[ad_1]
“The Israeli military’s use of AI-assisted targeting, with minimal human oversight, combined with heavy bombs, highlights Israel’s failure to respect its obligation to distinguish civilians from combatants and take appropriate safeguards to prevent civilian deaths,” the committee said.
The UN committee added that Israeli officials publicly supported the policy of destroying “vital water, sanitation and food systems” in Gaza, as well as preventing access to fuel.
COGAT, Israel’s agency that approves aid deliveries to Gaza, responded Saturday in a statement saying Israel “does not use hunger as a weapon of war.”
The Israeli agency said the amount of food trucks entering the Gaza Strip had “suddenly and significantly increased” and that Israel was “making enormous efforts” to facilitate the entry of aid into Gaza without “quantity restrictions”.
The agency added that the UN’s work on collecting and distributing aid to the residents of the enclave is “neither stable nor effective.”
Pictures capture the exact moment an Israeli missile hits a building in Beirut
“Despite the repeated claims of the international community, which sometimes do not fully reflect the situation in the Gaza Strip and the humanitarian efforts there, the State of Israel is working tirelessly to provide humanitarian aid to the Gaza Strip,” COGAT said.
Israel earlier this year rejected what it called a “grossly distorted” charge of genocide brought against it by South Africa, arguing before the UN’s International Court of Justice (ICJ) that its war was in self-defence and was aimed at Hamas but the Palestinians, after the terrorist attacks in Israel under the leadership of Hamas on October 7, 2023.
The UN report comes after US advocacy group Human Rights Watch (HRW) released a report detailing Israel’s forced mass displacement of Palestinians in Gaza in a deliberate and systematic campaign that amounts to a war crime and a crime against humanity.
In response to the HRW report on Thursday, Israel’s military said it was “committed to and acting in accordance with international law” and was issuing evacuation orders to protect civilians from the fighting.
Palestinians fleeing northern Gaza after weeks of intense Israeli military operations in recent weeks have described chronic food shortages and people dying of starvation, as aid agencies warn the area is on the brink of famine.
But after a US deadline expired this week for Israel to improve the delivery of humanitarian aid to Gaza, the Biden administration said Israel was not blocking the aid and therefore not in violation of US law governing foreign military aid.
The State Department said progress has been made, although changes are needed, so there will be no disruption to the supply of American weapons.
But the US position stands in stark contrast to the bleak picture on the ground, where much of the aid arriving in Gaza is not being distributed.
“We haven’t seen any aid and no one has sent us food,” 63-year-old Palestinian woman Umm Muhammad Al-At’out told CNN this week.
Our children died of hunger and thirst.
Reports from desperate civilians echo the World Health Organization’s warning last Friday that “famine is highly likely imminent in areas within the northern Gaza Strip.”
[ad_2]