EU says starvation being used as a weapon in Gaza

The EU’s foreign policy chief, Josep Borrell, has said starvation is being used as a weapon of war in Gaza. He said the lack of aid entering the strip was a “manmade” disaster.

A Spanish ship – Open Arms – is en route to the strip, via a newly created sea route, carrying food supplies. 

The UN says the sea route cannot replace the delivery of aid by land. Deliveries by road are the quickest and most effective way to get aid into the area, but aid agencies say Israeli restrictions mean a fraction of what is needed is getting in. 

Attention has now shifted towards sea routes and airdrops. 

Israel’s PM Benjamin Netanyahu has vowed to continue with an offensive in southern Gaza. 

Israel says it is not to blame for Gaza’s food shortages as it is allowing aid through two crossings in the south. 

But Borrell told the UN Security Council in New York that the humanitarian crisis in the Strip was a result of a lack of viable land routes. 

“We are now facing a population fighting for their own survival,” he said.

“Humanitarian assistance needs to get into Gaza, and the European Union is working as much as we can in order to make it possible.

“[The humanitarian crisis is] manmade and when we look for alternative ways of providing support by sea, by air, we have to remind [ourselves] that we have to do it because the natural way of providing support through roads is being… artificially closed.

“Starvation is being used as a war arm and when we condemned this happening in Ukraine, we have to use the same words for what is happening in Gaza.”