EU's Borrell says Israel is provoking famine in Gaza

FILE PHOTO: Palestinians wait to receive food cooked by a charity kitchen amid shortages, in Rafah

FILE PHOTO: 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, February 5, 2024. REUTERS/Ibraheem Abu Mustafa/File Photo

Source: REUTERS

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."

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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 U.N.'s aid agency UNRWA.

This article was produced by Reuters news agency. It has not been edited by Global South World.

By Reuters