US and UN officials warned Israel on Wednesday not to use “famine policy” as a weapon in its war on the Gaza Strip, which Israel denies it is doing.

This is the first time that Washington has warned its ally so clearly, following the letter sent by the US Secretaries of State and Defense, Anthony Blinken and Lloyd Austin, to the Israeli government, calling on it to improve humanitarian access to the Palestinian enclave, even threatening to suspend part of the military aid it receives.

Anger at SA for almost non-existent humanitarian access

Yesterday, during a new meeting of the UN Security Council on the humanitarian situation in Gaza, American ambassador Linda Thomas-Greenfield upped the ante: “We have made it clear to the Israeli government, at the highest level, that they will have to do more to settle the unacceptable and devastating humanitarian crisis».

“The government of Israel has stated that food and other vital supplies will not be cut off (from the Gaza Strip), and we will be watching to see if Israel’s actions on the ground match that statement,” Thomas added. – Greenfield.

“The US will continue to make this clear: food and supplies must flow to Gaza immediately. And there must be humanitarian pauses throughout Gaza to allow vaccination, access and distribution of aid,” the American diplomat emphasized.

“one”famine policy” in northern Gaza it would be horrible and unacceptable and would have effects based on international law and American law,” Thomas-Greenfield threatened.

At the same meeting, the UN’s deputy humanitarian chief, Joyce Msuya, called “unacceptable the fact that there is almost no humanitarian access“, speaking of “unbearable suffering in northern Gaza”.

From Berlin the head of the UN agency for Palestine refugees (UNRWA) Philip Lazzarini warned, speaking to reporters also yesterday that “Mr famine and the extreme malnutrition are unfortunately possible again’ in the Gaza Strip.

He stated that he has noticed a “dramatic reduction” in the number of convoys carrying food aid to the southern part of the enclave, which have reached “the 50 to 60 on average for two million people».

He also added that in northern Gaza, almost 400,000 people are trapped by the fighting, and humanitarian access there “has become extremely complicated.”

In fact, Lazzarini estimated that “the Famine in the Gaza Strip is artificially created”, accusing Israel of “actively preventing convoys from crossing the border”.

“Some members of the Israeli government are using famine as a weapon of war,” he said.

Israel rejects the accusations

Before entering the Security Council meeting, Israeli Ambassador Danny Danon rejected the accusations, asserting that “more than one million tons of aid” had entered Gaza.

“The problem is Hamas, which embezzles aid (…) and sells it to feed the terror machine, while the civilian population suffers,” he assessed, accusing the Palestinian organization of “using the humanitarian situation as a weapon” ».

In addition, Israel’s foreign minister, Israel Katz, told the German newspaper Bild that his country is doing “everything to allow the international community to provide humanitarian aid to Gaza.”

He also assured that his country “has done and is doing more than any other for its enemies”.