Gaza: UN experts urge the General Assembly to respond to famine and genocide.

United Nations experts called today, Friday, for an emergency meeting of the United Nations General Assembly. They issued an urgent appeal for the international community to take immediate action before September 17, the deadline for demanding an end to the Israeli occupation of Palestine, amid ongoing genocide and man-made famine in Gaza.

The experts stated that "silence and inaction are not options in the face of mass atrocities, and Israel must immediately end its obstruction of safe, effective, and dignified humanitarian aid." They considered that "lifting these restrictions alone will not be enough to save the besieged population of Gaza; what is urgently needed is an end to the Israeli blockade and an immediate declaration of a ceasefire."

They emphasized that "at this critical moment, the world needs the General Assembly as the highest body in the United Nations to take decisive leadership and act to prevent another disaster."

They noted that "the entire population of Gaza is facing the threat of famine under siege as the Israeli army advances towards the city of Gaza, which is overcrowded with more than a million displaced Palestinians, where the official confirmation of famine has been made by the Integrated Food Security Phase Classification (IPC), and the humanitarian emergency has reached unbearable dimensions."

They stated that "361 Palestinians have died due to malnutrition, including 130 children, with 13 of them, including 3 children, dying in the past 24 hours."

The experts added: "The horrors of starvation will increase if Israel does not stop, as half a million people in Gaza are already suffering from hunger."

They questioned, "Have the Israeli authorities become indifferent and insensitive to these numbers, and insensitive to the systematic violations of our collective moral and legal obligations?"

They considered that "the famine in Gaza, which has been deliberately orchestrated by Israel and contributed to its continuation, enabled by private and security entities, is an affront to humanity."

They stressed that "it is unacceptable and inappropriate to entrust a state responsible for creating genocidal conditions aimed at destroying Palestinians in Gaza as a group through starvation with controlling the access to humanitarian aid or its distribution or oversight, and that under international humanitarian law, occupying powers have binding obligations to ensure the survival of the populations under their control, which is precisely what Israel is not doing."

They affirmed that "the deliberate obstruction of food, water, medicine, shelter, and other relief materials, exacerbated by deadly attacks on civilians, including women and children, gathering at aid distribution points, and repeated forced displacement, has turned hunger into a weapon of war."

They demanded "the necessity of holding Israel accountable and not giving it more excuses to evade accountability," noting that "more than 2,000 Palestinians have been killed at distribution sites, 70% of them in areas of the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation, in recent months, often in incidents involving random or targeted gunfire, and many Palestinians have forcibly disappeared from distribution sites."

They considered that "this reality shows that existing mechanisms have failed miserably, and reliance on the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation constitutes a gross violation of Article 59 of the Fourth Geneva Convention and involves international crimes, so the General Assembly must act without delay to stop the killing mechanism."

The experts called on the General Assembly to hold an emergency meeting to urge member states to act under the banner of "Uniting for Peace" in line with General Assembly Resolution 377, and to recommend a peace process.

They also demanded the opening of all crossings for the unrestricted access of humanitarian aid, under direct supervision of the United Nations, and the immediate suspension of the failed and dangerous mechanisms, including those that have led to widespread killings at aid distribution points.

They urged member states with ports in the Mediterranean to urgently deploy emergency naval vessels carrying humanitarian aid, as well as requesting a mandate for international humanitarian convoys led by the United Nations, granting them full authority to coordinate and oversee all crossings leading to Gaza.

The experts called for an immediate and permanent ceasefire, the release of Palestinian detainees and hostages, noting that "the situation in Gaza is unbearable."

The experts emphasized that "the General Assembly must uphold the United Nations' duty to respect international humanitarian law and protect civilians, ensuring that life-saving aid reaches the people of Gaza without obstruction or delay; anything less makes the international community complicit in these grave violations."