Turk: Gaza residents are forced to choose between starving to death or being killed in search of food

UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Volker Türk said that Palestinians in Gaza face “the most difficult of choices: either starve to death or risk being killed while trying to access the scarce food provided by Israel’s militarized humanitarian aid mechanism.” He stressed that this militarized system “endangers people’s lives and violates international standards for aid distribution.”

Following three consecutive days of reports of people being killed and injured around an aid distribution site at the Al-Alam roundabout in the Bani Suhail area, which is run by the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation, including this morning, Mr. Türk, through his spokesman, Jeremy Laurence, said, “Deadly attacks on exhausted civilians trying to receive meager amounts of food aid in Gaza are intolerable.” He called for a prompt and impartial investigation into all such attacks, stressing the need to hold those responsible accountable. He added, “Attacks directed against civilians constitute a grave violation of international law and constitute a war crime.”