WHO chief: Israel must stop starving people to death in Gaza

“This is a catastrophe that Israel could have prevented, and could stop at any time,” WHO chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus told reporters on Friday.

“Starvation of civilians as a method of war is a war crime that can never be tolerated. Doing so in one conflict risks legitimizing its use in future conflicts,” Ghebreyesus warned.

His comments came two weeks after the UN declared a famine in Gaza, accusing the Israeli regime of systematically obstructing the entry of international humanitarian deliveries into the war-ravaged territory. Israel has blatantly denied that its actions had caused famine in Gaza.

Gaza’s health ministry reported Friday that 373 people, including 134 children, had died from starvation and malnutrition in the embattled Palestinian territory since the war started.

Ghebreyesus repeated the number and said that it included “more than 300 just in the past two months.”

“People are starving to death while the food that could save them sits on trucks a short distance away,” Ghebreyesus said.

“The most intolerable part of this man-made disaster is that it could be stopped right now,” he affirmed.

“The starvation of the people of Gaza will not make Israel safer, nor will it facilitate the release of the [captives],” he underlined.

The WHO chief also stressed that “where hunger goes, disease follows.”

“Lack of food and clean water and cramped living conditions are leaving people with weakened immune systems exposed to more disease,” he said, adding that in the past month alone, more than 100 cases had been reported of Guillain-Barre Syndrome.

He also pointed out that there are currently more than 15,000 patients in Gaza in need of urgent specialized care who are awaiting evacuation.

“More than 700 people have died while waiting for medical evacuation, including almost 140 children,” he said.

“We call on the government of Israel to end this inhumane war. If it will not, I call on its allies to use their influence to stop it,” he said.