ERBIL, Kurdistan Region - Palestine's envoy to the United Nations, Riyad Mansour, accused Israel of using the blockade on the Gaza Strip as “a weapon of war,” in an interview with Rudaw. His remarks come as the siege has crossed its 60 day mark, sparking warnings of food insecurity and malnutrition in the Palestinian enclave.
Speaking on the sidelines of the United Nations Security Council meeting on Tuesday, Mansour called for an “immediate and permanent ceasefire” in Gaza and the urgent “provision of humanitarian assistance to the Palestinian people.” He accused Israel of “using the lack of food as a weapon in the war, which is cruel, illegal, and inhumane.”
The Palestinian envoy further accused Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s government of “destroying the ceasefire to keep us in square one,” and of not allowing “peace for us and for the Israelis.”
Mansour’s remarks come as the UN Palestinian Refugee Agency (UNRWA) on Thursday warned that “nearly 3,000 UNRWA trucks with lifesaving supplies are waiting outside Gaza,” blocked from entry by Israel. “One million children depend on aid, and without it, their lives are in danger,” the agency cautioned, stressing, “The [border] crossings must reopen and the siege [on Gaza] must be lifted.”
The World Food Programme (WFP) also warned on Wednesday that its food stocks in Gaza “have been fully depleted,” and that it “has no food left to distribute.”
“The situation is growing more desperate every day. We need humanitarian access now,” WFP urged.
In October 2023, the Palestinian movement Hamas launched a large-scale incursion into southern Israel, killing more than 1,170 people, according to Israeli figures. Israel responded with a massive offensive in Gaza that killed 52,000 people, mostly Palestinian civilians, according to the Gaza health ministry. Some 118,014 have also been wounded.
Following 15 months of war, Israel and Hamas agreed to a ceasefire which went into effect in mid-January. However, on March 18, Israel launched new attacks on Gaza, killing more than 2,300 Palestinians and injuring more than 2500 others, according to the Gaza health ministry. Israel says the offensive aims to secure the return of 59 hostages still held by Hamas.
Since early March, Israel has barred all supplies - including food, water and medicine - from entering Gaza, to pressure Hamas to renegotiate the ceasefire.
Notably, the Jerusalem Post on Wednesday reported that Israel is due to restore humanitarian aid to Gaza within weeks whether it reaches a new hostage and ceasefire deal with Hamas or not.
For his part, UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres on Wednesday urged the UN Security Council to “take urgent action toward achieving a two-state solution,” which he warned “is near a point of no return.”
Peace is only possible by resolving “a core issue that the Security Council has affirmed and re-affirmed decade after decade… a two-state solution, Israel and Palestine, living side-by-side in peace and security, with Jerusalem as the capital of both states,” Guterres stressed.
