UN demands world to stop Israel's Gaza 'catastrophe'

Amnesty accuses Israel of live-streamed genocide’ in Gaza; Israel strictly controls all inflows of international aid vital for 2.4m Palestinians In the Gaza Strip

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The UN rights chief called on countries to halt a “humanitarian catastrophe” in Gaza, where a total Israeli blockade on aid is pushing the Palestinian territory towards a collapse of critical life-saving support.

“As the complete blockade of assistance essential for survival enters its ninth week, there must be concerted international efforts to stop this humanitarian catastrophe from reaching a new, unseen level,” Volker Turk said in a statement.

Israel strictly controls all inflows of international aid vital for the 2.4 million Palestinians in the Gaza Strip.

It halted aid deliveries to Gaza on March 9, days before the collapse of a ceasefire that had significantly reduced hostilities after 15 months of war.

Supplies are dwindling and the UN’s World Food Programme last Friday said it had sent out its “last remaining food stocks”.

The UN rights office cautioned that Gaza bakeries had now stopped working as flour and fuel had run out, while the remaining stocks of food were being rapidly depleted.

“Any use of starvation of the civilian population as a method of war constitutes a war crime, and so do all forms of collective punishment,” Turk stressed in the statement.