A U.N. expert said on Thursday that Israel was destroying Gaza\u2019s food system as part of a broader \u201cstarvation campaign\u201d in its war against Hamas militants.Aid officials have warned of looming famine five months into the campaign against the Islamist Palestinian group, while hospitals in the isolated northern part of the enclave say children have started dying from malnutrition.\u201cIsrael is not only denying and restricting the flow of humanitarian aid into Gaza. Israel is destroying the food system in Gaza,\u201d Michael Fakhri, U.N. Special Rapporteur on the Right to Food, said in a speech to the U.N. Human Rights Council.\u201cIsrael has mounted a starvation campaign against the Palestinian people in Gaza,\u201d he added, saying that included targeting small-scale fishermen.Israel denies restricting relief into Gaza and has since last week begun working with private contractors to deliver aid.It also denies waging war on civilians, saying its fight is with Hamas whose fighters killed 1,200 people and seized 253 hostages during its Oct. 7 attacks.Israel participates in human rights council debates as an observer and may address the forum later on Thursday.FISHING SECTOR HITFakhri, a Lebanese-Canadian law professor, is one of dozens of independent human rights experts mandated by the United Nations to report and advise on specific themes and crises.He was due to speak about fishing and climate change but used much of the first part of his speech to the 47-member Geneva council to address the Gaza situation.He alleged that Israel is targeting small-scale fishers by denying them access to the sea and destroying boats and shacks.Around 80% of Gaza\u2019s fishing sector has been destroyed since Oct. 7, he said, adding that every boat had been demolished by Israeli forces in the main port of Gaza City.Reuters could not verify that, though images from Oct. 8 showed smoke billowing from a boat at that port after Israeli strikes.(Reuters)<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
A U.N. expert, Michael Fakhri, stated that Israel is destroying Gaza’s food system as part of a “starvation campaign” in its war against Hamas militants. Aid officials have warned of a looming famine, and hospitals report children dying from malnutrition. Fakhri accused Israel of denying and restricting humanitarian aid and specifically targeting the fishing sector, with around 80% of Gaza\u2019s fishing sector destroyed since Oct. 7. Israel denies restricting relief and waging war on civilians, stating its fight is with Hamas.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5,"featured_media":3522,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"Default","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[122,117,693,3,988,145,298,1025,115,399,299,185,345,114,414,293,18],"class_list":["post-3521","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-cyprus","tag-aid","tag-boats","tag-climate-change","tag-cyprus","tag-fight","tag-gaza","tag-hamas","tag-hostages","tag-human-rights","tag-humanitarian-aid","tag-israel","tag-main","tag-palestine","tag-top-news","tag-un","tag-war","tag-world"],"acf":{"keyphrase":"","keywords":"","sourceimg":"","country-category":""},"yoast_head":"\n