Lazzarini: Two million Palestinians in Gaza are facing starvation

The Commissioner-General of the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees (UNRWA), Philippe Lazzarini, confirmed on Saturday that two million Palestinians in the Gaza Strip are facing starvation. He accused Israel of using food as a “weapon to dehumanize them,” and considered the new aid mechanism to have become a “death trap.”

This came during a speech he delivered at the 51st session of the Council of Foreign Ministers of the Organization of Islamic Cooperation (OIC), held in Istanbul.

Lazzarini criticized the “aid mechanism” recently established in Gaza with American and Israeli support, describing it as “a despicable act that humiliates Palestinians and has become a death trap,” referring to the deaths of people attempting to access aid.

He added, “The aid mechanism represents the culmination of twenty months of terror, inaction, and impunity.”

He emphasized that “two million people are facing starvation in Gaza, where Palestinians are being stripped of their humanity, without any consequences.”

Earlier on Saturday, the government media office in the Gaza Strip announced that Israel had killed 450 Palestinians and injured 3,466 others, while 39 remained missing since May 27 while attempting to reach food distribution centers known as the “American-Israeli mechanism.”