UN: Israel using hunger as weapon, civilians forcibly disappeared in Gaza
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UN special rapporteurs say the Israeli army refuses to give information about persons they have deprived of their liberty.
A group of UN experts on Thursday condemned the enforced disappearance of starving Palestinian civilians seeking food aid at distribution centres run by the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation, Anadolu reports.
The UN experts, who include Francesca Albanese, the special rapporteur on the situation of human rights in the occupied Palestinian territories, and Michael Fakhri, the special rapporteur on the right to food, urged Israeli authorities to put an end to “the heinous crime against an already vulnerable population.”
They said: “Reports of enforced disappearances targeting starving civilians seeking their basic right to food are not only shocking, but amount to torture.” The experts said that using food as a tool to conduct targeted and mass disappearances has to end now.
They said they received reports that several individuals, including a child, who visited aid distribution sites in Rafah, had “been forcibly disappeared.” The special rapporteurs said that aerial bombardment and daily gunfire at and around the crowded facilities have resulted in mass casualties.
“The Gaza Humanitarian Foundation is obligated to provide secure distribution sites and has contracted private military security companies to that end,” said the experts.
According to their information, the Israeli army is also operating in and around aid distribution sites and is reportedly directly involved in the enforced disappearance of people seeking aid.
“We are particularly concerned that once again the Palestinian people have been targeted and punished as such, and in the most desperate moment of man-made starvation.”
Since May 27, Israel has launched a separate US-backed aid distribution initiative through the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation, bypassing the UN and international humanitarian agencies. The move has been widely rejected by the global relief community, with officials in Gaza calling the scheme a “death trap.”
Denied aid
The experts also said the Palestinians had been denied the aid they are forced to rely on, which is “already laden with obstacles to access,” as the distribution points pose additional risks for devastated individuals of being forcibly disappeared.
“We fear that increased reports of enforced disappearances at aid distribution points will discourage individuals from accessing essential food assistance, further aggravating the risk of starvation,” they explained.
The experts said that the Israeli army is refusing to provide information on the fate and whereabouts of persons they have deprived of their liberty, “in apparent violation of the absolute and non-derogable prohibition of enforced disappearances.”
Genocide done on XXI century, and Hungarians welcoming those politicians. Shame on you!
Oh, the “U.N.” says so. Then it MUST be true!
That’s not the same U.N. that was basically operating terrorist training camps all over Gaza as well as in Lebanon, is it?!
And who are they getting this info from? Let’s take a wild guess, shall we? Wouldn’t be…um…HAMAS, by any chance, would it!?
Lastly, whatever is happening in Gaza today is happening because of the events of October 7, 2023. They didn’t HAVE to do what they did on 10/7/23. AND, they could’ve ended it all at any time by simply releasing the hostages. But they did and then they didn’t. And now they’re paying the price, even the “innocent civilians.”*
FAFO.
* Those would be the “innocent civilians” that were handing out candy on the afternoon of 10/7 as well as the “innocent civilians” who caught an escaped Israeli hostage, beat him, and returned him to Hamas.
Such an illitrate savage you are Stiener.
The palestinians have been occupied for 75 years and you are still reapting the bullsh#t that this wouldnt happen if 7th of october didnt happen.
what a savage illitate you are.