US 'must stop' Israel's assault, says UN special rapporteur

By Burak Bir

LONDON (AA) - The UN rapporteur on Palestine said Monday that US must stop Israel's attacks rather than airdropping food packages in the Gaza Strip.

Sharing a photo of 10-year-old Palestinian child, Yazan al-Kafarna who died of severe hunger in Gaza, Francesca Albanese said that he is one of the many Palestinian children who are starving to death in the besieged enclave.

"The US must stop Israel's assault rather than airdropping a few food packages which can't replace the hundreds of lorries that Israel prevents from entering the strip everyday," the special rapporteur wrote on X.

Al-Kafarneh died of hunger at the Yousef Al-Najjar Hospital in southern city of Rafah.

"I lost my child today after 10 days at the hospital due to malnutrition," the mother of the boy told Anadolu on Monday.

World Health Organization (WHO) head Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said early Monday that the lack of food in resulted in the deaths of 10 children amid Israeli siege and blockade.

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.