A UN expert said on Thursday that Israel destruction of the food system Gaza Strip as part “hunger campaign” wider in his war against Hamas militants.

Representatives of humanitarian aid They warned of impending famine five months after the campaign against the Palestinian Islamist group began, and hospitals in the isolated northern part of the enclave say the children started die of malnutrition.

“Israel not only refuses and restricts the flow of humanitarian aid into Gaza. “Israel is destroying Gaza’s food system,” Michael Fakhri, the UN special rapporteur on the right to food, said in a speech to the UN Human Rights Council.

Israel denies restrictions on humanitarian aid imports to Gaza and has been working with private contractors to distribute it since last week. He says he is not fighting a war against civilians, but rather against Hamas, whose militants killed 1,200 people and took 253 hostages in the Oct. 7 attacks.

“Israel created hunger campaign against the Palestinian people of Gaza“added Fakhri, saying this included attacks on artisanal fishermen. Israel is participating in Human Rights Council debates as an observer and may speak at the forum on Thursday.

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About 80% of Gaza’s fishing sector has been destroyed since October 7, Fakhri said, adding that all boats were destroyed by Israeli forces in the main Gaza City port.

Reuters could not verify this, although footage from October 8 showed smoke rising from a ship in that port after the Israeli attacks.

Reuters