Israel blockade causing mass starvation in Gaza: WHO

The head of the World Health Organization directly blamed Israel’s aid restrictions for causing “mass starvation” in Gaza.”

It’s man-made [and] because of the blockade,” Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus told reporters. Israel cut off all supplies to the enclave in March — accusing Hamas of siphoning off agency-distributed aid — before reintroducing them via a controversial US-backed organization, which has just four distribution points, down from 400 previously.

More than 1,000 Gazans have reportedly been killed while trying to obtain food; the Hamas-run health ministry said 10 died overnight from starvation. The left-leaning Israeli paper Haaretz called the country’s foreign minister the “minister of starvation” and said even Israel’s official numbers suggest Gaza has received less than a quarter of the food it needs.