The European Union’s foreign policy chief, Josep Borrell, has accused Israel of using “starvation as a weapon of war” and “provoking famine” in Gaza.
Borrell on Monday said Gaza was “no longer on the brink of famine” but “in a state of famine affecting thousands of people,” adding that it was not a natural disaster but directly caused by Israel “preventing humanitarian support entering into Gaza.”
Speaking at the opening ceremony of the European Humanitarian Forum, an international aid and cooperation conference in Brussels, Borrell alleged that hundreds of trucks were waiting at the border and being prevented entry into Gaza by Israel.
The support is there waiting. Trucks are stopped, people are dying,” Borrell said.
Aid delivery by sea and air was only necessary because the “natural” way of delivering aid by land was “artificially closed” by Israel, he added.
Israeli security forces stand near a truck carrying humanitarian aid slated for Gaza and waiting to be cleared at the Kerem Shalom border crossing on March 14. Jack Guez/AFP/Getty Images
Israeli officials have repeatedly said that issues in delivering aid were not because of Israel blocking trucks’ access to Gaza.
On Thursday, Col. Elad Goren of Israel’s Coordinator of Government Activities in the Territories (COGAT) said the issue was distributing aid to people in Gaza, adding that international aid organizations “do not have the capacity and have yet to take real steps to improve on distribution of aid across Gaza.”
Speaking after Borrell, the UN aid chief Martin Griffith said that the UN in Gaza was being “prevented from doing its job and then criticized for not doing enough” as “humanitarian access is treated as optional” or used as “a weapon of war.”
