Last Friday’s announcement by the UN World Food Programme that its food stocks in the Gaza Strip have run out under Israel’s eight-week-old complete ban on the entry of food, fuel and medicine or any other life-sustaining supplies, is profoundly alarming.
We urge all relevant actors to clearly recognise that the exceptionally serious international crimes of starvation, persecution, extermination and genocide are on a continuum. And that each of these crimes is actually or potentially engaged by Israel’s imposition of a total siege on a destroyed Gaza with no end in sight.
The UK government, and other third states with possible influence, must urgently eradicate the pervasive impunity that has been allowed to thrive within the Israeli government, and apply real consequences to compel the immediate end of the punitive starvation of Gaza’s trapped civilian population. A step-change in action is manifestly required and far too long overdue.