OCHA warns Security Council: If there is no ceasefire, famine in Gaza is “almost inevitable”
UnochaFeb 15
UN Expert Claims Israel is Deliberately Starving Palestinians
Image copyright: Ahmad Hasaballah/Stringer/Getty Images News via Getty Images
The Facts
Israel is deliberately starving Palestinians in the Gaza Strip and should be held accountable for war crimes and genocide, the United Nation's (UN) expert on the right to food alleged this week.
Speaking to The Guardian, Michael Fakhri — UN special rapporteur on the right to food — claimed there was "no reason" for aid to be "intentionally block[ed]," or for fishing vessels, greenhouses, and orchards in Gaza to be "obliterate[d]" other than to "deny people access to food." He further alleged the state of Israel "in its entirety" was "culpable" and "should be held accountable" for genocide.
The Spin
Pro-Palestine narrative
Things have gotten so bad in Gaza that we are now seeing the worst levels of food insecurity ever recorded by the UN. A quarter of the population is close to famine and one-in-six children under two face acute malnutrition and wasting. A cease-fire needs to be reached to prevent this man-made catastrophe from continuing.
Pro-Israel narrative
Israel vehemently rejects the accusations of genocide being banded about by officials. Genocide is a strict legal term and Israel's actions in Gaza do not come close to meeting that standard. Watering down the definition only harms the real victims of genocide. Besides, it is Hamas that has vowed to wipe out Israel and the country has a legal right to defend itself against such actions.
Nerd narrative
There's a 50% chance that Israel will lift the blockade on electricity, food, gasoline, and medicine in Gaza by June 2024, according to the Metaculus prediction community.