Israel intentionally starving Palestinians: UN official

A UN official has said that Israel is intentionally starving the population of Gaza in its battle with Hamas in the enclave.

About 2.2 million civilians are facing hunger and severe malnutrition as a result of extreme shortages of basic supplies in the enclave.

Michael Fakhri, special rapporteur on the right to food, on Tuesday said that Israel had been deliberately destroying food supplies and restricting the flow of food to Gaza since the war started in October.

Fakhri said that to intentionally deprive civilians of food was a war crime, as per the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court, which states that depriving people of “objects indispensable to their survival, including willfully impeding relief supplies” falls under that definition.

Human rights groups have repeatedly accused Israel of using starvation in its operations within Gaza, an act which the UN Security Council outlined as a violation of international law and a war crime in 2018.