'Israel is starving our people,' says Palestine's UN envoy

By Merve Aydogan

TORONTO, Canada (AA) - Palestine's UN envoy Riyad Mansour on Monday stressed on Israel's atrocities against the Palestinian people in Gaza, saying that "Israel is starving our people."

"Israel has unleashed death against 2.3 million Palestinians under multiple forms; indiscriminate bombing summary executions, disease, dehydration, and starvation. Starvation is not an unfortunate consequence of the war. It is one of the methods of war used by Israel. Israel is starving our people," Mansour said at a debate on the Feb. 20 veto by the US of a Security Council resolution on the Gaza crisis.

Stressing that "Israel has been committing atrocities against the Palestinian people, unchecked and unhinged," Mansour said the UN Security Council "has been prevented repeatedly from calling for an immediate ceasefire to put an end to these atrocities."

Mansour urged UN member states to call for a cease-fire, and said that "Israeli leaders speak openly of the crimes they are committing and of those they intend to commit... The Israeli prime minister has boasted about not abiding by decisions of international courts or UN resolutions and of having torpedoed peace efforts."

- 'A new era of accountability'

"This will only end by ending Israeli impunity. The era of Israeli impunity must come to an end and we should enter a new era of accountability and sanctions," he added.

Hailing those "rejecting trade with settlements," Mansour further urged "entire enterprise of settlements and settlers" to be sanctioned.

"Don't allow a single of one of them to get a visa to visit any of your countries. Behave in a different way," he said, adding that "the horrors of today are made possible by yesterday's failings."

Israel has launched a deadly military offensive on the Gaza Strip since an Oct. 7, 2023 attack by the Palestinian group Hamas, which Tel Aviv says killed nearly 1,200 people.

At least 30,534 Palestinians have since been killed and 71,920 others injured amid mass destruction and shortages of necessities.

Israel has also imposed a crippling blockade on the Gaza Strip, leaving its population, particularly residents of northern Gaza, on the verge of starvation.

The Israeli war has pushed 85% of Gaza’s population into internal displacement amid acute shortages of food, clean water, and medicine, while 60% of the enclave's infrastructure has been damaged or destroyed, according to the UN.

Israel stands accused of genocide at the International Court of Justice. An interim ruling in January ordered Tel Aviv to stop genocidal acts and take measures to guarantee that humanitarian assistance is provided to civilians in Gaza.