebiesFoodClose menuBBC NewsMenuHomeIsrael-Gaza warCost of LivingWar in UkraineClimateUKWorldBusinessPoliticsCultureMoreTechScienceHealthFamily & EducationIn PicturesNewsbeatBBC VerifyDisabilityWorldAfricaAsiaAustraliaEuropeLatin AmericaMiddle EastUS & CanadaGaza starvation could amount to war crime, UN human rights chief tells BBCPublished42 minutes agoShareclose panelShare pageCopy linkAbout sharingRelated TopicsIsrael-Gaza warImage caption, Noora Mohammed can’t get the treatment she needs in a Gaza hospitalBy Jeremy BowenBBC international editor, JerusalemAfter months of warnings, a recent UN-backed report offered hard statistical evidence that the humanitarian catastrophe in Gaza is turning into a manmade famine. It has increased the pressure on Israel to fulfil its legal responsibilities to protect Palestinian civilians, and to allow adequate supplies of humanitarian aid to reach the people who need it. The UN’s most senior human rights official, Volker Türk, said in a BBC interview that Israel bore significant blame, and that there was a “plausible” case that Israel was using starvation as a weapon of war in Gaza.Mr Türk, who is the UN high commissioner for human rights, said that if intent was proven, that would amount to a war crime. Israel’s economy minister, Nir Barkat, a senior politician in Benjamin Netanyahu’s Likud party, dismissed Mr Türk’s warnings as “total nonsense – a totally irresponsible thing to say”. Like his cabinet colleagues, Mr Barkat insisted that Israel was letting in all the aid offered by the US and the rest of the world. Israel says the UN fails to distribute whatever is left once Hamas has helped itself.But a long line of lorries fully loaded with aid supplies desperately needed in the Gaza Strip is backing up on the Egyptian side of the border with Rafah. They can only enter Gaza through Israel, after a complex and bureaucratic series of checks. The absence of adequate supplies has forced Jordan, and now other countries including the US and UK, to drop aid from the air – the least effective way to deliver humanitarian supplies. Palestinians on the ground fighting to secure a share have drowned as they try to swim to pallets that have landed in the sea, or have been crushed when parachutes fail.This video can not be playedTo play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser.Media caption, Watch: Gazans reportedly drown after video shows rush for aid drop that landed in seaThe US Navy is also sending an engineering flotilla across the Atlantic to build a temporary pier to land aid by sea. None of that would be necessary if Israel granted full road access to Gaza and expedited the delivery of relief supplies through the modern container port at Ashdod, only about half an hour’s drive north of the Gaza Strip. In an interview from Geneva, Mr Türk said evidence had emerged that Israel was slowing down or withholding the delivery of aid.Mr Türk condemned the Hamas attacks on Israeli civilians and soldiers on 7 October, including killing, rape and hostage-taking. But he also said that no side in the war should evade accountability for its actions, including for any attempt to withhold aid supplies from the people who need it in Gaza.”All of my humanitarian colleagues keep telling us that there is a lot of red tape. There are obstacles. There are hindrances… Israel is to blame in a significant way,” he said. “I can only say the facts speak for themselves… I understand that this needs to be controlled, but it cannot take days for it to be done. “When you put all kinds of requirements on the table that are unreasonable in an emergency… that brings up the question, with all the restrictions that we currently see, whether there is a plausible claim to be made that starvation is, or may be used as, a weapon of war.”Concern about humanitarian catastrophe in the Gaza Strip deepened last week with the release of a soberly written commentary alongside a series of maps, charts and statistics. It prompted more warnings from Israel’s allies that it should change the way it is fighting the war against Hamas to spare civilians from death from either high explosive or hunger. The study is the latest report from a respected international network, the Integrated Food Security Phase Classification, known as IPC. It provides governments, the UN and aid agencies with apolitical data to measure the scale of hunger. The headline on the report was stark – “Gaza Strip: Famine is imminent as 1.1 million people, half of Gaza, experience catastrophic food insecurity.” Its data explained how famine could come at any time in the next eight weeks or so if there was no ceasefire and relief aid did not pour into the Gaza Strip. Palestinian