A UN expert has denounced the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation – Israel’s new aid mechanism in the Strip – as ‘a death trap, engineered to kill or force the flight of a starved, bombarded and emaciated population’.
In a speech to the UN Human Rights Council, UN Special Rapporteur on the Occupied Palestinian Territories Francesca Albanese yesterday said the situation in the occupied Palestinian territory ‘is apocalyptic’.
She accused Tel Aviv of weaponising Gaza as a testing ground and called for sweeping international action, including a full international arms embargo and the suspension of trade and investment ties.
Hundreds of Palestinians have been killed trying to receive aid since the GHF began handing out food packages in Gaza at the end of May, under a system which Israel says is intended to prevent aid from being diverted to Hamas fighters but the UN calls a dangerous violation of humanitarian neutrality principles.
Gaza’s health ministry says more than 500 Palestinians have been killed at or near GHF distribution centres over the past month.
“In Gaza, Palestinians continue to endure suffering beyond imagination. Israel is responsible for one of the cruellest genocides in modern history,” Albanese said.
She added that official figures count more than 200,000 Palestinians killed or injured, but leading health experts estimate ‘the true toll is far higher’.
Israel has rejected accusations of genocide in Gaza, citing its right to self-defence following the deadly October 7, 2023 Hamas attack. Its delegate was not present in the room in line with a new policy to disengage with the council which Israel says has an antisemitic bias.
Albanese, one of dozens of independent UN-mandated experts to document abuses around the world, was presenting her latest report which named more than 60 companies she said were involved in supporting Israeli settlements and military actions in Gaza.
She highlighted the economic gains made during the war, noting that in the past 20 months, arms companies have reaped huge profits by supplying Israel with weapons used to bombard Gaza.
“Arms companies have turned near-record profits by equipping Israel with cutting-edge weaponry to unleash 85,000 tonnes of explosives – six times the power of Hiroshima – to destroy Gaza,” she said.
“What I expose is not a list, it is a system, and that is to be addressed,” she told the council.
“We must reverse the tide,” she added, calling for states to impose a full arms embargo, suspend all trade agreements and ensure companies face legal consequences for their involvement in violations of international law.
More than 170 international humanitarian groups signed a letter this week calling on governments to press Israel to end use of the GHF to deliver aid and return to letting in aid mainly through UN-run channels.
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