'Another calamity': UN's warning as Netanyahu defends Gaza plan

Move will cause more killings and destruction, security council told

- Lorenzo Tondo

Benjamin Netanyahu has defended his plan to take control of Gaza City in the face of widespread international outrage, even as senior UN officials warned that the move risked unleashing "another calamity" on a territory already experiencing "starvation, pure and simple".

In a rare press conference with foreign journalists in Jerusalem, the Israeli prime minister said the plan, signed off last week by the security cabinet, to criticism both at home and abroad, was "the way to end the war and the best way to end it speedily".

But during an emergency weekend session of the UN security council in New York, there were repeated warnings that rather than ending the 22-month war, the move would exacerbate an already dire humanitarian situation.

"If these plans are implemented, they will likely trigger another calamity in Gaza, reverberating across the region and causing further forced displacement, killings and destruction," said UN assistant secretary general, Miroslav Jenča.

Amid the heated rhetoric, Gaza's health ministry said that five more people, including two children, had died of malnutrition-related causes, bringing the number of children who have died from such causes to 100. Including adults, the total death toll from malnutrition stands at 217, the ministry says.

Ramesh Rajasingham, Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) coordination director, told the security council meeting: "This is no longer a looming hunger crisis - this is starvation, pure and simple."