‘Humanity shamed': Chidambaram condemns Israel over 1,000 Palestinian aid-seekers ‘killed' in Gaza since May
'Humanity is shamed in Gaza,' Chidambaram said in a post on X.
More than 1,000 Palestinians have been killed by Israeli forces since May while trying to get food in the Gaza Strip, mostly near aid sites run by an American contractor, the UN human rights office said Tuesday, according to news agency AP.
'Every day, the number of killings in Gaza is in the double-digits. Many of them are women and children who had nothing to do with starting the conflict,' the Congress leader said.
Israeli strikes killed 25 people across Gaza, according to local health officials, the news agency said
Desperation is mounting in the Palestinian territory of more than 2 million, which experts say is at risk of famine because of Israel's blockade and nearly two-year offensive. A breakdown of law and order has led to widespread looting and contributed to chaos and violence around aid deliveries, according to AP.
'According to the UN, over 1000 Palestinians have been killed since May while trying to get food in the Gaza Strip. Look at the pictures of hungry children at refugee camps. It is obvious they are starving -- and dying,' Chidambaram said.
'The world sleeps; while it is awake, its conscience is buried.'
Of the 1,054 people killed while trying to get food since late May, 766 were killed while heading to sites run by the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation, according to the UN human rights office. The others were killed when gunfire erupted around UN convoys or aid sites.
Thameen al-Kheetan, a spokesperson for the UN rights office, says its figures come from 'multiple reliable sources on the ground,' including medics, humanitarian and human rights organisations. He said the numbers were still being verified according to the office's strict methodology.
Israel accuses Hamas of siphoning off aid and blames UN agencies for failing to deliver food it has allowed in, the news agency said. The Gaza Humanitarian Foundation, an Israeli-backed American contractor, rejected what it said were 'false and exaggerated statistics' from the United Nations.
The Gaza Health Ministry, which is part of the Hamas-run government and staffed by medical professionals, said Tuesday that 80 children have died from starvation since the beginning of the war, while 21 adults have died since Sunday. The ministry only recently began tracking deaths from malnutrition in adults.
The deaths could not be independently verified, but UN officials and major international aid groups say the conditions for starvation exist in Gaza. During hunger crises, people can die from malnutrition or from common illnesses or injuries that the body is not strong enough to fight.
Israel eased a two-and-a-half-month blockade in May, allowing a trickle of aid in through the longstanding UN-run system and the newly created GHF.
Every day, the number of killings in Gaza is in the double-digits.
The UN World Food Program says Gaza's hunger crisis has reached 'new and astonishing levels of desperation.' Ross Smith, the agency's director for emergencies, told reporters Monday that nearly 100,000 women and children are suffering from severe acute malnutrition, and a third of Gaza's population is going without food for multiple days in a row.
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