United Nations rights experts are accusing Israel of waging a targeted starvation campaign on the children in Gaza.
"We declare that Israel's intentional and targeted starvation campaign against the Palestinian people is a form of genocidal violence and has resulted in famine across all of Gaza," said 10 independent United Nations experts in a statement on Tuesday.
While the UN has not officially declared a famine in the Gaza Strip, experts, including UN special rapporteur on the right to food, Michael Fakhri, persisted that there is no denying the famine conditions affecting the Palestinian territory.
"Thirty-four Palestinians have died from malnutrition since October 7, the majority being children," revealed experts, who were appointed by the UN Human Rights Council; however, do not speak on behalf of the United Nations, according to CBS News.
Israel's mission to the UN in Geneva quickly shut down these claims.
"Mr. Fakhri and many so-called 'experts' who joined his statement are as much accustomed to spreading misinformation as they are to supporting Hamas propaganda and shielding the terrorist organization from scrutiny."
Since the start of the war, Israeli leaders and military commanders have continually blamed all the human suffering in Gaza on the militant group Hamas.
UN rights experts listed three children who had recently died from malnutrition, following a number of others who were said to have starved to death in northern Gaza earlier this year.
"Fayez Ataya, who was barely six months old, died on May 30, 2024, and 13-year-old Abdulqader Al-Serhi died on June 1, 2024, at the Al-Aqsa Hospital in Deir Al-Balah," the report read, adding that nine-year-old Ahmad Abu Reida died just two days later in the tent sheltering his displaced family in Al-Mawasi, Khan Younis.
"With the death of these children from starvation despite medical treatment in central Gaza, there is no doubt that famine has spread from northern Gaza into central and southern Gaza," it stated.
Gaza has faced a catastrophic humanitarian crisis since the war broke, and the UN has been warning for months of an impending famine.
It's important to note that a famine declaration does not carry any legal implications, but it can help to incentivize international support for an affected population.
"The world had not done more to avert the disaster. When a two-month-old baby and 10-year-old Yazan Al Kafarneh died of hunger on February 24 and March 4, respectively, this confirmed that famine had struck northern Gaza," they said.
"The whole world should have intervened earlier to stop Israel's genocidal starvation campaign and prevented these deaths... Inaction is complicity."
Meanwhile, the Israeli Mission highlighted that the latest assessment by the Integrated Food Security Phase Classification (IPC) partnership determined that famine had not materialized after aid access improved somewhat in Gaza.
"Israel has continuously scaled up its coordination and assistance in the delivery of humanitarian aid across the Gaza Strip," it said, claiming Hamas "intentionally steal and hide aid from civilians."
Israeli officials also stated that the aid piling up on the Gaza side of border crossings is because of the agencies refusal to distribute it over fears of looting and violence, reported The Times of Israel.
Multiple aid agencies have accused Israel of limiting access to aid in Gaza as well as creating bureaucratic obstacles to movement around the enclave.
