EU's Borrell says Israel is provoking famine in Gaza

Hamas-Israel war

Reuters
18 March, 2024, 05:10 pm
Last modified: 18 March, 2024, 05:12 pm
Palestinian children wait to receive food cooked by a charity kitchen amid shortages of food supplies, as the ongoing conflict between Israel and the Palestinian Islamist group Hamas continues, in Rafah, in the southern Gaza Strip, 5 March 2024. Photo: REUTERS/Mohammed Salem/File Photo

EU foreign policy chief Josep Borrell said on Monday that Israel is provoking famine in Gaza and using starvation as a weapon of war, an accusation Israel's foreign minister rejected.

"In Gaza we are no longer on the brink of famine, we are in a state of famine, affecting thousands of people," Borrell said at the opening of a conference on humanitarian aid for Gaza in Brussels.

"This is unacceptable. Starvation is used as a weapon of war. Israel is provoking famine."

Israeli foreign minister Israel Katz in a response urged Borrell to "stop attacking Israel and recognize our right to self-defense against Hamas' crimes".

Katz in a post on X said Israel allowed "extensive humanitarian aid into Gaza by land, air, and sea for anyone willing to help", but that help was "violently disturbed" by Hamas militants with "collaboration" by the UN's aid agency UNRWA.

Related Topics

Top News / World+Biz / Middle East

Israel-Hamas / Gaza / European Union / Josep Borrell

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