Israel uses starvation weapon against civilians – Human Rights Watch

Israel is using starvation as a weapon against the Palestinian civilians in Gaza, Human Rights Watch said on Monday.

“The Israeli government is using starvation of civilians as a method of warfare in the occupied Gaza Strip, which is a war crime,” the group charged in a report.

“Israeli forces are deliberately blocking the delivery of water, food, and fuel, while wilfully impeding humanitarian assistance, apparently razing agricultural areas, and depriving the civilian population of objects indispensable to their survival,” the report added.

Israel accused the group of being “anti-Semitic and anti-Israeli organisation,” an accusation Israel uses to address any organisation or person that exposes their crimes.

“Human Rights Watch … did not condemn the attack on Israeli citizens and the massacre of October 7 and has no moral basis to talk about what’s going on in Gaza if they turn a blind eye to the suffering and the human rights of Israelis,” foreign ministry spokesman Lior Haiat told AFP.

The Israeli aggression on Gaza killed around 20,000 civilians with at least another 7,000 missing under the rubble.