Israel carrying out 'fastest starvation campaign in Gaza in modern history': UN envoy

By Beyza Binnur Donmez

GENEVA (AA) - The UN special rapporteur on the right to food on Wednesday warned that Israel is carrying out an unprecedentedly rapid campaign of starvation in Gaza, calling it "the fastest in modern history."

"How is Israel able to starve 2.3 million people so quickly and so completely?" Michael Fakhri asked in a joint press briefing alongside other UN special rapporteurs in Geneva.

"This is the fastest starvation campaign in modern history," Fakhri said.

As the entry of all humanitarian aid into Gaza is stopped by Israel, he said: "This is not a ceasefire by any definition. This is a slowing down of military violence, but ... unfolding of death through starvation."

Francesca Albanese, the UN special rapporteur on Palestine, told the briefing that even if the bombs and violence stop in Palestine today, "the genocide will continue because there are no ways to remedy the destruction" that has been made.

Albanese also warned that "the genocidal violence is leaking out in the West Bank," saying the violence is now "as acute as ever."

"I don't know how many warnings the international community will need," she said and added: "We will miss human rights very much where they are no longer able to protect us."

Ben Saul, the UN special rapporteur on protection of human rights, for his part, said that he denounces US President Donald Trump's Gaza relocation plan, saying: "It would shatter the most fundamental rules of international order and the United Nations Charter since 1945."

"It's manifestly illegal to invade and annex foreign territory by force, to forcibly deport its population and to deprive the Palestinian people of their right to self-determination," Saul said, underlining that any plan for the day after must be based on the popular will of the Palestinian people, including under any Arab proposal.

He also condemned Israel's "continuing illegal military provocation in the wider region."

⁠Meg Satterthwaite, the UN special rapporteur on independence of judges and lawyers, said: "The US sanctions against the ICC would appear to amount to offenses against the administration of justice under Article 70 of the Rome Statute."