The Zionist entity barred the entry of UNRWA chief into Gaza Strip on Monday as the European Union and Jordan accused the Zionist occupation of starving the people in the besieged enclave.
“I intended to go to Rafah today, but I have been informed an hour ago that my entry into Rafah is declined,” United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees chief Philippe Lazzarini says during a press conference in Cairo with Egyptian foreign minister Sameh Shoukry.
The UNRWA Commissioner-General Philippe Lazzarini said his entry request to Gaza’s border town of Rafah has been declined by ‘Israel’: “I intended to go to Rafah today, but I have been informed an hour ago that my entry into Rafah is declined.” pic.twitter.com/PW5oKeE8oS
— PALESTINE ONLINE 🇵🇸 (@OnlinePalEng) March 18, 2024
Shoukry said Lazzarini was barred by the Israeli occupation authorities.
“You were declined by the Israeli government, refused the entry which is an unprecedented move for a representative at this high position,” he said.
The UN relief chief also said that hunger in the Gaza Strip is “man-made.”
“We are engaged in a race against the clock to try to reverse the impact of the spreading hunger and the looming famine in the Gaza Strip,” he added.
Starvation in Gaza
For his part, the EU’s foreign policy chief Josep Borrell accused Tel Aviv of using starvation as a “weapon of war.
Speaking at the opening of a conference on aid for Gaza in Brussels, Borrell said the Palestinian enclave was in a “state of famine”.
Gaza is facing famine. According to @theIPCinfo, 100% of people are acutely food insecure; in the North, 70% are facing famine. Hunger can’t be used as a weapon of war.
W/ @JanezLenarcic, we urge Israel to allow free, unimpeded, safe humanitarian access.https://t.co/1DAMzG5G3t
— Josep Borrell Fontelles (@JosepBorrellF) March 18, 2024
“This is unacceptable. Starvation is used as a weapon of war. Israel is provoking famine,” he said.
Meanwhile, Jordan’s Foreign Minister Ayman Al-Safadi said the Israeli occupation has been “starving children to death and taking more than 2 million Palestinians hostages.”
At a press conference in Amman with his Brazilian counterpart, Safadi called the alleged policies “a humanitarian crime driven by extremist ideology and inhuman racism.”
“The Israeli war on Gaza is an aggression that flouts all international laws and during which Israel commits war crimes for which those responsible must face justice,” he said.