parents who had managed to bring sick and hungry children to one of the few hospitals still operating in Gaza after Israel’s onslaught did not have to wait for the statistics. For weeks and months, as they struggled to feed them, they have watched their children decline. Gaza is no place to be ill. One young girl at the hospital, reached by a Palestinian freelance journalist working for the BBC, lay semi-conscious on a bed. The girl, Noora Mohammed, has lung and liver fibrosis, conditions that can be fatal even in peacetime. In the months of starvation since the war began, and without the right medical care, she is deteriorating fast. “My daughter can’t move,” her mother said. “She’s anaemic, always sleeping, and there’s nothing nutritious to eat.”At least Noora reached hospital. Most of just over one million Gazans considered to be in acute need will not have that option.The evidence of Gaza’s humanitarian catastrophe is overwhelming. Our pictures from the hospital showed children with swollen joints, wasted limbs and dermatitis, all classic symptoms of acute malnutrition. Image caption, There are signs among children of acute malnutritionIsrael has ignored the UN Security Council resolution demanding an immediate ceasefire. Nir Barkat, the Israeli economy minister, said that nothing would be allowed to get in the way of Israel’s war aim of smashing Hamas for good and freeing the hostages taken on 7 October. Allies around the world, he said, supported Israel’s strategic goal. When I pointed out many of Israel’s friends, starting with US President Joe Biden, did not like the way Israel was fighting the war, Mr Barkat was blunt. What is famine and why are Gaza and Sudan at risk?Israel says UN resolution damaged Gaza truce talksSouth Gaza hospital closed after evacuation – paramedics”That’s tough. We are going to finish the war. We’ll do everything we can to kill the Hamas terrorists and to minimise collateral damage as much as we can,” he said. “With all due respect, we’re fighting evil, and we expect the world to help us fight evil until we finish Hamas off the map.”The UN high commissioner for human rights had a succinct response to stinging criticism from Israel. “The only thing I can say to them is that there is an emerging international consensus, and it may not have been there before, but it is clearly there now, including with this week’s Security Council resolution, on the humanitarian situation,” Mr Türk said. “The human rights situation is so tragic that an immediate ceasefire is required. That’s my response to that.”Related TopicsIsrael & the PalestiniansIsrael-Gaza warIsraelHuman rightsPalestinian territoriesUnited NationsHamasMore on this storyUN rights expert accuses Israel of acts of genocidePublished1 day agoAt Gate 96 – the new crossing into Gaza where aid struggles to get inPublished2 days agoTop StoriesGaza starvation could amount to war crime, UN human rights chief tells BBCPublished42 minutes agoLive. Revised figures confirm UK ended 2023 in recessionDivers recover bodies in Baltimore bridge collapse watersPublished2 hours agoFeaturesThe Papers: Sewage ‘outrage’ and ‘King calls for kindness’ Father of three among Baltimore bridge victimsWhat passes through Baltimore’s port?I’m not ashamed of who I am any more, says LionessThe families borrowing to pay for careTackling deepfakes ‘has turned into an arms race’US guns pour into Haiti, fuelling surge in violenceBill Nighy on playing an England manager with a differenceWhy some Tory MPs are stepping downElsewhere on the BBCDid The Terminator predict the future correctly?!Beth Singler explores the creation and enduring influence of the film, 40 years after its releaseAttributionSoundsBlowing the lid on a baffling online scamPolly Weston’s determined to get to the bottom of the con involving a £138 dehumidifierAttributionSoundsCan you sort these monarchs into the correct order?Test your memory and reorder ten royal faces, from the earliest to the most recentAttributionBitesizeThe dressing room killing which shook wrestling’Villain of the ring’ Bruiser Brody’s extraordinary life, legend and deathAttributionSoundsMost Read1Gogglebox star, 40, dies after fall from height2King sends ‘hand of friendship’ recorded message3Son ‘numb’ as whole-life killer may be released4Sewage ‘outrage’ and ‘King calls for kindness’5Divers recover bodies in Baltimore bridge collapse waters6Easter travel warning as millions set to hit roads7Man seriously injured after stabbing on London train8E-waste drawers of doom growing, say campaigners9Pupil behaviour getting worse, say teachers10I’m not ashamed of who I am any more, says Lioness

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