Palestinian Minister Accuses Israel of Starving Gazans

People search through the rubble of damaged buildings following an Israeli air strike on Palestinian houses, amid the ongoing conflict between Israel and the Palestinian group Hamas, in Rafah in the southern Gaza Strip December 12, 2023. (Reuters)
People search through the rubble of damaged buildings following an Israeli air strike on Palestinian houses, amid the ongoing conflict between Israel and the Palestinian group Hamas, in Rafah in the southern Gaza Strip December 12, 2023. (Reuters)
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Palestinian Minister Accuses Israel of Starving Gazans

People search through the rubble of damaged buildings following an Israeli air strike on Palestinian houses, amid the ongoing conflict between Israel and the Palestinian group Hamas, in Rafah in the southern Gaza Strip December 12, 2023. (Reuters)
People search through the rubble of damaged buildings following an Israeli air strike on Palestinian houses, amid the ongoing conflict between Israel and the Palestinian group Hamas, in Rafah in the southern Gaza Strip December 12, 2023. (Reuters)

The Palestinian foreign minister on Tuesday accused Israel of using starvation as a weapon of war against around 1 million Gazans, a charge an Israeli official rejected as "obscene".

The UN World Food Program says half of Gaza's population of 2.3 million is starving as the expansion of Israel's military assault into the southern part of the Gaza Strip, in response to October's bloody cross-border rampage by Hamas militants, has cut people off from food, medicine and fuel.

Israel has said it allows aid into Gaza via the Rafah crossing and has signaled that the Kerem Shalom crossing could soon reopen to help process aid deliveries.

"As we speak, at least 1 million Palestinians in the Gaza Strip, half of them children, are starving, not because of a natural disaster or because of lack of generous assistance waiting at the border," Palestinian Foreign Minister Riyad al-Maliki told a UN event to mark the 75th anniversary of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights.

"No, they are starving because of Israel's deliberate use of starvation as a weapon of war against the people it occupied".

In response, an Israeli official told Reuters in Jerusalem: "This is, of course, obscene ... (a) blood-libelous, delusional level of allegations."

Israel was encouraging increased shipments of food into Gaza from Egypt, which also borders the Palestinian enclave, the official added, blaming lags on a "bottle neck" at that border.

In Geneva, Al-Maliki said: "We are living through this dystopian reality that excludes Palestinians from the basic, most basic rights afforded to all human beings".

He described this as an "utter international failure" to protect Palestinians.

Israel says its instructions to people to move to areas it says are safer are among measures it is taking to protect civilians as it tries to root out Hamas militants who killed 1,200 people and took 240 hostage in its Oct. 7 attack.

In remarks to reporters, Israel's ambassador to the United Nations in Geneva, Meirav Eilon Shahar, criticized al-Maliki's address for making no mention Hamas and its deadly attacks on Israel.

"Nothing about Oct. 7, nothing about the atrocities that were committed by Hamas," she said, speaking alongside the mother of US-Israeli hostage Hersh Goldberg Polin.

Israel's retaliatory assault has killed at least 18,205 people and wounded nearly 50,000, according to the Gaza health ministry, which says many thousands more dead are uncounted under the rubble or beyond the reach of ambulances. (Reporting by



Sharaa Tours More Syrian Cities ahead of National Conference

This handout picture released by the Syrian Presidency on February 16, 2025 shows Syria's interim leader Ahmed al-Sharaa attending a meeting with officials and local leaders in the western coastal city of Tartus. (Syrian Presidency / AFP)
This handout picture released by the Syrian Presidency on February 16, 2025 shows Syria's interim leader Ahmed al-Sharaa attending a meeting with officials and local leaders in the western coastal city of Tartus. (Syrian Presidency / AFP)
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Sharaa Tours More Syrian Cities ahead of National Conference

This handout picture released by the Syrian Presidency on February 16, 2025 shows Syria's interim leader Ahmed al-Sharaa attending a meeting with officials and local leaders in the western coastal city of Tartus. (Syrian Presidency / AFP)
This handout picture released by the Syrian Presidency on February 16, 2025 shows Syria's interim leader Ahmed al-Sharaa attending a meeting with officials and local leaders in the western coastal city of Tartus. (Syrian Presidency / AFP)

Syrian interim President Ahmed al-Sharaa visited the coastal cities of Latakia and Tartus on Sunday as part of a tour of the country that he kicked off on Saturday in the Idlib and Aleppo provinces.

The tour is taking place weeks ahead of a national conference scheduled in Homs in central Syria.

Sharaa was warmly welcomed by crowds that gathered in Latakia city center near the Jules Jammal school, which holds historic and national significance.

The school was established in the early 1920s and it helped shape national awareness in the country. It was the launch point for student protests and an arena for electoral tensions between the Baath party, Muslim Brotherhood and Syrian nationalists.

It was shut during the rule of ousted President Bashar al-Assad, leaving it in neglect despite its significance to the people.

Sharaa deliberately chose to greet the people near the school to underscore Latakia’s national role that was usurped by the Assad regime.

In Aleppo on Saturday, Sharaa attended an open dialogue discussion with several social and economic figures from the city and its countryside.

He listened to their proposals and demands, with sources saying that the talks focused on the state of affairs in Syria and efforts to revive it after the war and regime ouster.

This handout picture released by the Syrian Presidency on February 16, 2025 shows Syria's interim leader Ahmed al-Sharaa attending a meeting with officials and local leaders in the western coastal city of Latakia. (Syrian Presidency / AFP)

Sharaa stressed Aleppo’s economic significance and role in the industry sector.

He underlined his confidence that Syria will rise again thanks to its people, telling the crowd that the interim government is focusing on setting plans for 2025 and 2026.

The sources said Sharaa sought to assure the people, emphasizing that “everyone was under the law” and that Syria is not a sectarian state.

He urged them to trust him in tackling the issues at hand, reiterating that he was walking the “very fine line between transitional justice and civil peace.”

Sharaa also visited Afrin city in Aleppo which is predominantly Kurdish.

He assured that Syrian Kurds were part of the Syrian population.

He visited refugee camps in the northwest, stressing that returning the displaced home was a government priority.

Sharaa’s tour is taking place amid preparations for the national conference in Homs. Consultations have already gotten underway for the meeting.