European Union foreign policy chief Josep Borrell said on Tuesday that “starvation is being used as a weapon of war in the Gaza Strip.”

In his speech before the United Nations Security Council in New York on Tuesday, Borrell described the lack of aid entering the Strip as a “man-made” disaster, according to what the BBC reported.

He added, “We are now dealing with people struggling to survive. Humanitarian aid must reach Gaza. This is a humanitarian crisis. It is not a natural disaster, it is not a flood, it is not an earthquake. It is man-made… Hunger is used as a weapon of war,” he added. Reported by Reuters and Agency France-Presse.

He pointed out the need for humanitarian aid to reach Gaza, saying: “The European Union is doing its utmost to make this possible.”

Israel says that it is not responsible for the state of hunger suffered by the residents of Gaza because it allows aid to pass through two crossings on the southern end of the Strip, but relief agencies say
that this aid is not sufficient, especially for the residents of the already isolated north of the Strip.

Borrell expressed his support for the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees (UNRWA), saying that it provides basic livelihoods for many residents.

UNRWA had dismissed dozens of its employees in Gaza after Israel’s allegations of their involvement in the Hamas attack on Israel on October 7. The agency said that the accusations if proven true, would
be a betrayal of the values ​​of the United Nations and the people it serves.

International aid, which Israel supervises the transfer of, only enters in very small quantities into the Gaza Strip, where the United Nations warns that 2.2 million people out of its 2.4 million population are
threatened by famine, according to Agency France-Presse.

1.7 million residents were displaced due to the war, and the majority of them are gathered in Rafah, near the border with Egypt, which is threatened by a ground invasion that Israel is preparing.

The situation is becoming more dangerous in the north, where, according to the United Nations, delivering aid to about 300,000 people has become almost impossible in light of the looting, fighting,
and destruction.

The war broke out in the Gaza Strip following the unprecedented Hamas attack on October 7, which killed 1,200 people, most of them civilians, including women and children, according to the Israeli authorities.

In response to the attack, Israel pledged to “eliminate the movement,” and has since carried out a bombing campaign followed by ground operations since October 27, causing the death of more
than 31,000 people, the majority of whom are children and women, and wounding more than 72,000, according to what the Ministry of Health in the Gaza Strip announced. Gaza.